On February 1, 1960, David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. (Jibreel Khazan), and Joe McNeil, four African American students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, staged a sit-in in Greensboro at Woolworth, a popular retail store that was known for refusing to serve African Americans at its lunch counter. Not long after their protest, sit-ins began occurring across the South, including the North Carolina cities of Charlotte, Durham, and Winston-Salem. These young men came to be known as the Greensboro Four. The Greensboro Four, as they became known, had also been spurred to action by the brutal murder in 1955 of a young Black boy, Emmett Till, who had allegedly whistled at a white woman in a Mississippi store. These young men enlisted the help of a local white businessman, Ralph Johns, to put their plan into action. Police arrived on the scene but were unable to take action due to the lack of provocation. By that time, Johns had already alerted the local media, who had arrived in full force to cover the events on television. The Greensboro Four stayed put until the store closed, then returned the next day with more students from local colleges. Within weeks, national media coverage of the protest led to sit-ins being staged in cities across the country. Soon dining facilities across the South were being integrated, and by July 1960 the lunch counter at the Greensboro Woolworth’s was serving Black patrons. The Greensboro sit-in provided a template for nonviolent resistance and marked an early success for the civil rights movement.
Black History 365 | # 209 Cynthia Wesley
Cynthia Wesley was born Cynthia Morris April 30, 1949; died September 15, 1963 in Birmingham. She was one of the four girls killed in the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church. She was the adopted daughter of Claude A. Wesley and his wife, Gertrude, both teachers. They lived on "Dynamite HIll" in Smithfield. Cynthia attended Ullman High School, where she excelled in reading and math and played in the band. She is buried at a monument in Greenwood Cemetery along with two of the other girls that were killed, she was 14 years old.
Black History 365 | # 208 Carole Robertson
Carole Robertson Day was killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing on September 15, 1963. She was 14 years of age at her death and she was at the church preparing to march with other youth that day for civil rights. Her mother was the Regional Director for the Southeastern region. Born April 24, 1949, Carole Rosamond Robertson was the third child of Alpha and Alvin Robertson. Her older siblings were Dianne and Alvin. Her father was a band master at an elementary school, and her mother was a librarian. She was an avid reader and straight-A student who belonged to Jack and Jill of America. Carole was also active in the Girl Scouts, the Parker High School marching band and science club. She attended Wilkerson Elementary School where she sang in the choir. Carole grew up in Birmingham’s Smithfield community, developed in the early 1900s as a neighborhood for prominent Black professionals. Many homes in the district were designed by the notable Black architect Wallace A. Rayfield. Robertson took lessons in tap, ballet and modern dance, at the Smithfield Recreation Center’s auditorium every Saturday afternoon. She was buried at Shadow Lawn Cemetery, but her remains were moved to Greenwood Cemetery in 1974, to be interred near her father's. She shares space on a monument in the cemetery with 3 other girls that were killed. The Carole Robertson Center for Learning in Chicago is named in her memory.
Black History 365 | # 207 Denise McNair
Denise McNair was born on November 17, 1951 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. She died on September 15, 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. "She was the youngest of the four," says Denise's sister, Lisa McNair, standing outside the church just a few weeks before the 59th anniversary of the bombing September of 2022. "She was 11. And the other four girls were 14, just beginning their freshman year in high school." McNair didn't hear that historic eulogy. And she never met her sister Denise. Lisa was born a year after the bombing, her family still grieving. "It's shaped my whole life," she says. Maxine McNair, the last living parent of any of the four girls killed, died in 2022, she was 93.
Black History 365 | # 206 Addie Mae Collins
Addie Mae Collins was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 18, 1949. She attended the 16th Street Baptist Church with her parents, Julius and Alice, as well as her six siblings. On the morning of Sunday, September 15, 1963, 14-year-old Collins was in the church basement room with a group of other children. At 10:22 a.m., a bomb exploded under the steps of the church. Collins was killed in the blast along with Denise McNair, 11, and Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, both 14. In addition to the four fatalities, more than 20 people were injured. One of these was Collins' younger sister, Sarah, who lost an eye and sustained other serious injuries. In 1977, a 73-year-old Chambliss was convicted of the murder of Collins and sentenced to life in prison. Two other perpetrators—Thomas Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry—were convicted in 2001 and 2002, respectively. A fourth suspect, Herman Frank Cash, died in 1994, before he could be charged.