Black History Special: Students Mentored By Civil Rights Veterans Changed American History: I have nothing but praise to offer Ezell Blair Jr. (Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil, the four North Carolina A & T State University students who conducted the Feb. 1, 1960 sit-in at the counter of the Woolworth’s in Greensboro, N.C. These four men deserve our national thanks for their roles in igniting a generation of young people to take part in one of the great political campaigns in American history.
Which is why when I think of the sit-ins these days, I linger on the roles of two older people whose names don’t make the headlines. James Lawson and Ella Baker found brilliant ways to channel and guide the energy of the young student protesters who joined the sit-ins in cities across the South. Lawson and Baker (among many others) helped ensure that the sit-ins gained an enduring power that was needed in the years ahead to mount a frontal challenge to entrenched Southern racism.
Lawson was the spiritual leader of the Nashville Student Movement, the group of young people that was in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “the best organized and the most disciplined in the Southland.” Their number included Diane Nash, John Lewis, James Bevel, Bernard LaFayette and Marion Barry.
