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3w ago

Joseph McNeil, Greensboro Four Civil-Rights Pioneer, Dies at 83

His Woolworth’s protest as an A&T freshman catalyzed a student movement that propelled landmark civil-rights laws.

FILE - Joseph McNeil speaks during a AFL-CIO conference in Greensboro, N.C., Jan. 16, 2010. (AP Photo/Lynn Hey, File)
FILE - From left: Joseph McNeil, Jibreel Khazan, and Franklin McCain greet each other during an opening of a new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, Jan. 14, 1995. (AP Photo/Tyler Mallory, File)
Joseph McNeil, left, stands next to Ezell Blair, Jr., center, student leader in the original lunch counter sit-in, as they discuss legal aspects of anti-segregation with Dr. George C. Simkins, right, a Greensboro dentist and local NAACP leader, in Greensboro, North Carolina, April 20, 1960.
FILE - The four black men who were once denied service at the Woolworth store in Greensboro, N.C. take their places at the same lunch counter to recreate their sit-in on Feb. 2, 1990. The men are, from left, Joseph McNeil, Jibreal Khazan (formerly Ezell Blair, Jr.), Franklin McCain, and David Richmond. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)

Overview

  • North Carolina A&T and McNeil’s family announced his death Thursday at age 83 without specifying a cause or location.
  • His son told Newsday that McNeil died of complications of Parkinson’s disease at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson, N.Y.
  • Jibreel Khazan, formerly Ezell Blair Jr., is now the only surviving member of the Greensboro Four.
  • Services are planned Sunday in Hempstead and Thursday at North Carolina A&T, with interment on Sept. 13 in Wilmington, according to his son.
  • The 1960 Greensboro sit-in quickly spread to more than 50 cities, helped spur the creation of SNCC, and led to desegregation of the Woolworth’s counter within six months.