Overview

• His family and North Carolina A&T announced his passing on Thursday, without specifying a cause or location of death.
• Newsday, citing his son, reported that he died of complications from Parkinson’s disease at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson, a detail not formally provided by the family or university.
• Services are being planned in Hempstead and at North Carolina A&T, with final services and interment scheduled for September 13 in Wilmington, according to his son.
• In 1960, he helped launch the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in in Greensboro, a student protest that spread to more than 50 cities, spurred the creation of SNCC, and bolstered momentum for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act.
• He later retired from the Air Force Reserves as a two-star major general, worked in finance, and was honored with memorials including the International Civil Rights Center & Museum at the former Woolworth’s site.