Unless you’re a news junkie or a devout civil rights advocate, you may have missed the passing of Joseph McNeil on Sept. 4. He was 83.
During his lifetime, he rarely received his due as a civil rights activist, though in the annals of the movement he is remembered for his pioneering role in the sit-in protests. Those acts in defiance of Jim Crow laws began in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960 when he was still a high school student.
Perhaps you’ve seen the historic photos of four young Black men at Woolworth’s lunch counter waiting in vain to be served; well McNeil was one of the original sit-in members, and now only one, Jibreel Khazan (Ezell Blair, Jr.), is still alive.
When I was writing one of my books on the Civil Rights Movement, McNeil told me that his commitment then was like a down payment on his manhood, “to take on something that might have enormous risks, and implications, and it turned out to be something we all can be very proud of.”
What they did expanded the movement and forced Woolworth’s to change its policy in North Carolina and at stores across the country. McNeil went on to a distinguished academic and 40-year military career, rising to the rank of major general with more than 6,600 flight hours. He received the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal upon his retirement in 2000.
Yes, Joseph, what you did as youth, teacher and man in uniform are things that make us all proud.