"Fifteen seconds after ... I had the most wonderful feeling. I had a feeling of liberation, restored manhood. I had a natural high. And I truly felt almost invincible. Mind you, [I was] just sitting on a dumb stool and not having asked for service yet." - Franklin McCain, one of four young black men that launched a sit in protest at a whites-only diner. If you haven't figured it out, I'm posting regular pictures of my life while addressing an important point in my history. Black history. #dailyjay #blackhistorymonth #FranklinMcCain
#FebruaryOne 1960 four courageous freshman staged a sit-in at #Woolworths in #Greensboro. The #GreensboroFour are #JosephMcNeil #DavidRichmond #FranklinMcCain & #EzellBlair (#JibreelKhazan). #Historic #InternationalCivilRightsMuseum #CivilRights #NCAT (at International Civil Rights Center & Museum)
Hi everyone! Today, I read this about a man named Franklin McCain, who died at the age of 73. Mr. McCain and his friends, did something downright courageous- and inspiring. I had never learned about this in school, but it is a very important story.
In the 1960’s, when America was still racially segregated, Mr. McCain and 3 of his really good college friends were just fed up.
Back then, lunch counters were racially segregated. Mr. McCain and his friends said, “Hey, this is ridiculous, we’ve gotta do something!” They were hungry, and tired of being segregated. Out of that came courage. One day, they all decided to go to a whites-only lunch counter, sat down, and waited for their order.
Of course, they didn’t get their order.
Simply, they stayed.
Though, it took more courage than you’d ever know. It was basically a public punishment. Insults flying at you, random people hurting you all because of your skin color. It was literally a living nightmare.
Yet, they never gave up. Mr. McCain was just a college student, everyone. They wanted to change people’s perceptions about African-Americans. They wanted equality.
This movement sparked many others, most notably the STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE (SNCC).
Who knew that one person with a passion could spark so many others to take action?
I admire Mr. McCain, and all of the other people in the Civil Rights Movement. I admire the perseverance he had to change people’s perceptions. Mr. McCain kept asking himself “At what point does a moral man act against injustice?”
I realize that there‘s not really a click between my objective and the Civil Rights Movement. However, Mr. McCain inspires me to push my belief even farther, and to make more of a change in belief for children with disabilities.
I hope to inspire both individuals AND groups to push for changing the perceptions of people when it comes to considering & supporting children in school who have disabilities, so that they can go to amazing high schools, onto great colleges and successful careers in MANY fields.
Even though there are wheelchair accessible buildings and ramps, the perceptions of people are still the same: “Aww! Those poor children in wheelchairs!” instead of “What do those children need in order to excel in life? Let’s get them the supports to live their lives successfully.”
Franklin McCain, one of the "Greensboro Four" who in 1960 sat down at a whites-only lunch counter in North Carolina and launched a sit-in movement that would soon spread to cities across the nation, has died. i Franklin McCain in 2010. Lynn Hey/AP North Carolina A&T State University said Friday morning that McCain died Thursday "after a brief illness at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro." Our colleagues at WUNC report that McCain had just turned 73. Other news outlets are reporting he was 71. As the Winston-Salem Journal reminds its readers, "McCain was joined by Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr. (later known as Jibreel Khazan) and David Richmond" at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro on Feb. 1, 1960. They were there "to protest the chain's policy of refusing to serve food to blacks." THANK YOU!!!!! #boycott #blackowned #blackhistory #franklinmccain #instadm #instagram #instashare #civicgroup #civilrights
