February One

HOME
THE GREENSBORO FOUR
FILM SCREENINGS
PRESS
THE FILMMAKERS
CAST OF CHARACTERS
THE MUSEUM
STUDY GUIDE
ORDER THE FILM
LINKS
CONTACTS

PBS rebroadcast — February 2010 in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Sit-ins


Visit our Independent Lens Website

Shelia Blair-Cheng & Jean Howard
The two Blair sisters, like their mom, are strong and amazing women. Warren Gentry, the cinematographer / videographer, commented that this was the best two-person interview he ever shot. The love and friendship these women share are evident through the way they interact with each other, especially while they are sharing stories of their childhood, growing up with Corene and Ezell Blair as parents.

 Corene Blair
The matriarch of the Blair family…Let's just say it is easy to see where her daughters get their strong spirits! Mrs. Blair was a school teacher all her life, until she retired, as was her husband Ezell Blair Sr. Despite both having jobs in the public sector which could have been easily threatened, they were both very supportive of what their son, and later their daughter Jean set out to do in the struggle to gain equal civil liberties. Ms. Blair told us about going to visit her daughter in the old polio hospital, which had been turned into a makeshift prison, when she was arrested during the 1963 protests. She used to cook a bunch of food and bring it to the girls who were held there. This is only one of her many stories.

Lewis Brandon
Mr. Brandon is an alumnus of North Carolina A&T State University. He was older than the Greensboro Four, but still participated in the Sit-ins.

 Walter "Sticky" Burch
Mr. Burch is a retired police officer and a former sheriff of Greensboro, NC. He served on the police force during the Sit-ins, and was able to offer a unique law enforcement perspective. He talked to us, not only about the Sit-ins, but the other demonstrations lead by Jesse Jackson in 1963. All in all, the police played and important role in the Sit-ins, as they really seemed to do their best to keep order. The fact that the demonstrations remained non-violent is a testament to their policy toward the protesters, especially if compared to other parts of the country, where the police actively participated in violent actions against demonstrators.

 Dr. William Chafe
Dr. Chafe is the Dean of Arts & Sciences at Duke University. He is the author of "Civilities and Civil Rights," the authoritative book on race relations and the Civil Rights Movement in Greensboro, NC. Duke historians William Chafe, Raymond Gavins and Robert Korstad co-direct the Behind the Veil project which documents African American Life in the Jim Crow South. This project represents an effort to correct historical misrepresentations of African American experiences during the period of legal segregation in the U.S. The project, a collaborative research effort, does this by encouraging scholars to listen to the voices of those who survived an era of profound racial oppression.

 Leonard Guyes
Mr. Guyes was the owner and manager of Prego-Guyes, a woman's apparel shop, located across the street from Woolworth's. He is a contemporary of C.L. "Curly" Harris, and was able to offer the perspective of the white merchants, whose business was adversely affected by the demonstrations. His honesty during his interview made him an invaluable resource in seeing what was going on in the mind of the businessmen at the time.

C.L. "Curly" Harris
C.L. Harris, called Curly was the manager of Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina during the 1960 Sit-ins. Mr. Harris worked at Woolworth's through High School and College and took it very seriously when he became the manager at the downtown Greensboro location. He took a lot of pride in running a successful store, and in fact, his store was the leader in Southeast sales. As well, his store employed a large number of blacks, working alongside whites. However, like was the custom back then, there were separate facilities for Blacks & Whites, even among the staff. When he did integrate the lunch counter, he did it quietly, and offered for his employees to be the first people to eat at the counter. His diary of the events that took place during these demonstrations is available to look at the UNC-Greensboro archives, where he donated them before he died in the late 1990's. It is interesting to read his take on the events that took place. History can view him as a villain, or as a man who was looking out for his family and his livelihood, and thought he was doing what was good for business.

Vincent Harding
Mr. Harding was the first director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center in Atlanta and served as director and chairperson of The Institute of the Black World. He was senior academic consultant to the award-winning PBS television series, Eyes on the Prize. He currently serves as co-chairperson of the Veterans of Hope Project: A Center for the Study of Religion and Democratic Renewal at Iliff, and as Vice President of Institutional Transformation. Among his publications are The Other American Revolution; There Is a River, Vol. 1; Hope and History; Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero,and We Changed the World (with R. Kelly and E. Lewis). Dr. Harding has had a long history of involvement in domestic and international movements for peace and justice, including the southern Black freedom struggle.

Ralph Johns was born of Syrian immigrant parents in New Castle, Pa. He was a bit player in the movies during the 1930s, but he settled in Greensboro in 1944 after he was discharged from the Army Air Force. He opened a clothing store on East Market Street, which attracted many A&T students as customers, including the Greensboro Four. He is thought to have encouraged the students to challenge segregation and to have tipped off the press on the first day of the sit-ins at Woolworth. He was the first white person to join the local NAACP chapter. In the mid-1960s, with his business going broke and his marriage failing, Johns offered to exchange himself for American pilots being held in Vietnam. His offer made headlines all over the world.

In the late 1960s, he became an organizer for the Guilford County Office of Economic Opportunity. His fiery manner soon got him in trouble, and he was fired after accusing the agency of not doing enough for the poor. He moved to Hollywood in the early 1970s and tried to resume his movie career. He returned to Greensboro in 1977 to help his second wife launch The Courier, a tabloid publication. He later returned to California to work for a newspaper in Beverly Hills. He died in California in 1996

 Bettye McCain
Mrs. McCain met Franklin while she was attending Bennett College in 1959. The women at Bennett were very active in their community, and Bettye and many other Bennett Belles participated in the Sit-ins. Her and Franklin have raised three sons, and she is currently the Principal of Long Creek Elementary in Charlotte, NC. She plans on retiring this year.

 Ina McNeil
Mrs. McNeil is a member of the Lakota tribe, and Joe McNeil met her while he was stationed in South Dakota. The really got to know each other, while working with an organization to expose racial discrimination in South Dakota, where they posed as a married couple trying to rent a house or apartment. The were married in 1967, and together have raised 5 children.

 Frank Richmond
Mr. Richmond is the younger brother of David Richmond. Since David wasn't around for us to interview, we relied on Frank to tell us what it was like to grow up in the Richmond family in segregated Greensboro. He told us several stories about how popular David was in high school, that everyone wanted him to be part of their group or club, and how Frank himself looked up to him growing up. His pride in what his brother accomplished with his life shines in his eyes every time he speaks of him, and he works hard to keep his brother's memory alive.

 Hal Sieber
Editor & Chief of the Carolina Peacemaker, the African American newspaper in Greensboro, NC, which is owned by Dr. and Mrs. Killamanjaro. Mr. Sieber lived in Chapel Hill during the initial Sit-ins, but shuttled back and forth to Greensboro to keep tabs on what was going on. Understanding the importance of the event from the very beginning, Hal and his good friend David Richmond would go to Woolworth's on February 1st even as early as the late 1960's, to enjoy a cup of coffee together and a donut to commemorate the anniversary. From there, he started the February One Society, and held yearly celebrations, which such esteemed guests as Coretta Scott King. He has also written several short books on the subject, and continues to write for the Peacemaker, on many topics, usually dealing with the history of Greensboro.

Geneva Tisdale
Ms. Tisdale worked for Woolworth's for over 40 years, starting before the Sit ins took place till the store closed in the early 1990's.We spoke extensively with her about working along side white folks and preparing their meals but being unable to eat with them. When manager C. L. Curly Harris integrated the Woolworth lunch counter in July of 1960, Ms. Tisdale was amongst the group of employees that got to be the first to sit at the counter. She had an egg salad sandwich, something that wouldn't take very long because she was very nervous. Nothing occurred during their lunch.

 Ann Dearsley-Vernon
Mrs. Vernon was one of the 3 white female students, from Woman's College, who came downtown to demonstrate on the fourth day. Mrs. Vernon had come to the states from England, and found herself drawn to the Civil Rights struggle. She told us the amazing story about what happened the day her and two friends went and sat down at the counter, but you'll have to see the film to hear it! She did almost get kicked out of school for her actions, and it took her persuasive father to convince the Chancellor to keep her in. Mrs. Vernon still goes around Virginia (where she now lives) to talk about the events of 1960 and the lasting impact it has had on her life.

Claudette Burroughs-White
Mrs. White was one of the first black students to enroll at the then Woman's College, and all female public college that became UNC-Greensboro. She participated in the Sit-ins, and was actually once asked by her friends to leave the scene because she was having a hard time controlling her anger. Even after the white female students from Womans' College were forbidden from participating in further demonstrations, she was able to continue coming, as long as she left her official Woman's College jacket back at school. Now serving as a city council woman in Greensboro, Mrs. White works tirelessly to improve race relations in the city.