Maj. Gen. Joseph Alfred McNeil, a member of the legendary Greensboro Four whose defiant sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in 1960 helped ignite the Civil Rights Movement, died Sept. 4 in Port Jefferson, New York. He was 83.
McNeil was one of the final two surviving members of the Greensboro Four, leaving Jibreel Khazan (formerly Ezell Blair, Jr.) as the only living participant. David Richmond died in 1990, and Franklin McCain in 2014.
At just 17, McNeil and his classmates at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University launched a peaceful protest that electrified the nation. On Feb. 1, 1960, the four young men sat at a Woolworth’s ‘Whites-only’ counter in downtown Greensboro, refusing to leave after being denied service. Their simple but bold act sparked a wave of sit-ins across the South and helped lay the foundation for the Civil Rights Act of 1964…