Joseph McNeil, an alumnus of North Carolina A&T State University and one of the pioneering “A&T Four,” passed away on September 4. He was 83 years old.
A native of North Carolina, McNeil graduated from Williston High School, an all-Black high school in Wilmington. In 1959, he enrolled at historically Black North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. There, he was a part of the Reserve Officer (ROTC) Training Corps and became a dedicated advocate for civil rights.
With his classmates Jibreel Khazan, David Richmond, and Franklin McCain, McNeil organized a sit-in protest at the lunch counter at Woolworth’s – a former American retail store chain. On February 1, 1960, the four students walked from the NCA&T campus to downtown Greensboro. After purchasing a few items from Woolworth’s, the group sat at the store’s “Whites-only” lunch counter. The store’s staff refused to take the students’ orders. In protest, they stayed in their seats until the store closed.
The next day, McNeil and his classmates returned to Woolworth’s, accompanied by 20 other students. Still, they were denied service. The third day, the group returned, this time with 60 fellow protesters. By the end of the week, the store and the surrounding downtown Greensboro area were overtaken by student protestors. As the movement spread, other students from historically Black Bennett College, Dudley High School, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro joined the protest, which spread to other Woolworth’s locations.
By mid-March, President Dwight Eisenhower weighed in on the A&T Four’s protest, expressing sympathy with the students and their work to “enjoy the rights of quality that are guaranteed by the Constitution.”
More than five months after McNeil’s protest began, the Greensboro Woolworth’s finally began serving Black patrons on July 25, 1960. Soon after, the other Woolworth’s locations were also desegregated.
Today, a 15-foot-tall bronze and marble sculpture depicting McNeill, Khazan, Richmond, and McCain is displayed on the NCA&T campus.
“Joseph McNeil and his fellow North Carolina A&T classmates inspired a nation with their courageous, peaceful protest, powerfully embodying the idea that young people could change the world. His leadership and the example of the A&T Four continue to inspire our students today,” said Chancellor James R. Martin II. “The North Carolina A&T family mourns his passage, but celebrates his long and incredible life and the legacy he leaves behind.”
Upon graduating from NCA&T with his bachelor’s degree in engineering physics, McNeil was commission as a second lieutenant through ROTC and began his career in the United States Air Force. He served in many operations including the Vietnam War and Desert Storm, leading to his appointment as commander of the 22nd Air Force, where he had oversight of all Air Force reservists east of the Mississippi.
After retiring from the military as a Major General in 2000, McNeil went on to hold several industry positions in diversity and inclusion with IBM, Bankers Trust, and E.F. Hutton. Later in life, he earned four honorary doctorates from NCA&T, St. John’s University in New York, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and Molloy University in New York. In 2010, he was awarded the Smithsonian’s James Smithson Bicentennial Medal for his lasting contributions to American history.
