Franklin McCain Dies - Helped Start Sit-in Movement at Greensboro Lunch Counter
A Civil Rights pioneer has died. Franklin McCain was one of four teenagers who sat down at an all-white lunch counter in Greensboro on February 1, 1960.
“I certainly wasn’t afraid. And I wasn’t afraid because I was too angry to be afraid. If I were lucky I would be carted off to jail for a long, long time. And if I were not so lucky, then I would be going back to my campus, in a pine box.” - Franklin McCain, interview on NPR
The freshmen from North Carolina A&T ignited a sit-in movement in the Jim Crow south that led to other key chapters in the Civil Rights era.
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Franklin McCain must be looked upon as one of the founding fathers of the sit-in movement. http://t.co/8Hp6z2ytfz
— John Lewis (@repjohnlewis) January 10, 2014
More from Representative Lewis:
“Franklin McCain must be looked upon as one of the founding fathers of the sit-in movement. He was one of the four students who inspired an entire generation of young men and women, black and white, to stand-up by sitting down. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that the four young men who sat down in Greensboro taught us all how to use the power of passive resistance on a mass scale.
“Because Franklin McCain had the courage and the vision to take non-violent action, along with his three friends, the sit-in movement spread across the South like wildfire. Sit-ins commenced in Nashville, Atlanta, Memphis, Jackson, Montgomery and many other cities across America.
“Franklin McCain was one of the founders of a New America, a nation that was transformed because he lived. Every citizen of this country owes him a debt of gratitude because he insisted that we create a more fair, more just democracy. We are a better people and a better country because Franklin McCain lived.”
One minute of advice from Franklin McCain: