"The Greensboro Four"
-Jibreel Khazan (Ezell Blair Jr.)-
Then
Now
Jibreel Khazan was born in 1941 and was one of the four boys who took part in the Greensboro
Sit-In. He is a native of Greensboro, NC
and went to Dudley High School. In 1963,
Ezell Blair Jr. graduated from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State, what used to be an
all black college, with a B.S. in sociology. During his college years, he was involved in
many organizations. Blair’s junior year
at A&T, he was the president of his junior class and was also involved in the
student government association, the campus NAACP and the Greensboro Congress
for Racial Equality. After graduating
college, he went to law school for about one year at Howard University. Blair had been given a bad reputation as
being “one of those four troublemakers” in Greensboro and found it extremely difficult
to find a job there. Because of this, he
moved in 1965 to New Bedford, Massachusetts.
This new environment allowed him a fresh start and Blair decided to join
the Islamic Center of New England and took on the new name of Jibreel
Khazan. Today, he still lives
in New Bedford and works for the CETA program where there he works with the
disabled. Khazan is married to Lorraine
France George who is originally from New Bedford and they have three children
together, one of which attended and graduated from North Carolina A&T
State.
“Mom, we are going to do something tomorrow that may change history that might change the world.”
- Ezell Blair Jr.
“Mom, we are going to do something tomorrow that may change history that might change the world.”
- Ezell Blair Jr.
| 'Blair Voted Against Going' |
-Franklin Eugene McCain-
Then
Now
Franklin McCain was also one of the Greensboro Four. He was born in Kannapolis in 1941 and grew up
in Washington. Jesus Christ and his
grandmother played a major role in his childhood. Franklin was raised to believe that if he was
respectful and well behaved, as well as maintained good grades in school, that
every opportunity throughout life would be opened to him. McCain graduated high school in 1959 at
Washington’s Eastern High School. He then
returned to North Carolina where he attended college at North Carolina
Agricultural and Technical State University and roomed with David Leinail
Richmond, who was also one of the Greensboro Four. As Franklin grew mature and wiser, he knew
that his race held him back from many opportunities and was determined to do
something about it. After college, McCain moved to Charlotte and married the
former Bettye Davis in 1964. In
1965, he
worked as a chemist and biologist for Hoechst-Celanese Corp. He later went on and became the section
leader for their home furnishings fibers department. Franklin and Betty now
have three sons, Franklin Jr., Wendell and Bertrand.
"If it's possible to know what it means to have your soul cleansed - I felt pretty clean at that time...I felt as though I had gained my manhood, so to speak, and not only gained it, but had developed quite a lot of respect for it."
-Franklin McCain
"If it's possible to know what it means to have your soul cleansed - I felt pretty clean at that time...I felt as though I had gained my manhood, so to speak, and not only gained it, but had developed quite a lot of respect for it."
-Franklin McCain
| 'McCain Always Defied the System' |
-Joseph Alfred McNeil-
Then
Now
Another
one of the Greensboro Four was Joseph Alfred McNeil. McNeil was born and raised in Wilmington,
North Carolina and attended high school at Williston Senior High. During school, he was an Air Force ROTC
student. After high school, he attended
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and shared a room
with another Greensboro Four, Ezell Blair Jr.
McNeil graduated from A&T in 1963 and received a degree in
engineering physics. A year after
graduation, he was ordered into the U.S. Air Force where he took on the
position of being a pilot on the KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft. McNeil later joined the Air Force Reserves in
1969 and worked as a major general with them up until his retirement. Other jobs of McNeil’s include working for
E.F. Hutton out of Fayetteville, North Carolina as a stockbroker and in New
York for IBM and Bankers Trust. He eventually
retired in New York where he was a manager of the Federal Aviation
Administration for Flight Standards Division, Eastern Region, Europe and
Africa. McNeil resides in New York and is
married to the former Ina Brown. They
have five children together. In 2002,
McNeil received the Hempstead’s Medal of Honor.
"Something had to be done and the time was right for bold action."
-Joseph Alfred McNeil
"Something had to be done and the time was right for bold action."
-Joseph Alfred McNeil
| mcneil11.mp3 |
-David Leinail Richmond-
Then
The late David Leinail Richmond
The
last of the Greensboro Four, David Richmond was a Greensboro native born in
1941. Many people described David as kind,
smart, giving, and strong willed. He
attended schools in the East White Oak community of Greensboro including,
Jonesboro Elementary, Lincoln Street Junior High and Dudley High School. While attending North Carolina Agricultural
and Technical State University, he majored in business administration and
accounting. Richmond also got married
while he was in college at A&T and struggled to maintain the load of classes
and his family as well as the movement he was a part in. He eventually left A&T, being only three
credit hours short of earning a degree. Richmond
found a job as a counselor with CETA, a poverty program, at Cone Mills as wells
as at the Health Care Center, in Greensboro.
He later moved to the mountains in 1971 and lived in the community of
Franklin for nine years. In 1980, he
then moved back to Greensboro where he took care of his parents. That same year, Richmond was also awarded the
Levi Coffin Award by the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. This award showed that Richmond was a leader
in human rights, relations and resources.
Over his lifetime, he got married and divorced twice and fathered two
children with Yvonne Bryson. On December
7, 1990, Richmond died of lung cancer at the age of 49. In his honor, North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical State University awarded him posthumous honorary doctorate degree.
