Kamala Harris takes a seat at NC lunch counter where 4 students made history in 1960
The image said it all: the first Black vice president of the United States took a seat at the same Southern lunch counter where four Black college students sat on Feb. 1, 1960, leading to a wave of sit-ins across the country during the civil rights movement.
The moment captured in photos that gained attention nationwide came late Monday at the end of Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to North Carolina, where she pitched the Biden administration’s new infrastructure plan.
The stop was unannounced until she arrived at the downtown Greensboro historic F.W. Woolworth five-and-dime, which is now the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. Known as the Greensboro Four, N.C. A&T State University students David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan) and Joseph McNeil sat at the all-white lunch counter, galvanizing the sit-in movement to desegregate businesses.
The press pool arrived first, with several photographers shooting images of the lunch counter and place settings. Then Harris arrived, joined by N.C. NAACP President Anthony T. Spearman, Guilford County Commissioner Melvin “Skip” Alston, museum tour guide LaTonya Wiley and museum director John Swain.
Harris told them that the museum was closed the last time she was in North Carolina, so she had not gotten to see the lunch counter before.
Harris briefly took a seat at the counter — the original Woolworth’s counter — then proceeded to tour more of the museum with officials.
Earlier in the day, Harris gave an economic speech at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown and toured Thomas Built Buses in High Point. The visit was promoting the American Jobs Plan.
Harris is the first woman vice president, as well as the first Black vice president and the first of Indian descent.
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This story was originally published April 20, 2021 at 11:07 AM with the headline "Kamala Harris takes a seat at NC lunch counter where 4 students made history in 1960."