News & Events

"Greensboro Four" Civil Rights Pioneer Franklin McCain to Speak at UNC Asheville

March 23, 2011

Franklin McCain, one of the original four African-American students to sit in at the white-only Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., will speak at UNC Asheville at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, at Humanities Lecture Hall. McCain's talk will be preceded at 6 p.m. by the screening of "Seizing Justice: The Greensboro 4," a documentary produced by the Smithsonian Institution. The events are sponsored by the UNC Asheville Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and are free and open to the public.

The theme of McCain's talk will be "finding your own inner inspiration to do what you believe is right, instead of waiting for others." McCain and the three other North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State College freshmen, now called the "Greensboro Four," are credited with sparking the broader sit-in movement that eventually spread to 54 cities in the South and helped force the desegregation of many restaurants, theaters and other public facilities.

After graduating from N.C. A&T as a chemist and biologist, McCain worked for Celanese Corporation in Charlotte for more than three decades. McCain was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater and served as chair of the college's board of directors. He is now a member of the UNC system Board of Governors.

For more information contact Alex Holsten, president of UNC Asheville's ACLU chapter, at 910.471.0822.