Florida Today from Cocoa, Florida • Page 12

12A FLORIDA TODAY, Sunday, January 15, 1995 1 1 ft Angry grou seeks new NAACP chair fflfflifer' Smithsonian puts N. Carolina sit-in site on display Three who were refused service revisit Woolworth's lunch counter lt 4 WWW By Larry Blvins Gannett News Service 4 3 Sjr'' -s 1 'fo-t HjMf haaaatt t. if AP MUSEUM VISITORS look at the opening of a new can History. The display commemorates a sit-in at exhibit Saturday at the National Museum of Ameri- the Woolworth's lunch counter 35 years ago. WASHINGTON Disgruntled members of the NAACP are urging Myrlie Evers, the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, to help restore integrity to the beleaguered organization.

"Not only is she the best choice, but she is the only member on our national board who can revive the NAACP," said board member Joseph Madison, a former Detroit NAACP branch official who now is a Washington radio talk show host. "She's a person of credibility; she's a person of fortitude," said Hazel Dukes, a board member from New York and a past president of the national board. Madison is leading a movement to draft Evers as a candidate far chairwoman. Her first husband, Medgar Evers, a Mississipfi NAACP official, was killed 30 yeats ago by a sniper outside their home) "It will be interesting to see how that pans out," said Carl Breeding, who heads the Michigan state conference of NAACP chapters and is a national vice president. I The election of officers likely will be one of the more contentious items on the agenda when the 64-member board meets 16-18 in! New York.

The group's constitution requires annual election of flffiqftrs, and only board members can become candidates. Breeding noted that Evefs, whose husband, James Williams; is seriously ill, has declined to seek a leadership role in the past. The NAACP is plagued by a $4 million debt and a foundering image, which some board members blame on current Chairman William Gibson and Benjamin Chavis who was fired last summer as executive director. "Dr. Gibson at this point in time has absolutely no credibility," Madison said.

"Under his leadership the association is in a shambles." Paul Brock, a spokesman for Gibson, contends board members calling for Gibson's head are sore losers who previously have souglt leadership roles in the organization. "Now, they are trying to use tie media to discredit Dr. Gibson," Brock said. We were playing with social, political, economic and religious dynamite." Jibreel Khazan, protester at 1 960 sit-in Associated Press WASHINGTON Franklin McCain, Jibreel Khazan and Joseph McNeil returned Saturday to the Woolworth's lunch counter where they were refused service in 1960 for being black. They weren't served this time either, but that didn't matter.

The three men came to commemorate their sit-in at the lunch counter 35 years ago. As college freshmen in Greensboro, N.C., they sparked a civil rights tactic that challenged racial inequality in the South and eventually earned blacks the right to be treated equal to whites. "It was the kind ot thing where you could be served at 12 counters, but Number 13 was off-limits," McCain said Saturday as an 8-foot section of the historic Woolworth's lunch counter and related items went on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. "It's a thrill to be able to live to see the results of our actions as young people 35 years ago," said Khazan, named Ezell Blair at the time. "We were playing with social, political, economic and religious dynamite." On Feb.

1, 1960, in a South that segregated blacks and whites in public accommodations such as restaurants, hotels and restrooms, four North Carolina State University freshmen decided to go to Woolworth's. Blacks shopped regularly at the five-and-dime, and McCain recalled buying composition notebooks and ballpoint pens on the day that would later be regarded as historic. Although blacks were served at the carry-out section of the Wool-worth's lunch counter, they were not allowed to stop there and eat with whites. McCain, McNeil, Khazan and the fourth student, David Richmond, sat at the counter and politely asked to be served. Rebuffed, they did not leave, but sat there all day, unserved, talking among themselves.

At closing time, they left. By the time they returned to campus, word had spread. About 20 students showed up at Woolworth's the next day, 80 on the day after. Before week's end, hundreds of protesters had appeared, including whites from the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina. Sit-ins spread to other downtown eateries, and to hundreds of Southern cities" i Feeling an economic pinch from the-boycotts, Woolworth's and other stores in Greensboro desegregated their counters on July 25, Woolworth's closed the Greensboro store in January 1994 and donated the section of the counter, four stools, a pie case and other items to the Smithsonian.

A local group wants to convert the original store into a civil rights museum and open the counter for business again. The Smithsonian exhibit, "Birthplace of a Whirlwind: The 1960 Greensboro Sit-In," commemorates the 35th anniversary of the event and the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. It will remain open to the public for at least six months. McCain, Khazan and McNeil stepped into the display to pose for photos Saturday, but didn't retake their seats for fear of disturbing the setup. Richmond died several years ago of cancer.

A large mirror on the wall faced the counter, on which the pie case rested. Signs above the mirror m0r AP JIBREEL KHAZAN, left, and Franklin McCain hug during the exhibit's opening. They joined Joseph McNeil to commemorate their sit-in. advertised: "Delicious Strawberry Ice Cream Shortcake 29 cents," and "Super Jumbo Banana Split 39 cents." Less than five years before the sit-in at Woolworth's, the Montgomery, bus boycott was born Dec. 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus.

That decision, in turn, boosted to prominence Martin Luther King a Baptist minister who emerged as the leader of the civil rights movement. King's birthday is celebrated as a national holiday on Monday. McCain, a corporate manager in Charlotte, N.C.; Khazan, a teacher and counselor in New Bedford, and McNeil said the exhibit and their action decades ago should inspire young people to fight for their beliefs, even if they have to wage the struggle alone. "We were students, but we were leaders in the sense that we made things happen, and they can do that, too," said McNeil, an Air Force commander and employee of the Federal Aviation Administration in New York. "There are things in life that should be principled actions and when that principle is strong enough, you need to take a stand and persist.

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