Media/Headlines
Sharing a slice of history, cup of memories
October 24, 1993
Citizens and leaders shared a taste of history and nostalgia on the Woolworth lunch counter’s last day of operation.
The selections weren’t many, but the prices were right: 25 cents for a coffee and Danish, 39 cents for a hot dog and soda. These were bargains not seen since about 1960.
Then again, it seemed only fitting that the crowds who packed the downtown Greensboro Woolworth’s on the last day the famed lunch counter was open should enjoy those discounts. For it was here, on Feb. 1, 1960, that four black N.C. A&T students sat at a whites-only lunch counter and sparked a nationwide movement.
But the food itself didn’t seem to be the important thing Saturday as hundreds — from a Greensboro man who worked as a bus boy during the sit-ins to the Rev. Jesse Jackson — passed through the Elm Street store for a slice of history and a cup of memories.
As many mourned the passing of a downtown tradition, thousands signed petitions and promised to work to preserve the store, which will close by the end of January along with more than 700 other Woolworth Corp. stores in the country. Woolworth officials pledged financial and advisory support. They said they’ve already received 29 proposals for the future of the building, which is owned by First Citizens Bank.
From early morning until late afternoon, the steady stream of customers who slid onto the turquoise and pink vinyl stools at the long counter reflected on the luncheonette’s importance as a cradle of the civil-rights movement and a community institution.
“I just wanted to come over here one last time,” said Gregg Bryant, 32, who stopped by shortly after the 7 a.m. opening and had a coffee and Danish.
“I used to come here as a child,” Bryant, a downtown security guard, said as he recalled how he could stretch out his feet and rest them on a shelf below the counter.
Several seats away, Robby Gregg of Washington, who was back in the Triad for the Wake Forest homecoming, had to stop for a meal at Woolworth’s.
“Sometimes,” he said, “you have to stop and appreciate the things that have come before you, so you can have the strength and the courage to move forward.”
Many who stopped by toted cameras. Some had their pictures taken in front of a monument outside to the four A&T students who started the sit-ins. Others took pictures with their children.
Ray English, a 1967 A&T graduate and New Jersey teacher, opted for something different.
“I wanted to get a picture of the mixed races sitting at the same counter,” said English, who himself worked in the civil-rights movement and was in town for A&T’s homecoming.
Civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson made a brief stop just before 1 p.m. He greeted customers and Woolworth officials and delivered a rousing speech that drew boisterous applause.
Jackson, who stood behind longtime waitress Geneva Tisdale and placed his hands on her shoulders, praised those who led the Greensboro sit-ins.
“Four students sat in, so America could stand up,” he said. “In many ways, a blow was struck for freedom right here — heard and felt around the world.”
Jackson reiterated his support for a joint venture between A&T and Woolworth Corp. to train college students to run a business at the Woolworth’s site. “Let this be the beginning of yet another revolution of dignity –– and now one of economic development.”
Jackson wasn’t the only one who received celebrity treatment Saturday. Charles Bess, who was a bus boy at Woolworth’s when the sit-ins began, kept busy signing autographs as he sat at the counter.
“I felt good about it at the time,” said Bess, who is black. “I saw the movement was finally on the way.”
Tisdale, who also is black and the last full-time waitress who was working the lunch counter during the 1960 sit-ins, also received many requests for autographs. A waitress for the store for 42 years, she recalled that at first she thought the first sit-in was some kind of prank.
But when they kept coming back, “I knew they meant business. ... Then I got to thinking about it. Why not be served? We’re all human beings,” Tisdale said.
The lunch counter employees have been offered the chance to work in the store section of the same store, but it is uncertain what will happen when the store closes.
Some former employees returned for the last day, and current ones also lamented the lunch counter’s passing.
“It’s depressing,” waitress Faye Oxendine said as she served early customers Saturday. “I’ve been here more than I’ve been at home with my family.”
After serving her last hot dog and signing her last autograph of the day, Tisdale echoed that sentiment. “Feels sad, real sad,” she said.
Shortly before the store’s 5 p.m. closing, dozens held hands and sang the anthem of the civil-rights movement, “We Shall Overcome.”