Franklin McCain was a U.S. civil rights leader who, with three other students, is credited with starting the lunch-counter sit-ins to protest Jim Crow laws at restaurant establishments in America.
The four students earned the name the “Greensboro Four.”
McCain was a student at North Carolina A&T when he and other black student activists chose to hold a sit-in at the Greensboro Woolworth store on February 1, 1960. The students were denied service but kept coming back until the law was lifted. By the third day, over 300 people, including some white students, had joined their protest.
Franklin McCain was only a freshman when he sat down in protest. That was in February. By September, the lunch counter was open to all customers. The news of what the Greensboro Four had done spread all over the country. It sparked protests at Jim Crow establishments everywhere. Over 50 cities conducted lunch counter sit-ins within two months of Greensboro.
Little Known Black History Fact: Franklin McCain was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
