66th Anniversary of A&T Four Sit-In Commemoration Set for Jan. 30

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Jan. 22, 2026) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University will commemorate the 66^th anniversary of when four of its freshmen energized the civil rights movement in 1960 by sitting in at the downtown Greensboro Woolworth’s lunch counter to receive equal service Feb. 1 that year.

The annual Sit-In Anniversary Breakfast and Wreath Laying is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 30, beginning at the North Carolina A&T Alumni-Foundation Event Center, 200 N. Benbow Road. It celebrates the A&T Four: Jibreel Khazan (formerly Ezell Blair Jr.), the late Franklin McCain Sr., the late retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Joseph McNeil and the late David Richmond Jr.

The event, themed “Rooted in Legacy: Impacting Generations,” is free and open to the public. Tickets are available from the University Box Office in Brown Hall at Bluford and Laurel streets.

Student Government Association (SGA) President Corey Smith will preside over the event, which starts with breakfast at 7 a.m. A&T February One Scholars Jayden Hall-Ingram and Giana Seay, Bennett College SGA President Rashearia Hammond, Dudley High School SGA President Rylee Jackson and The A&T Middle College at N.C. A&T senior Justin Worbeth will participate in the program, which starts at 8 a.m.

Chancellor James R. Martin II will deliver remarks after a panel discussion moderated by Chance D. Lynch ‘06, J.D., a 2023 recipient of the university’s Human Rights Medal whose work on high-profile civil rights cases has received national recognition.

Panelists are:

• Joyce Hobson Johnson ‘60, founding Executive-in-Residence of Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, retired business professor and nationally-recognized transportation research director at A&T for 27 years, and renowned community and civil rights leader
• Frank McCain Jr. ‘87, son of McCain Sr., president and CEO of the United Way of Greater Greensboro who has held leadership roles in wealth management, higher education and community service boards as a lifelong Greensboro resident
• Vasti Hinton Smith ‘19, second-year law student at Howard University who spent eight years working with Common Cause, was an inaugural Capitol Hill House HBCU Caucus intern in 2016 and NAACP Youth and College Division first vice president from 2015 to 2017

Following the program, participants will walk to the February One monument on University Circle in front of the Dudley Memorial Building and lay a wreath in memory of McCain, McNeil – who died Sept. 4 – and Richmond at 10 a.m.

The N.C. A&T Fellowship Gospel Choir, which will perform the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” at the breakfast, will sing the alma mater, “Dear A&T,” at the wreath ceremony.

The commemoration will conclude with hundreds of local students attending a social justice discussion, offered in partnership with Guilford County Schools, from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. in Harrison Auditorium, 1009 Bluford St.