Human history is a rushing river of freedom and justice, which starts as a small trickle but soon reaches tidal wave proportions. The actions of a few can multiply into great revolutions and we never know which courageous stand will shake the course of history. The Civil Rights Movement was a revolution fought by ordinary people. These everyday heroes, dwelling in the footnotes of history, are the architects of tidal waves.
In this post I want to introduce you to four such “ordinary gallants”: David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeill and Ezell Blair Jr. There is a good chance that you’ve never heard of these men before but no doubt who are familiar with the tidal wave that they helped to set into motion. Their contribution to the cause of justice was not standing on a conviction but instead, sitting on one. These four men are now known by some as the “Greensboro Four” and despite their relative obscurity, they changed the world.
David, Franklin, Joseph and Ezell came from simple backgrounds but they each knew what they believed and they each knew that backing down on convictions was unacceptable. So when they were refused service at a “Whites Only” lunch counter at Woolworth’s Store in Greensboro, each of these brave young men knew what was required of him. They sat in defiance and in doing so, stood for justice and equality.
What started as a spontaneous sit-in by four African-American college students in a Greensboro store, snowballed into a tidal-wave movement that involved organized sit-ins by hundreds across North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia. Clarence Harris, the operator of the Greensboro Woolworth’s that had originally started the fervor, remained unmoved on his segregationary position. However, as the Greensboro Four’s courage devoured the Mid-South like a wildfire, Harris backed down. Victory was claimed by the armies of Justice and the rolling tidal wave washed onto the beaches, leaving the soiled dunes, clear and pristine as the tide rolled back.
What started as a simple act of non-violent defiance in defense of justice and equality is remembered today as a formative event in the Civil Rights Movement. The Greensboro Four’s impact on history is there, whether we recognize it or not. The smallest act of conviction can yield great benefits as justice rolls on like a tidal wave. This elan of liberty and equality is clearly declared in Amos 5:24, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”