North Carolina Democrats seek to honor the Greensboro Four

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - The simple act of requesting service at a Woolworth’s counter changed the course of a racially segregated Jim Crow South.

It’s a moment in history that Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) thinks all school children should learn about.

“This is a story America must know and understand and understand it within context,” said Butterfield. “In 1960, it was illegal, unlawful for an African American to walk in a public store that had a lunch counter and sit down and order a cup of coffee.”

In 1960, four Black students from A&T State University peacefully sat down at a whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

They were denied service, but their courage led to the integration of that Woolworth’s and other segregated lunch counters.

Their action also motivated hundreds of thousands to get involved in the fight for racial equality.

Sixty-two years later, there’s a new proposed resolution to forever mark this historical account by encouraging schools across the nation to add it to their curriculums.

Butterfield is among a trio of North Carolina Democrats who introduced the resolution.

“It doesn’t require anything,” he said. “It is a resolution. It is the sense of Congress that the American people need to honor this history and its role in bringing about civil rights for not just African Americans, but all racial minorities in this country.”

Butterfield said he hopes state legislators will pass a similar resolution in all 50 states.

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