President Buxton: Lessons from the Greensboro 4

Read more College news and messages from Durham Tech President J.B. Buxton.

Durham Tech Community,

I want to share a brief reflection on this date in history – a date when four North Carolinians took a stand by sitting down.

Sixty-one years ago, four students from NC A&T sat down at the Woolworth’s counter in Greensboro and refused to leave after they were denied service. While this wasn’t the first sit-in protest – seven African Americans staged one in 1957 at the segregated Royal Ice Cream Parlor here in Durham – the action of Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, David Richmond, and Ezell Blair on Feb. 1, 1960 (and in the following weeks) was the spark that led to other sit-ins across North Carolina and to cities in Virginia, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

What I have always found inspiring about the Greensboro 4 is their example of individual leadership and personal responsibility to take action. They were not appointed the head of a committee, or elected the leader of an organization, or anointed the spokesperson for an institution. They were four individuals dissatisfied with the state of things who took it upon themselves to take productive action.

“Leading from your seat” is a philosophy that says that everyone in an organization has a responsibility to provide leadership to serve the mission and values of the organization. All of us at Durham Tech are part of an institution seeking to make our community better - including keeping each other safe from COVID-19, working for racial equity, ensuring educational access, and improving economic opportunities. While the College is working to take steps on all these fronts, the scope of these challenges means we are all called as individuals to lead through productive action.

Let’s celebrate this day in our history when four students led by sitting down, and together commit to leading from where we sit in service of our common goals for our students and community.

Best,

J.B. Buxton
Durham Tech President