NORTH CAROLINA — As Major General Joseph McNeil is laid to rest this week in his hometown of Wilmington, the civil rights pioneer also will be honored by flags flying half-staff.
READ MORE: Greensboro Four civil rights icon, Wilmington native dies
McNeil passed away on Thursday, Sept. 4.
Services were held Monday, Sept. 8, in Hempstead, NY; McNeil resided in Port Jefferson, NY, at his passing. However, he will be honored at his alma mater, North Carolina A&T University, on Thursday, Sept. 11, followed by a funeral and internment in his hometown of Wilmington on Saturday, Sept. 13.
The North Carolina Department of Administration ordered flags to fly half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Saturday as well.
“Major General Joseph McNeil, one of the Greensboro Four, shaped civil rights history here in North Carolina and helped spark the movement that changed our country for the better,” Gov. Josh Stein said in a press release. “May his memory be a blessing.”
McNeil was one of two living members remaining of the Greensboro Four, also made up of Jibreel Khazan (née Ezell Blair Jr.), Franklin McCain and David Richmond. On Feb. 1, 1960, the group sat at a “white’s only” lunch counter in F.W. Woolworth’s department store in Greensboro, despite management and law enforcement prompting them to leave.
They stayed until closing time and returned the next day and everyday after for five months, with protestors joining them and growing daily. The group of students would host sit-ins as non-violent actions to speak against the inequality of Black people across the segregated South. These demonstrations took off in other Southern cities as well and by July 1960 Woolworth’s desegregated its service policy.
“Their courage sparked a national movement for civil rights and human dignity, inspiring generations to challenge injustice with determination and nonviolence,” New Hanover County NAACP leader LeRon Montgomery wrote to Port City Daily, while sending condolences to the McNeil family. “As a native of Wilmington, Mr. McNeil’s legacy is deeply rooted in our community. We honor his unwavering commitment to justice, his example of moral leadership, and his enduring impact on the struggle for equality. His life reminds us that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they stand up for what is right.”
A monument of the Greensboro Four’s impact, the February One Monument, is erected in on A&T’s campus and depicts the students’ walk to Woolworth’s. The Woolworth’s location is now an International Civil Rights Center and Museum and a part of the counter is located in D.C. at the Smithsonian. McNeil was honored in 2010 with a Smithsonian’s James Smithson Bicentennial Medal for his lasting contributions to American history.
A ceremony at McNeil’s alma mater of A&T takes place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday in Harrison Auditorium, with Bishop William J. Barber II delivering the eulogy.
Two days later, funeral services are planned in Wilmington, where McNeil lived until high school. He graduated from Williston in 1959 and in 2019 city council agreed to name part of Third Street in his honor as Major Gen. Joseph McNail Way; an historical marker also was erected.
His public viewing will take place Friday, Sept. 12, at Davis Funeral Home, 901 S. 5th Ave., 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. On Saturday, Sept. 13, McNeil’s funeral is scheduled at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 4925 New Centre Dr. The celebration of life will be conducted by Rev. Terry L. Henry and Rev. Anthony Watson, with an internment following at Pine Forest Cemetery.
Read McNeil’s official obituary here.
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