Joseph McNeil of the "Greensboro Four" and original Freedom Rider Dion Diamond recount their experiences on the front lines of the civil rights movement 50 years ago.
In 1960, McNeil was one of four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College who sat in the "whites-only" lunch counter of the F.W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, N.C. Denied service, they came back the next day with more students leading to protests across the country.
Dion Diamond was one of the original Freedom Riders who in 1961 along with other students and activists boarded buses in Washington, D.C. bound for New Orleans to pressure the federal government to enforce the law denying segregation of interstate public transportation and facilities.
A portion of the Woolworth lunch counter and the story of the Freedom Riders can be found in the Newseum's "Make Some Noise" exhibit which explores the new generation of student leaders of the civil rights movement who exercised their First Amendment rights and fought segregation in the early 1960s.
"1964: Civil Rights at 50" is a yearlong exhibit at the Newseum that chronicles the events of a dramatic year in the civil rights movement, including Freedom Summer, "Mississippi Burning" and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Contributing sponsorship support for "Civil Rights at 50" has been provided by Walmart and Altria Group.
The Newseum moderator was Frank Bond.
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