The students left at 12:30 promising to return. That afternoon, February 2, the Record published the first account of the sit-in, a one-column story with photographs. The next morning, the more conservative Daily News took an angle more appealing to its white readers. The incident was relegated to the middle of the "local" section and indicated that the dean of men at A&T was looking into the possibility of the misbehavior of students at the Woolworth store. In fact, Dean William H. Gamble had stated that there was nothing he could or would do as long as the students broke no laws, a tacit approval of the action of the students and their nonviolent technique. By Wednesday, February 3, the protest was no longer confined to the students at A&T. Before lunchtime, women from Bennett College and, for the first time, blacks who were not students arrived to take part. Also a number of whites joined the demonstration, especially co-eds from the North Carolina University system’s Woman’s College.  Many others, however, came to heckle and taunt the demonstrators. So many joined the protesters that the movement spread to the S. H. Kress lunch counter less than one half block away. As more black protesters and their supporters arrived, so did more whites, mostly young, to try and counter the sit-in efforts. Over the next two days the numbers continued to grow and racial tensions mounted. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed on both sides; negotiations began and while little progress was made, violence was avoided.