racial  segregation was still firmly entrenched in nearly every segment  of society in 1960 America. Joseph McNeil was returning to North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College, after spending Christmas vacation at home in New York. It was a long ride to Greensboro and when he finally got off the bus at Union Station, he was hungry. Much to his relief, there was a restaurant in the station. But that relief was short-lived when he discovered that the restaurant didn’t serve Negroes. He arrived at his dorm room at A&T hungry, angry and frustrated. His roommate Franklin McCain shared his frustration. “I was getting tired of just talking about it,” McCain says, “and McNeil said he was, too.” The two freshmen were disgusted and offended by segregation. Those unwritten rules of Southern society that required black people to sit in the rear of city buses, use separate drinking fountains and restrooms, and occupy different seating sections in theatres and sports stadiums. It was something black people experienced every single day and McNeil and McCain decided the time had come to make a change.