Human Possibilities
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Working at Greensboro Health Care Center, a nursing home, was a rewarding experience for me in many ways. Not the least of these was meeting David. David came to work at the home after I had been there only a short time. Possessed of a quiet countenance and mild demeanor, David worked as a custodian. He treated every person, without regard for race or age or resident or staff, with dignity and respect.
David was a nature lover, and often took his lunch outside, where I would find him reading Thoreau. I would frequently lunch there myself, simply to have an excuse to join him and listen to his wisdom on the beauty of God’s gifts to be found in nature. Our friendship grew, but still remained a casual work-related one, so I was quite surprised when one day in late January of 1983 David asked me to join him for breakfast on the first of February at the downtown Woolworth’s lunch counter. Although I’m a history buff, I must sadly confess that the date and occasion of our breakfast didn’t register in my mind as significant. That would change forever.
You can imagine my shock when I walked into the Woolworth’s on February 1st to find the lunch counter packed, and reporters and camera operators from all the national television networks focusing in on David and three other African-American gentlemen. What in the world…? I asked myself. David caught my eye, smiled, and motioned me through the throng of on-lookers and media to take a stool beside him.
“David,” I whispered, “What is all this about?”
“Gary, I wanted you to join me for an anniversary breakfast.”
“Anniversary? Whose anniversary?” I asked.
“Today is the 23rd anniversary of the Woolworth sit-ins,” David replied.
“You mean…you?” I asked in awe.
David just shyly smiled and nodded. I quickly learned that David, the same man who would take the time out of his busy day to read to an elderly nursing home resident, was David Richmond, one of the four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro who, on February 1st, 1960, demanded equal service at Woolworths. The icy winds that swept down North Elm St. in downtown Greensboro were second only to the icy reception that David Richmond and his fellow students received at the Woolworth’s lunch counter. Taking stools at the counter, they endured fierce stares from bankers, clerks and lawyers having lunch.
David said, “Sure we were afraid. We were four scared college kids challenging the status quo. Separate but equal was being defied. Jim Crow, nearly one hundred years after our emancipation, was on his deathbed. We were four very frightened young men, but our quest for recognition as equals allowed me and my fellow students to overcome that fear. We were not alone. The spirit of our fathers—their bondage, their blood, their tears and sweat from which this republic was built; their sacrifice made both at home and on the battlefields overseas—their courage was in us.”
There were only four, but soon there would be ten, then 50. The numbers were growing daily that would merge into one voice, one message, one song: equality.
David Richmond passed away in 1991. His friendship, guidance and belief in equality of all people will forever remain a part of my heart, mind and soul. His quiet wisdom, thoughtful perspective, rare insight and deep understanding of the human condition is one I shall always miss.
Although I was just a baby during the turmoil of the 1960s Civil Rights movement, I can well recall the hope in the words, songs and speeches of the era’s heroes. David Richmond was such a hero, who held a vision of the possibility of justice for all.
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