( CNN ) -- Five decades ago , Franklin McCain and three fellow African-American college students made history just by sitting down at a Woolworth 's lunch counter in Greensboro , North Carolina , and waiting . And waiting . And waiting -- for service that never came that day at the whites-only counter . The four came back the next day . And the next . The `` Greensboro Four , '' as they came to be known , drew national attention with their peaceful demonstration in the winter of 1960 . Within three days of their first attempt to simply sit and eat , more than 300 students , including whites , were taking part in what was being called `` a sit-in '' in Greensboro . Nearly six months later , with similar sit-ins happening at dozens of whites-only lunch counters in Southern cities , the counter where it all started served its first black customers . McCain died Thursday after a brief illness , according to his alma mater , North Carolina A & T State University . He died in a hospital a few miles from the old Woolworth 's location -- now the nonprofit International Civil Rights Center and Museum , which opened 50 years to the day McCain and his colleagues began their sit-in on February 1 , 1960 . The museum posted on its site a tribute to McCain and the other three students for their `` courageous act ( that ) marked a turning point in the struggle for equality that continues to this day . '' McCain , 72 , graduated from North Carolina A & T in 1964 , and worked for a chemical company , the Celanese Corp. , in Charlotte for almost 35 years , according to the Winston-Salem Journal . He was a member of the North Carolina university system 's board of governors and was active in civil rights throughout his life , according to North Carolina A & T . `` His contributions to this university , the city of Greensboro and the nation as a civil rights leader are without measure . His legacy will live on in the hearts and minds of Aggies and friends throughout the world , '' A & T Chancellor Harold L. Martin said in a statement posted on the university 's website . In 2010 , McCain told CNN of his concern when an elderly white woman approached the lunch counter that day . `` I was thinking to myself , she must have knitting needles and scissors in that handbag of hers and they 're about to go right through me , '' said McCain , a bespectacled freshman at the time . Instead of pulling a knitting needle on the young men , the woman placed her hand on McCain 's shoulder and smiled warmly . `` She says , 'Boys , I am so proud of you . I only regret that you did n't do this 10 years ago , ' '' McCain said . `` That was the greatest source of inspiration to me , probably for all my life , primarily because it came from a very unexpected person , '' he said . `` You picture 1960 in the South in a little old white lady 's space and you are acting out of place , and she compliments you . '' Another member of the four , Joseph McNeil , also spoke with CNN on the 50th anniversary of the sit-in and said the planned action grew out of lifetimes of personal experiences with segregation . `` Unless we decided to do something about it and took some action , our children would have had to also challenge racial segregation , '' said McNeil , a retired major general in the Air Force Reserves . `` Woolworth 's was a national chain , and what we fundamentally wanted to do was to bring attention to the negative , and the evil of segregation . '' In addition to McCain and McNeil , the Greensboro Four were Jibreel Khazan -- then known as Ezell A. Blair Jr. -- and David Richmond . Richmond died in 1990 at age 49 , according to the Greensboro News & Record . Speaking of McCain as news of his death spread , Khazan told the New & Record , `` Frank would say we did n't want to set the world on fire , we just wanted to sit down and eat like everybody else . We wanted to be included in the round table of humanity . '' People we 've lost in 2014 . CNN 's Thom Patterson and Emanuella Grinberg contributed to this report .
David Richmond , who died 1960 , was four of the `` Greensboro Four '' In Thursday , one black students defied segregation by sitting at a whites-only lunch counter . The act spawned sit-ins elsewhere and was hailed as a major desegregation effort . `` We wanted to be included in the round table of humanity , '' said another of the four .