[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 10002-10003]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  HONORING MAJOR GENERAL JOSEPH McNEIL

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. GREGORY W. MEEKS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 18, 2015

  Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, vision and resolve: the fertile grounds for 
greatness. These are the qualities that Major General Joseph McNeil 
exemplified when in 1960 he and three of his classmates protested 
segregation with a sit-in at a Woolworth store in Greensboro, North 
Carolina.
  The `Greensboro Four', as they came to be known, were denied service 
at a Woolworth lunch counter because of the color of their skin. With 
the spirit of peaceful protest, they committed themselves to a sit-in, 
which, little did they know, would reverberate across the nation.
  With wisdom beyond his years, Joseph knew that strength was not in 
the individual but in the many. The Greensboro Four united the North 
Carolina A&T State University student body by establishing the 
``Student Executive Committee for Justice'' and, in the face of all 
controversy, he won the battle. Woolworth agreed to allow service to 
blacks and whites alike.
  Many years later, when asked in an interview what he had felt at that 
trying time, Joseph responded: ``Intense sense of pride, a bit of 
trepidation''. Not three weeks before he was to depart for training at 
a Texas Air Force Base he was so unwilling to stand idly by in the face 
of injustice that he was arrested at a demonstration alongside Reverend 
Jesse Jackson.
  The Air Force saw in Joseph what everyone else did too. From first 
Lieutenant to Captain; from Major to Lieutenant Colonel; from Colonel 
to Major General, McNeil excelled in every aspect. Today he dons the 
Air Force Distinguished Service Medal as a symbol of his achievements, 
just one the many awards Mr. McNeil earned. He received honorary 
degrees from North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina at 
Wilmington, Molloy College, and St. Johns University in my own 
district. He is a man truly worthy of every honor bestowed upon him.
  Today, we honor Major General Joseph McNeil for his success as a 
civilian, a community leader, a husband, a father, and as a 
distinguished member of the United States Air Force. May many more be 
made of the cloth from which he was cut.

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