Each year, CBF of North Carolina’s Cooperative Baptist Student Fellowship (CBSF) hosts the Mid-Winter Retreat, a gathering that provides college students and young adults with a space for spiritual renewal, fellowship and learning. As the 2025 retreat was being planned at Quaker Lake Camp just outside of Greensboro, campus ministers recognized a unique opportunity to connect students with a powerful piece of history nearby: the International Civil Rights Center & Museum.
After discussing the idea with CBFNC’s Racial Equity and Justice (REJ) team, the team graciously awarded a February 1 grant to sponsor the students’ visit to the museum, covering their admission fees as well as an opportunity for fellowship afterward. Thanks to their generosity, 14 students and five ministers were able to attend this significant experience on Saturday, February 8.
Students explored the museum’s powerful exhibits, including the historic Woolworth’s lunch counter where the “Greensboro Four,” students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T), led a pivotal sit-in protest on February 1, 1960.
Group of college students and ministers during their visit to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro, NC.
One student shared a personal connection to history. She revealed that her grandfather was in the U.S. Army in Little Rock, Arkansas during the integration of Central High School in 1957 when President Eisenhower sent federal troops to protect the Little Rock Nine. Stories like these helped students connect past struggles for racial justice with today’s ongoing work.
Following the museum visit, the group gathered at Awoo Café for a time of coffee and reflection. Before returning back to the retreat, they made additional stops at N.C. A&T, where they viewed the statue of the four student protesters and visited Aggie Village, the site of their former dormitory, which is now named in their honor. The group also visited Bennett College, recognizing the role that its students played in the Civil Rights Movement.
This experience was made possible by the generosity of CBFNC’s REJ team led by LaTonya McIver Penny and Mari Wilkes (chair and past chair), Scott Hudgins, grant facilitator and director of Helping Pastors Thrive, and Jordan Humler, associate pastor at First Baptist, Boone, who provided transportation for the students. Special thanks also go to the entire CBFNC Collegiate Team for incorporating this meaningful event into the retreat’s schedule.
The REJ team created the February 1 grants last year as way to encourage and support student events at CBFNC partner campuses to commemorate the legacy of the “Greensboro Four” during Black History Month. The February 1 grants support educational opportunities about the four college freshmen from what is now North Carolina A&T University (Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., later known as Jibreel Khazan, Joseph McNeil and David Richmond), who had the courage to sit down at the whites-only Greensboro Woolworth’s lunch counter on February 1, 1960 in peaceful protest of segregation laws. Their actions sparked the nation-wide sit-in movement of the Civil Rights era. The REJ team chose February 1 as the name of the grants to honor the “Greensboro Four” and the date’s significance in our state and nation.
-By Adrian Bullock
CBFNC Triangle Region Campus Minister
