Maj. Gen. Joseph McNeil Sr., a retired Air Force member best known as a member of the Greensboro Four who sparked the sit-in movement during Jim Crow, has died in New York after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 83 years old.
“Joseph A. McNeil's legacy is a testament to the power of courage and conviction,” said his son, Joseph McNeil, Jr., in a statement.
“His impact on the civil rights movement and his service to the nation will never be forgotten.”
Joseph McNeil, civil rights leader and member of the Greensboro Four, has died at age 83. On February 1, 1960, he, along with fellow NC A&T University David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), sat down at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/J5kQertn2i
— NC Museum of History (@NCmuseumhistory) September 5, 2025
Born in 1942, McNeil spent his early years in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he was raised Catholic at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, a historic parish staffed by the Josephites. He was inspired to activism both by his teachers at the all-Black Williston High School and the witness of his parish—where he led the Catholic Youth Council and received spiritual instruction from a pro-civil rights pastor.
McNeil enrolled at North Carolina A&T State University, an HBCU in Greensboro, in 1960, where he connected with three other freshmen who would go on to participate in civil disobedience in the city. McNeil was moved to action in December 1959, when he was refused service at a bus station because of his race. He thereafter coordinated with his dormmates to patronize the Whites-only section of the downtown F. W. Woolworth Company department store.
The Greensboro Four—McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, and Franklin McCain—began their protest on Feb. 1, 1960, remaining in the store all day at the store’s lunch counter, where they were not served. They returned the next day with more students, facing harassment from White patrons, which made the local news.
The student movement at NCAT quickly became an organized committee, leading to an official communique to the president of Woolworth’s, demanding justice for African Americans who sought the company’s business. By Feb. 6, more than 1,000 protesters and counter-protesters filled the Greensboro store—leading to a bomb threat, a note of support from President Dwight Eisenhower, and the expansion of the sit-in movement to other sites throughout the South. Woolworth’s began serving African Americans in July 1960 after losses of what today amounts to over $2 million.
McNeil graduated from NCAT in 1063, going on to serve in the Air Force for 37 years, including in Texas, South Dakota, New Jersey, Georgia, and Asia. He was promoted to major general in 1996 and retired four years later. McNeil was the recipient of the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal upon his retirement in 2000, and was previously awarded the Legion of Merit and the Meritorious Service Medal, among several other military honors.
McNeil was immortalized in bronze at NCAT along with the rest of the Greensboro Four in 2002, and the school named a residence hall in his honor the following year. He was honored in 2010 by the Smithsonian Institution with the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal, and his hometown of Wilmington unveiled a historical marker and street renaming in his honor in 2019.
The City of Wilmington is saddened to learn of the passing of retired Major General Joseph A. McNeil, a Wilmington native and Civil Rights pioneer, at the age of 83. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/6bQRvyf15z
— City of Wilmington, NC (@CityofWilm) September 4, 2025
Throughout his adult life, McNeil was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, including from NCAT. In addition to the various commemorations this year for the 65th anniversary of the Greensboro Four protests, the NCAT football team is honoring the group with a helmet decal throughout the 2025-26 season.
“His leadership and the example of the A&T Four continue to inspire our students today,” said NCAT Chancellor James R. Martin II following McNeil’s death.
“The North Carolina A&T family mourns his passage, but celebrates his long and incredible life and the legacy he leaves behind.”
In his later life, McNeil was a resident of Hempstead, New York, where he remained a steadfast community advocate and had a school renamed in his honor in 2016. Earlier this year, he was revealed to be battling advanced Parkinson’s disease, and he died on Sept. 4 at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson. He was one of the last two surviving members of the Greensboro Four.
McNeil was predeceased by his son, Ron His Horse Is Thunder, and a granddaughter, Josephine. He is survived by his wife, the Native American artist Ina McNeil; sons, Joseph Jr., Alan, and Frank McNeil; daughter, Jacqueline Jackson; and several grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.
A private funeral for McNeil is planned for Sunday, Sept. 7, at the Carl C Burnett Funeral Home in Hempstead, according to Newsday. Details on a public service at NCAT are to be released on Monday. A final service and internment are scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 13, in Wilmington. To honor McNeil, his family asks that donations be made to organizations supporting civil rights and social justice.
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.
