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Following in her grandfather’s footsteps

Growing up in Greensboro, McCain was very close to her grandfather, who passed away last year. The two rarely discussed the happenings of Feb. 1 at the F.W. Woolworth counter until McCain was in college.

Taylor McCain holds a photo of her grandfather.
UNC-Chapel Hill student Taylor McCain holds a Greensboro News and Record photograph of the four A&T College students sitting in seats designated for white people at the racially segregated Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, on February 2, 1960. From left to right, the students are Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Billy Smith, and Clarence Henderson. McCain's grandfather, Franklin, is second from left.

Fifty-five years ago, Franklin McCain joined three other North Carolina A&T University freshmen at the “whites only” lunch counter of the F.W. Woolworth store and waited for service that never came.

In doing so, the four black men from Greensboro, N.C. — nicknamed the “Greensboro Four” — set into motion a new wave of sit-ins across the South in an effort to desegregate public places, and they radically changed the racial landscape of society.

More than five decades later, a different McCain is now looking to inspire change.

“I’ve taken it upon myself to just hear his story and to know that I can make a difference,” said Taylor McCain, Franklin’s granddaughter and a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “I feel like I owe it to him to be the difference. He laid the foundation for me, and now I have to continue to build up on it.”

Taylor McCain, a journalism major, is inspiring change through programs such as Communiversity and Minority Student Recruitment Committee. There, she is empowering younger generations to see their potential to make a difference.

“Being a part of a lot of these groups has allowed me to help others to realize that and work toward the greater good of community and society,” she said.

Growing up in Greensboro, McCain was very close to her grandfather, who passed away last year. The two rarely discussed the happenings of Feb. 1 at the F.W. Woolworth counter until McCain was in college.

But when they did, the message stuck.

“I learned that it doesn’t matter what your age is, it doesn’t matter where you are in life at the time,” she said. “When you see that you have power to make a change, you have to go for it. If you want to see something happen you have to go for it.

“You’re going to have to take a risk, but when the change happens it’s going to be a lasting impact. You don’t do things for yourself, you do it for the greater good of other people.”

Calling Franklin a stern and humble man, McCain said her grandfather never pressured the family to be involved in social issues, but a passion for Civil Rights was in her blood.

“We have all been taught to stand up for what we believe in,” McCain said. “I think that was the primary goal that he wants to push toward. He wasn’t going to tell us how to do it or tell us how to make a change — we had to discover that on our own.”

On her path to make her own change, McCain has teamed up with several Carolina organizations to reach out to younger generations.

Her work with the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History’s Communiversity helps her work toward her goal of racial empowerment.

The after-school program, founded in 1992, serves underprivileged, mostly minority elementary school students in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system. In addition to tutoring, the program exposes the young scholars to cultural events such as poetry and African dance.

“I think that there’s a lot of tags that are put on these students and that is why they struggle moving forward. I want to take that away from them,” McCain said. “If I could take that away from them, I would, and show them that there is an open road and that they can make it.”

Chris Wallace, manager of Communiversity, said McCain is highly respected in the program and brings a “much needed optimism” to the volunteers and scholars.

“We need more young people that are willing to make that sacrifice to do those sort of things to continue enriching the individuals who are in the program,” he said. “… She sees there is a great need to impact students in the community she lives in.”

McCain is also involved Ignite North Carolina, an action group of students across the state working together to solve social injustices.

“I think our world is really transforming right now and we’re going through a lot of changes,” she said. “We’re seeing a lot of new things that our generation doesn’t seem accustomed to, but I feel the foundation has been laid for us and I feel like, as the youth and as a minority woman, we have to speak up for what we believe in.

McCain said she believes her grandfather, who went on to work in for a chemical company in Charlotte, would be proud of her current work — and hopefully, the work that is to come. One day, she hopes to be a talk show host and continue to impact society.

“I know what he’s done, and I know the character traits that he’s given me over the years by being able to be in his presence,” she said. “I would say that I am trying to follow my grandfather’s footsteps — but in my own way.

“I don’t see why I wouldn’t follow in his footsteps. It’s a good way to start off.”

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