Renick pledged the weight of A&T's fund-raising and public relations machinery, its 1,500 faculty and staff, 8,000 students and 36,000 alumni behind the goal of raising $10 million-$15 million.

Nodding toward the former Woolworth dime store, where on Feb. 1, 1960, four A&T freshmen refused to leave the whites-only lunch counter after being denied service, the chancellor said that "North Carolina A&T's legacy is tied to this building."

The 1960 sit-ins, which eventually attracted hundreds of other students and lasted nearly six months, sparked protests at segregated eating places throughout the South. The Greensboro action is considered a watershed in the civil rights movement.

Renick said the four students who started it -- Franklin McCain, Jibreel Khazan, Joseph McNeil and the late David Richmond -- "sat down so we could stand up" today. "These four freshmen decided that the time is always right to do what is right."

Renovations could begin in about nine months, Renick said, with the museum opening in about three years. He talked of a "virtual museum" on the Internet opening well before then.

Hoard, who will continue as vice chancellor while overseeing the museum, said he talked to Massachusetts resident Kazan and "he's very excited. He said it should have happened years ago."

A relationship between A&T and the museum seems so obvious it's surprising it took so long to come about.

Critics have contended the museum fund-raising, which has been stuck at about $2.2 million, was hurt by Jones' and Alston's reluctance to share control and their sometimes stinging attacks on the city's white establishment.

Ralph Shelton, a black business leader and chairman of the A&T board, said last year that while Alston and Jones had shown "great vision," it was time "for the swallowing of egos."

Alston replied at the time that white leaders were trying to divide the black community and harm the project.

There was no hint Tuesday of past controversies. Shelton praised the partnership between Alston and Jones' group and A&T as a "great and bold move."

"I think that the collaboration ... is a natural partnership that has a lot of potential for success," he said.

At the ceremony, speakers repeatedly praised Alston and Jones for their foresight and for raising money to buy the Woolworth building after the store closed in January 1994.

Alston and Jones in turn applauded a white Greensboro lawyer, Henry Isaacson, for bringing their group and the university together.

Isaacson, a member of the boards of A&T and Sit-In Movement Inc., said the idea of partnership came to him during an A&T board meeting last February. The university had new leadership in Renick, the school is closely tied to the sit-ins -- plus the museum needed help.

"It just seemed like the perfect marriage," he said, adding that the big winners are not only A&T and Sit-In Movement Inc., but the entire city. With a re-created lunch counter, a civil rights hall of fame, an auditorium and a library, the museum is expected to draw thousands of tourists downtown and stimulate the city economy.

Isaacson said it was easy getting Alston and Jones to agree to A&T becoming a partner.

Alston said Tuesday that he and Jones aren't giving up leadership roles.

"We are not giving up, we are adding," Alston said. "I feel really good about this. The timing is right."

Hoard praised one other person for the partnership -- his mother. He says when he was making up his mind whether to accept the additional responsibility, he took her to dinner and asked her advice.

"Do you realize," she told him, "that we are able to eat in this restaurant because of what those gentlemen did 41 years ago?"

That, he said, sealed the deal for him.

To help fund the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, send donations to Sit-In Movement Inc., P.O. Box 847, Greensboro, N.C. 27420-0847.

Photos

Read the press release about the announcement

Contact Jim Schlosser at 373-7081 or jschlosser@news-record.com