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GREENSBORO — Honors continue to be bestowed upon the Greensboro Four during the 50th anniversary of the sit-ins they staged at the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History planned on Wednesday  evening to award the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal  to Franklin McCain,  Joseph McNeil,  Jibreel Khazan  (formerly Ezell Blair Jr. ), and David Richmond.  The medal honors their contributions to the civil rights movement.

“The Greensboro lunch counter, one of the museum’s landmark objects, represents the determination of a generation of Americans that decided that segregation was unjust and who worked to end it,” director  Brent D. Glass  of the National Museum of American History said in a news release. “The Greensboro Four serve as a reminder that ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things.”

Wayne Clough,  secretary  of the Smithsonian, was to present the medals. Also scheduled to attend the event was noted civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis,  D-Ga.

Richmond died in 1990,  and his children were to accept his medal, a museum spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The ceremony was part of the Smithsonian’s yearlong celebration of the 50th  anniversary and other important moments in the civil rights movement.

The museum also plans to commemorate the anniversary of the desegregation of the lunch counter on July 25, 1960. Four stools and an eight-foot section of the Woolworth lunch counter are on display at the Smithsonian. The museum obtained the counter shortly after the chain announced in 1993  it was closing the Greensboro store.

On Monday, McCain, McNeil and Khazan helped celebrate the opening of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in the former Woolworth building at Elm Street and February One Place.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 373-7080 or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com