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GREENSBORO Oscar-nominated actress Cicely Tyson saw a connection between the 48th anniversary of the Greensboro sit-ins, which reignited the civil rights movement, and the debate between presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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"Possibly at this very moment one of Dr. Martin Luther King's dreams has been realized," Tyson said Thursday night. She was here to receive the International Civil and Human Rights Award, given by Sit-In Movement Inc.

"Tonight on CNN, we have a debate of an African American man and a white woman, one of whom could be president of the United States," Tyson said.

She then applauded leadership in Greensboro that has "for 48 years been steadfast in trying to make many of Dr. Martin Luther King's dreams a reality."

Tyson, 74, also issued a challenge to those seated before her.
"Every time a child is born, old folks look in their face and ask, 'Are you the one?'" she said, slipping into the voice of one of her famous characters, Miss Jane Pittman, a woman who outlived Jim Crow laws to sip at a "whites only" water fountain. "I'm looking out, and are you the one?"

Another special guest at the $100-a-plate fundraiser was High Point native and "American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino.

"I kept tapping my Grandma look where we are," Barrino said, referring to the many community, civil and business leaders in the room, especially Tyson.

"This teaches me how to walk right," Barrino said of receiving the group's Founder's Appreciation Award.

Doug Harris, the Sit-In Movement's legal counsel, reminded the crowd of hundreds that "sometimes, we forget how the outside world viewed this because we live here.''

"By April 1960, demonstrators occupied 54 cities in nine states,'' Harris said. "By the end of the year, 70,000 students had (occupied) 100 lunch counters."

When Franklin McCain, one of the Greensboro Four, spoke, he turned the night's praise back on the crowd "for remembering and reinforcing the blow for freedom, justice and equality that was struck in Greensboro and felt all over the world."

Earlier Thursday, about 150 A&T students congregated in front of the Dudley Building on campus to recreate the trip that four N.C. A&T college freshmen McCain, Jibreel Khazan, Joseph McNeil and the late David Richmond made on Feb. 1, 1960, to sit at the whites-only lunch counter.

Today's students gathered under massive oak trees that the Greensboro Four had strolled along nearly a half-century ago. Then they set off for downtown, walking quietly in pairs. When they arrived at the Woolworth's building, they peered inside the gutted structure, pausing for reflection.

Senior Danielle Hicks said she showed up for the walk because she wanted to connect more with the school's past.

Fellow senior Desiree McNair found herself wondering what the four students had thought about as they headed away from campus toward the lunch counter.

"I can only imagine," she said. "They probably thought about their families and friends. They didn't know if they would be back. They felt so strongly about it, they were willing to risk their lives to go."

The night's other award recipients included:

* Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson, the first black woman to win that elected office, who was awarded the 2008 Trailblazer's Award.

* Capt. Harvey Alexander, an original Tuskegee Airman, who was the night's "Unsung Hero" recipient.

* Bennett College alumna Gwendolyn Mackel Rice of Chicago and A&T alumni Fred Jones of Durham and Robert Patterson of Greensboro, who won the annual Sit-In Participant awards.

Staff writer Jason Hardin contributed to this report.

Contact Nancy H. McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com