AI-assisted summary

McNeil was a member of the Greensboro Four, whose 1960 sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter helped spark the civil rights movement.

He was a decorated U.S. Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam and later achieved the rank of major general.

A portion of the original Woolworth's lunch counter is on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Maj. Gen. Joseph McNeil, a Wilmington native whose sit-ins with the Greensboro Four helped spark the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, has died.

McNeil passed away on Thursday, Sept. 4 at the age of 83, according to multiple published reports.

In 2019, a stretch of North Third Street in Wilmington between Market and Davis streets was renamed Maj. Gen. Joseph McNeil Way in his honor.

Before he became a

See Full Page