Astronaut Dr. Ron McNair North Carolina A&T alum; (c) Soul Of America
Greensboro Trivia
Textiles industries and and banking have enabled this metro area to remain stable despite economic ups and downs.
1.2 million people call the fast-growing Greensboro-Winston-Salem metro area home. About 230,000 are African American.
There are more than 5,000 African American-owned companies in the metro area.
Greensboro leveraged its railroad hub to build one of the nation’s foremost centers for textile manufacturing.
From 1895 through 1950s Cone Mills, Blue Bell, Burlington Industries, Guilford Mills and VF Corporation established headquarters in Greensboro.
Greensboro Famous Residents
Notable residents born here or made their mark in Greensboro include:
Franklin McClain, Ezell Blair, Jr. Joseph McNeil & David Richmond
The four North Carolina A&T students courageously started Civil Rights Sit-ins at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro. The brave event became another milestone tactic of the Civil Rights Movement.
Dr. J. O. Crosby
The first president of North Carolina A&T University in 1892.
Dr. Willa B. Player
Bennett College’s first woman president and the first African American woman president of a four-year liberal arts college in the U.S.
Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole
Distinguished President of Bennett College.
Maya Angelou
America’s Poet Laureate.
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Began as an activist began at North Carolina A&T during the famous lunch counter sit-ins.
Dr. Ronald McNair
North Carolina A&T alum and Challenger Space Shuttle astronaut.
