On Friday, the Orange County Department on Aging hosted a documentary screening at the Seymour Center in honor of Black History Month. The documentary, “The Man Behind the Counter,” dives into an often overlooked aspect of the Greensboro Sit-Ins.
The Greensboro Sit-Ins were a series of demonstrations in the 1960s protesting segregation, in which Black customers sat at the counter of a white-only restaurant and asked to be served. Four students from NC A&T University, dubbed the Greensboro Four, were the face of the Greensboro Sit-Ins at Woolworth's store.
But people often overlook the fifth person in the famous photo from the sit-in — the man behind the counter.
Charles Bess was a busboy for Woolworth's at the time of the sit-ins and is the subject of the film. Bess said at the documentary screening that during the protests he felt scared for the young boys sitting in front of him. But he was also proud.
“It was hard to see these guys sitting there and I couldn’t talk to them," Bess said. "That really bothered me. But here’s what I did. I wrote a note. And on that note was saying ‘I’m with you all the way.’”
Garrett Davis, the film’s producer, was inspired by the idea of telling the stories of everyday people.
Davis met Bess at his church, where he is still very active in the church theater. He said that he had no idea who Bess was when one of his fellow church members pointed the older man out to him.
Davis said that he wants to use his platform for something positive, and he wants people of color to remember their history.
“I am on a journey to hear ordinary people who were in places that they were either ashamed of or had no idea what was going on," Davis said. "I want to give them a voice. And so when I saw that picture of the man behind the counter, everyone talks about the Four, no one ever asked about him. That's why I want to do this."
