JOSEPH McNEIL took a seat at the F.W. Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., 35 years ago because he was hungry - hungry to end the segregation that prevented blacks from eating in public facilities throughout the South.

The sit-in that McNeil and three other black college students staged on Feb. 1, 1960, at a whites-only lunch counter became a defining moment in the civil rights movement. "What we did, we thought was the right thing to do to clear up a wrong," said McNeil, of Hempstead, N.Y. "We weren't thinking about making history."

Today, McNeil's action formally becomes a part of history when the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History in Washington unveils an exhibit on the sit-in featuring a section of the lunch counter from the Greensboro Woolworth's and pictures from the protest. McNeil, 52, will be on hand for the opening, along with fellow protesters Frank McCain and Ezell Blair, now known as Jibreel Khazan. One other demonstrator, David Richmond, died in 1990.

Smithsonian workers carefully reconstructed what the luncheonette looked like in 1960. The exhibit features an 8-foot section of the counter, which has a pie case on top, four stainless steel stools with cushions, a mirror behind the counter and posters advertising "Strawberry Ice Cream Short Cake" for 29 cents and "Jumbo Banana Splits" for 39 cents. On each side of the counter are photographs and articles about the Greensboro protest, along with pamphlets and buttons from other demonstrations. …