Joseph Alfred McNeil (born March 25, 1942) is a retired major general in the United States Air Force who is best known for being a member of the Greensboro Four—a group of African American college students who, on February 1, 1960, sat down at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina, challenging the store's policy of denying service to non-white customers.

[5] In the fall, McNeil entered North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University on a full scholarship.

[5] It was at North Carolina A&T where McNeil met three other freshmen: Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, and David Richmond, and the four would later become known as the Greensboro Four.

[6] After attending a concert with his friends, McNeil snapped into action because he watched several members of the audience being inconsiderate and arrogant.

McNeil and the rest of the Greensboro Four heavily relied on the students in ROTC to provide the mobilization concepts, attend meetings, and negotiate.

[4] As it goes, on February 1, 1960; McNeil, along with three other A&T freshmen: Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain and David Richmond, walked together from the university's library to the downtown Greensboro Woolworth store.

[1][7] As media coverage of the demonstrations grew, more protests were being staged through the state of North Carolina, and other Southern cities.

This joint organization between A&T students and the women of nearby Bennett College, focused on the picketing of segregated downtown Greensboro establishments.

[2] In 1963, McNeil would go on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering physics from North Carolina A&T and was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the university's ROTC program immediately after graduation.

[5] McNeil spent considerable time in Southeast Asia flying in operations Arc Light and Young Tiger.

After a military career of over thirty-seven years, and over 6,600 flight hours, he received the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal upon retirement.

McNeil established himself in the private and public sectors with time spent starting a series of diversity programs, working in computer sales for IBM, working for the Bankers Trust in New York City as a commercial banker, and as a stockbroker for E.F. Hutton in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

In 2002, North Carolina A&T commissioned a statue to be sculpted honoring McNeil, along with the three other members of the A&T four; Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. (later known as Jibreel Khazan), and David Richmond.

Brown, an accomplished Indigenous quilt maker, is of Lakota descent and the great-great granddaughter of Chief Sitting Bull.