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The "Greensboro Four" walking to the sit-in at the Woolworth's lunch counter, the subject of the film.

The film offers an unusually intimate portrait of four men whose moral courage at age 17 not only changed public accommodation laws in North Carolina, but served as a blueprint for non-violent protests throughout the 1960s.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 18, 2005) -- “February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four," a film written and co-produced by Daniel B. Smith, professor and chair of the Department of History at the University of Kentucky, premieres nationally Tuesday, Feb. 1, on the Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) program “Independent Lens,” hosted by Susan Sarandon.

The film airs locally at 10 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1, on KET2 and at 11 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12, on KET1.

“February One” tells the story of how four students at North Carolina A&T University – Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil – changed the course of American history. On Feb. 1, 1960, the young men, later dubbed the "Greensboro Four," began a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C.

The film offers an unusually intimate portrait of four men whose moral courage at age 17 not only changed public accommodation laws in North Carolina, but served as a blueprint for non-violent protests throughout the 1960s.

Smith received his doctorate in history from the University of Virginia. He is the author of “ Inside the Great House: Planter Family Life in 18th Century Chesapeake Society” (1980). In addition to “February One,” he has written “Black Indians: An American Story,” a feature documentary narrated by James Earl Jones that aired nationally in 2003 on commercial networks; “Alamance,” a one-hour drama about a backcountry uprising in pre-Revolutionary North Carolina that received a Mid-South EMMY and Silver “Telly” awards; “Edgar Allen Poe: Terror of the Soul,” a one-hour docudrama broadcast nationally on PBS; and “The Principal People,” a one-hour documentary on the history of an eastern band of the Cherokees.

“The Trail of Tears,” a two-hour feature documentary for PBS is currently in production. Smith has also written the dramatic script, "The Phoenix," a true story about Harold Dennis, the courageous survivor of the 1988 Carrollton bus crash who went on to become a walk-on star on the UK football team. It is currently being developed as a feature film.