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Civil Rights Activism in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, 1960-1963

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Civil Rights Activism in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, 1960-1963 SUTTELL, BRIAN WILLIAM, Ph.D. Campus to Counter: Civil Rights Activism in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, 1960-1963. (2017) Directed by Dr. Charles C. Bolton. 296 pp. This work investigates civil rights activism in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, in the early 1960s, especially among students at Shaw University, Saint Augustine’s College (Saint Augustine’s University today), and North Carolina College at Durham (North Carolina Central University today). Their significance in challenging traditional practices in regard to race relations has been underrepresented in the historiography of the civil rights movement. Students from these three historically black schools played a crucial role in bringing about the end of segregation in public accommodations and the reduction of discriminatory hiring practices. While student activists often proceeded from campus to the lunch counters to participate in sit-in demonstrations, their actions also represented a counter to businesspersons and politicians who sought to preserve a segregationist view of Tar Heel hospitality. The research presented in this dissertation demonstrates the ways in which ideas of academic freedom gave additional ideological force to the civil rights movement and helped garner support from students and faculty from the “Research Triangle” schools comprised of North Carolina State College (North Carolina State University today), Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Many students from both the “Protest Triangle” (my term for the activists at the three historically black schools) and “Research Triangle” schools viewed efforts by local and state politicians to thwart student participation in sit-ins and other forms of protest as a restriction of their academic freedom. Despite the rich historiography on the American civil rights movement as well as several scholarly works addressing academic freedom, there has been a lack of emphasis on the ways in which civil rights activism and academic freedom were interconnected in the early 1960s. This project is the result of extensive archival research and the analysis of primary and secondary sources. The author has conducted twenty-nine interviews of civil rights activists and members of the Raleigh and Durham communities, in addition to interviews of nationally recognized civil rights leaders such as Andrew Young and Wyatt Tee Walker. Interviewees from Raleigh and Durham were asked to complete surveys, which were utilized to provide a more systematic method for the author to form assertions and analyze patterns of experiences among the activists. CAMPUS TO COUNTER: CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISM IN RALEIGH AND DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA, 1960-1963 by Brian William Suttell A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2017 Approved by Charles C. Bolton Committee Chair © 2017 Brian William Suttell To Jim and Deb, with great respect ii APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation, written by Brian William Suttell, has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair Charles C. Bolton Committee Members Mark Elliott Peter Villella Jeff Jones October 2, 2017 Date of Acceptance by Committee October 2, 2017 Date of Final Oral Examination iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the civil rights activists whom I interviewed for this project, both for their time and for their contributions to social justice in the United States. I also wish to thank my advisory committee for providing guidance for this dissertation, as well as with my development as a historian and teacher. The chairman of my advisory committee, Dr. Charles Bolton, has had a profound impact on the way in which I approach historical issues in my writing and teaching. Dr. Mark Elliott’s commitment to my work and in supporting fellow Ph.D. candidates was most evident in his leadership of a “Dissertation Group,” in which students provided revisions and suggestions to one another under his tutelage. In addition to serving as helpful teaching mentors, Dr. Peter Villella and Dr. Jeff Jones provided helpful ideas on ways to improve my dissertation. I also want to acknowledge the assistance I received from several archivists in my efforts to locate important documents, especially Frederick Sills, Jr. at Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, Tom Clark at Shaw University in Raleigh, Andre Vann at North Carolina Central University in Durham, and Cynthia P. Lewis at the King Library and Archive in Atlanta, Georgia. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................1 II. EDUCATION, ACTIVISM, AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT ............................................................................17 III. ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND THE 1960 SIT-INS .........................................58 IV. THE “PROTEST TRIANGLE” AND THE 1960 YOUTH LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE AT SHAW UNIVERSITY .......................93 V. EDUCATION VS. SEGREGATION: THE 1960 GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION AND THE REACTION TO THE SIT-INS ............................143 VI. CAMPUS TO COUNTER ................................................................................181 VII. LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS .............232 VIII. CONCLUSION: THE LEGACY OF THE “PROTEST TRIANGLE” ACTIVISTS ................................................................................................275 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................281 APPENDIX A. SURVEY COMPOSITE RESULTS.....................................................292 v 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The scene was festive with a tinge of solemnity as a group of citizens and civil rights activists from Raleigh arrived at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech was the apogee of a day of speeches and music by the likes of John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Floyd McKissick, Mahalia Jackson, and Bob Dylan. But the individuals from Raleigh were not mere witnesses to history; they were participants in a historic moment that was a public and national display of years of struggle for increased freedom. The March on Washington was not only a story about a particularly inspiring speech, but about the two hundred thousand-plus stories of the experiences that participants brought with them, and about the thousands and thousands of activists whose actions had paved the way for them to participate in this historic event. Whereas the initial idea for a March on Washington was brought forth by A. Philip Randolph two decades prior, the true force and momentum for the event initiated largely from the actions of students at historically black college campuses in Greensboro, Raleigh, Durham, Nashville, Montgomery, and other cities and towns throughout the South. Through the use of sit-ins and other direct challenges to segregation, student activists had 2 brought significant changes to existing conceptions about race relations in the South and throughout the country prior to the March on Washington.1 Students from Shaw University, Saint Augustine’s College (now Saint Augustine’s University), and North Carolina College (NCC) at Durham (now North Carolina Central University), played crucial roles in shaping the goals, strategies, and outcomes of the civil rights movement in Raleigh and Durham from 1960-1963. Students from these historically black institutions took the lead in pushing for changes in policies regarding public accommodations and racial segregation in the two cities. They were part of a broader student movement that applied pressure to local businesspersons and local and state officials to dismantle legal segregation as well as segregation based upon social tradition. By the time of the March on Washington in late August 1963, the majority of lunch counters, restaurants, and theaters in Raleigh and Durham had already desegregated, and several establishments had altered their racially discriminatory hiring practices.2 The March on Washington represented a highly publicized event that was in many ways a climax of three years of heightened protest largely initiated in the dorm rooms, courtyards, student council rooms, and auditoriums of the black colleges in the South and sustained in the streets, lunch counters, restaurants, and theaters of several cities. 1 Jon Phelps, “McKissick in Key Role: Number From City In March,” Durham Morning Herald, 29 August 1963, 1B; “Raleigh ‘Marchers’ Report On Experience,” Carolinian, 7 September 1963; Millie Dunn Veasey, phone interview by the author, digital recording, June 27, 2016; Bruce Lightner, interview by the author, Raleigh, North Carolina, June 16, 2016; Carrie Gaddy Brock, interview by the author, Raleigh, March 2, 2016; Vannie C. Culmer, phone interview by the author, digital recording, January 26, 2017; Pete Cunningham, phone interview by the author, digital recording, June 21, 2016 2 Jonathan Friendly, “76 Business Firms Here Integrating,” News and Observer, 6 June 1963, 1; “City- Wide Move: Business Firms Here Drop Racial Barriers,” News and Observer, 20 June 1963, 1; Durham AP, “Bans Lifting at Durham,” News and Observer, 5 June 1963, 1; Jon Phelps, “90 Pct. of Durham Eating
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