Tar Heel' Junior Tar Heel Junior Historian Historian North Carolina History for Stude n t s 'Association Fall 2004 Volume 44, Number 1

On the cover: Protestors march in May 1963. Image courtesy of the News and Observer Collection, North Carolina State Archives. rAm Button (at right) produced by UNC-Chapel Hill students R. B. Foushee and N. B. Smith in 1960. Courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. Contents

State of North Carolina Michael F. Easley, Governor 1 Introduction to the Struggle for Civil Rights in North Carolina Beverly Perdue, Lieutenant Governor by Shirl Spicer and Jefferson Currie II

Department of Cultural Resources 3 African American Civil Rights in North Carolina Lisbeth C. Evans, Secretary by Dr. Flora Bryant Brown Stad T. Meyer, Chief Deputy Secretary 8 With Deliberate Speed: North Carolina and School Desegregation Office of Archives and History by Jefferson Currie II Jeffrey J. Crow, Deputy Secretary 11 Tar Heel Junior Historian Essay Contest Winner Division of State History Museums by Sierra Silvers North Carolina Museum of History Elizabeth F. Buford, Director 13 “Double Voting” in Robeson County: A Reminder of an Unequal William J. McCrea, Associate Director Past

Education Section by Bruce Barton Martha P. Tracy, Chief Footsteps of Change with VISTA Ann Kaplan, Curator of Outreach Programs 15 by Alice Eley Jones Tar Heel Junior Historian Association ACTIVITIES SECTION Suzanne Mewbom, Program Coordinator 18 Paula Creech, Subscription Coordinator 20 Personal Reflections: Lest I Forget the Civil Rights Movement, the Tar Heel Junior Historian Ligon Jubilee Singers, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Kathleen B. Wyche, Editor in Chief by Ann Hunt Smith Doris McLean Bates, Editor/Designer Shirl Spicer, Jefferson Currie 11, Conceptual Editors 25 The Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina and the Battle of Maxton Field Tar Heel Junior Historian by Jefferson Currie II Association Advisory Board Doris McLean Bates, Cris Crissman, 28 Love May Lead to Freedom, but It Usually Takes a Few First Vince Greene, Ann Kaplan, Tenley Long, Steps: The Story of the 1960 Greensboro Sit-Ins Suzanne Mewbom, Gail W. O'Brien, by Dr. Millicent Ellison Brown Terri Ann Rouse, Martha P. Tracy, David Wagoner 31 “The Great Agitator”: Golden A. Frinks by Shirl Spicer 34 What We Can’t Do Alone, We Can Do Together by Mac Legerton

THE PURPOSE of Tar Heel junior Historian magazine (ISSN 0496-8913) is to present the history of North Carolina to the students of this state through a well- balanced selection of scholarly articles, photographs, and illustrations. It is published two times per year for the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association by the North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-4650. Copies are provided free to association advisers. Members receive other benefits, as well. Individual and library subscriptions may be purchased at the rate of $5.00 per year. © 2004, North Carolina Museum of History. PHOTOGRAPHS: Unless otherwise indicated, images are courtesy of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. EDITORIAL POLICY: Tar Heel Junior Historian solicits manuscripts from expert scholars for each issue. Articles are selected for publication by the editor in consulta¬ tion with the conceptual editors and other experts. The editor reserves the right to make changes in articles accepted for publication but will consult the author should substantive questions arise. Published articles do not necessarily represent the views of the North Carolina Museum of History, the Department of Cultural Resources, or any other state agency. THE TEXT of this journal is available on magnetic recording tape from the State Library, Services to the Blind and Physically Handicapped Branch. For information, call 1-800-662-7726. NINE THOUSAND copies of this public document were printed at an approximate cost of $5,865.00, or $.65 per copy. a Introduction to the Struggle for Civil Rights in North Carolina by Shirt Spicer and Jefferson Currie II* Civil Rights Time Line (North Carolina) hat qualities of life do you America's past, however, these basic 1830 The General Assembly receives from the governor a copy of define as "American"? rights were withheld from some resi¬ David Walker’s Appeal .. . to the Coloured Freedom of speech? Equal dents. Over the course of United States Citizens of the World. published in Boston the rights before the law? Freedom from history, women, people without land, and previous year by David Walker, an African oppression? Freedom to vote for the can¬ people of color were sometimes denied American born free in Wilmington in 1785. Appalled by slavery, he basic civil and other rights. advocates open rebel¬ lion. The General Although the Thirteenth, Assembly bans his writ¬ ings and other “sedi¬ Fourteenth, and Fifteenth tious" works that “might excite insurrection.’’ Amendments to the United The General Assembly enacts “black codes" States Constitution ensured restricting the activities of free and enslaved African Americans in an basic rights for all Americans, effort to prevent slave the interpretation of the revolts. 1831 The General Assembly passes legisla¬ Constitution over time has tion forbidding black preachers to speak at excluded many groups from gatherings of slaves from different owners, and for¬ enjoying first-class citizenship. bidding anyone to teach slaves to read and write. Throughout history, North 1835 The state constitu¬ tion is extensively Carolinians have protested revised, with amend¬ ments that provide for unjust treatment by society direct election of the governor and more dem¬ ocratic representation in and the government. In 1835 the legislature. However, new laws take voting most African Americans in rights away from free people of color. North Carolina were enslaved. 1838 A few hundred North Carolina Cherokee In response to recent slave refuse to submit to forced removal. They rebellions in the South, and hide in the mountains and evade federal sol¬ growing political power diers. A deal is struck allowing these Cherokee to remain in the state among free persons of color, legally. The federal gov¬ ernment eventually ruling whites changed the establishes a reservation for them. state constitution to withhold 1839 The General Assembly establishes many basic rights, including common schools, or free public schools, in the the right to vote, from free state. The first one opens in Rockingham County the followinq African Americans and year. American Indians in an effort 1840 The General Assembly passes a law to control their actions. prohibiting people of Protestors march for equality in May 1963. Image courtesy of the Neivs and Observer Collection, color from owning or carrying weapons with¬ North Carolina State Archives. Time line image of button courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of Although the Civil War ended out first obtaining a History. license. slavery, it would take the next 1861 North Carolina lawmakers prohibit any didate of your choice? Citizens in twenty- one hundred years to correct other injus¬ black person from own¬ ing or controlling a first-century America enjoy a level of tices. slave, making it impos¬ sible for a free person of freedom and human rights unknown in color to buy freedom for What was the Civil Rights movement? a family member or many areas of the world. For much of The modern Civil Rights movement friend.

*Shirl Spicer and Jefferson Currie II work on the curatorial staff at the North Carolina Museum of History. THJH, Fall 2004 1 They are also members of the Civil Rights Exhibit Team and served as the conceptual editors for this issue of THJH. (from the 1950s through 1970s) was a push by No, the civil rights movement wasn't African American, American Indian, and white just a bunch of kindly things done by the individuals to change laws and customs that federal government. ... It was a lot of oppressed and separated people because of the struggle[s] in communities . . . that were color of their skin. But change did not come easily or quickly. hard-fought and took a lot of dedication The movement was a massive, grassroots effort and strength by the people. led by individuals, communities, churches, busi¬ —Theodosia Simpson nesses, and schools. Participants struggled to ensure that all American citizens were granted their rights as guaranteed in the United States Constitution, regardless of race. For many people, the words Civil Rights move¬ ment bring to mind specific images—sit-in protests, large marches, or violent reactions to demands for civil rights. But the movement meant different things to different people. Not everyone protested or marched. Some North Carolinians worked "behind the scenes" in quiet but important ways to make strides for civil rights. Other individuals made active, bold statements in their communi¬ ties; still others did nothing. And some people fought to stop the movement. As you read the articles in this issue, look for more details about the struggle for racial equality. Hear firsthand accounts of individ¬ ual experiences during the Civil Rights era. Discover the names of some of the lesser- known people who pushed for change. And while you read, consider how you would have responded to injustice then, and how you might respond to it now. Listen to one North Carolinian's summary of the Civil Rights movement. Theodosia Simpson says, "No, the civil rights movement wasn't just a bunch of kindly things done by the federal govern¬ ment. ... It was a lot of struggle[s] in communities . . . that were hard-fought and took a lot of dedica¬ tion and strength by the people." After you finish reading this issue of the magazine, consider how A young man protesting segregation, ca. 1962. Courtesy of Andrew you would define the movement. Small. N.C. DOCUMENTS CLEARINGHOUSE African American Civil Rights in nov 2 9 2004

North Carolina STATE LIBRARY OF NORTH CARi RALEIGH by Dr. Flora Bryant Brown* 1861 North Carolina secedes from the Union African Americans in North South. Three amendments to the United on May 20. 1861-65 Approximately Carolina have fought for equality States Constitution declared their rights 42,000 North Carolini¬ ans lose their lives in the since their earliest arrival in the as American citizens. The Thirteenth Civil War. Many slaves state. They have protested quietly and Amendment (1865) abolished slavery and leave their plantations and seek refuge behind publicly as individuals, in groups, and involuntary servitude. The Fourteenth Northern lines in Federal-occupied areas through organizations. The fight for civil Amendment (1868) recognized blacks as of the state, and some join the Union army. A rights developed locally and later became citizens and outlined basic rights. The large number of Cherokee in western part of the national struggle for equality. Fifteenth Amendment (1870) granted North Carolina support the Confederacy. The Before the Civil War, free blacks fought African American men the right to vote. well-known fighting unit Thomas’s Legion has for equality when they purchased them¬ When they gained the right to vote, two Cherokee compa¬ selves and loved ones from slave owners, African American men voted Republican, nies. The Lumbee in eastern North Carolina as well as when they purchased property which was the party of Abraham Lincoln are forced to work on Confederate fortifica¬ and lived self-sufficient lives, working (the president who had freed the slaves in tions near Wilmington. Many flee and form the Confederate states). groups to resist impress¬ ment by the army. Henry These amendments, Berry Lowry leads one such group, which con¬ along with several tinues to resist white domination long after United States Supreme the war ends. Court decisions, gave 1865 A state convention votes to repeal the African Americans legal Ordinance of Secession and end slavery. North ground on which to Carolina ratifies the 13th stand in fighting for Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which offi¬ their civil rights. But cially abolishes slavery. Freedmen hold a politi¬ even as their rights were cal march in Raleigh to affirmed, African ask for equal rights. Later 106 African Americans faced American delegates attend the Freedmen's increasing restrictions Convention in the capital city. on their movements and The Baptist church actions, and limitations founds a school in Raleigh to teach theol¬ were placed on opportu¬ ogy and biblical interpre¬ tation to freedmen. It Freedmen discuss their political rights at a convention shortly after the Civil War. Time line image of nities for them. later begins post¬ Federal troops liberating enslaved people ca. 1860s. secondary instruction During Reconstruc¬ and becomes Shaw tion and through the University in 1875. 1868 A new state consti¬ and raising their families. Free blacks of end of the nineteenth century, African tution gives all adult males the right to vote means reached for equality when they American men were elected to numerous and hold office. It requires the General voted. Enslaved blacks struggled for North Carolina offices. They served on Assembly to “provide for equality when they formed their own a general and uniform local school boards, as sheriffs, as magis¬ system” of free schools community within slave housing and trates, and as representatives to the state for all children between the ages of six and 21. developed their own identity separate legislature. In addition, they were North Carolina ratifies from that created for them by the slave the 14th Amendment to appointed to a number of political posts. the U.S. Constitution, owner. They also participated in open Four were elected to the United States which grants citizenship to “all persons born or forms of resistance, such as running House of Representatives. George H. naturalized in the United States.” away, destroying crops, and joining in White was the last African American to North Carolina rejoins slave rebellions. serve in the House of Representatives the United States. An election places in The Reconstruction period (1865-1877) (1898-1901) in this period. office the first African witnessed the affirmation on paper of the American state legisla¬ When white Democrats, who generally tors: three senators and rights of African Americans, many of opposed equal rights for nonwhites, 17 representatives. them newly freed from slavery in the gained control of the North Carolina

*Dr. Flora Bryant Brown chairs the Department of History and Political Science at THJH, Fall 2004 Elizabeth City State University in Elizabeth City. 3 General Assembly in 1872, African Americans 1898 Wilmington race riot, armed white men found themselves facing removal from public burned black businesses and forced a number of offices and an end to the progress they had been African American leaders out of the city. making in the state. In the 1872 campaign, race According to records, eleven blacks were killed was used as a tactic to divide voters. Black men and twenty-five were wounded, and three white who voted continued to vote Republican. Threats, men were killed in the riot. intimidation, and violence were used to keep them Next, North Carolina followed the lead of other from the polls. Democrats charged that Radical southern states in passing a series of laws that seg¬ Reconstruction, controlled by Republicans in regated, or separated, African Americans from Congress, had threatened the autonomy of North whites. The 1896 United States Supreme Court case Carolina. There were allegations that blacks had Plessy v. Ferguson, known as the separate-but-equal dominated state government, and that "white case, had set the stage for the passage of segrega¬ supremacy" was necessary in order to protect the tion laws. African Americans were limited first by interests of whites. In 1875 a state constitutional custom and then by law in where they could live, amendment established separate schools for black where their children could go to school, and which and white children. public places they could enter and use. Racial eti¬ Blacks reentered politics and elective office quette required an intricate array of "dos" and when the Populist Party joined with African "don'ts," which could differ from one locale to the Americans and Republicans to dominate state gov¬ next. In 1900, North Carolina, modeling the actions ernment briefly from 1894 to 1898. In North of other southern states, passed a suffrage amend-

These signs tell the story of the society that existed under the

Carolina the combination of Populists and ment to the state constitution that prevented most Republicans became known as Fusion. White African Americans from voting. Fusionists—Populists and Republicans—needed The foundation of the modern phase of the Civil black votes in order to win elections but were not Rights movement was established in the "Jim always in support of black officeholding, and they Crow" era, which began in 1896 with the separate- sometimes worked with white Democrats to but-equal case. Jim Crow was a stereotypical, or undermine African American voters. caricatured, black man in a song-and-dance show The reentry of African Americans into politics of the time. The term Jim Crow era refers to a period greatly concerned white Democrats. The in American history in which African Americans Democratic Party used the state election of 1898 to were segregated by law regarding where they further divide North Carolina on the basis of race could live, attend school, and use public places. in order to regain political power. Furnifold Blacks fought against segregation and discrimina¬ Simmons, chairman of the Democratic Party, ran a tion, and the development of their protests in racist campaign in the pursuit of power. His tactics North Carolina and throughout the South began at worked, and the Democrats regained control of the the local level. General Assembly and the governor's office. For North Carolina set up a system of segregated African Americans, the outcome of this election education that ranged from elementary school was increased racial violence. For example, in the through the university level. African Americans,

TH/H, Fall 2004 many of whom were poor, understood Republican Party—it had abandoned any that a better life was built on a foundation fight for equality—blacks began to look to of better education. They also understood the national Democratic Party as a means that segregated education helped to to advance the cause of civil rights. maintain a separate society. African African Americans were also reacting to 1868 The U.S. govern¬ ment recognizes the Americans started private academies to the white backlash against their desires Eastern Band of educate their children and collaborated for equality after World War I, and to Cherokee. 1869 North Carolina rati¬ with private foundations, such as the increasing racial violence by white fies the 15th Amend¬ ment to the U.S. Consti¬ Rosenwald Fund, to establish schools. supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux tution, which gives all men the right to vote. There were several schools for under¬ Klan. By the presidential election of 1936, The General Assembly graduate higher education for African the majority of African American voters attempts to revitalize the public schools by Americans in the state: St. Augustine's had shifted their vote from the reorganizing them and providing $100,000 in College, Shaw University, and the State Republican Party to the Democratic Party. funding. Normal and Training School for blacks World War II opened a window of James Walker Hood, an African American minis¬ (now Elizabeth City State University), opportunity to push the fight for civil ter and an assistant superintendent in the among others. However, no graduate or rights to a national level. Blacks raised N.C. Bureau of Educa¬ tion, reports that the professional schools for African this question: If America could fight to state has 257 black schools enrolling 15,657 Americans existed in North Carolina. defend democracy in Europe, why could¬ students. Beginning in the 1930s, African n't it fight to defend democracy at home? 1870 Under a tribal gov¬ ernment, members of Americans fought a series of court cases African Americans vowed to fight a the Eastern Band of Cherokee elect a chief to win admission to graduate and profes¬ "Double V" campaign—victory over and write a constitution. sional schools at white universities. One totalitarianism abroad, and victory over In the “Kirk-Holden War,” Republican governor of the first cases was brought by Thomas racism at home. From this point, the pace William W. Holden pro¬ claims Alamance and Hocutt (1933), who sought admission to of the struggle for civil rights quickened, Caswell Counties in a the school of pharmacy at the University and the national mood was becoming state of insurrection after the Ku Klux Klan of North Carolina. Hocutt's case was lost more receptive. The composition of the perpetrates acts of vio¬ lence, including several on a technicality. But the state did agree United States Supreme Court had shifted murders. The governor declares martial law and to allocate money from conser¬ deploys troops. More than 100 men are for graduate pro¬ vative to lib¬ arrested. Democrats impeach Holden and grams at African eral under remove him from office American institu¬ Franklin D. the next year. 1871 Congress investi¬ tions such as the Roosevelt. gates the role of the Ku Klux Klan in North North Carolina After World Carolina politics. U.S. College for soldiers arrest nearly War II, 1,000 men for alleged Negroes (now America involvement with the Klan, and 37 are con¬ NCCU) and North assumed a victed. The investigation helps limit Klan activity Carolina A&T greater role in the state for several decades. College. Not until in foreign 1875 Amendments to the early 1950s did affairs. That the state constitution establish separate public African Americans international schools for black and white children and forbid gain admission to role, com¬ marriage between African Americans and graduate and pro¬ A planning session in 1951 for admission to the University of North Carolina law bined with whites. fessional pro¬ school. (Left to right) Floyd McKissick, J. Kenneth Lee, Harvey Beech, and James technological 1877 The General Lassiter. Time line image of Cherokee Indian schoolchildren and woman beside a build¬ Assembly authorizes the grams at UNC. ing. Images courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. improve¬ first state-supported institution of higher During the ments in learning for African Americans in North Great Depression in the 1930s, African broadcasting, such as the invention of Carolina. The Howard Americans in North Carolina liked what School, which opened in television; a growing African American 1867 in Fayetteville, is they heard from Democratic president middle class; and a national civil rights chosen as this teacher training facility and is Franklin D. Roosevelt. Because of his organization (the NAACP—National renamed the State Colored Normal School. New Deal policies (the New Deal was not Association for the Advancement of It eventually becomes Fayetteville State geared specifically toward blacks, but Colored People), gave African Americans University. they were included on a segregated greater tools with which to fight for civil 1879 Charles N. Hunter and his brother form the basis), and the actions of the national rights. N.C. Industrial Associa-

THJH, Fall 2004 Civil rights leaders also used a tactic called non¬ Durham. The Journey of Reconciliation was the violent civil disobedience to work for change. In forerunner of the Freedom Rides of 1961. In addi¬ the 1930s African American ministers boycotted a tion, CORE led demonstrations in Chapel Hill, ceremony to dedicate the War Memorial Durham, Greensboro, and other cities to desegre¬ Auditorium in Raleigh (because they had to sit in gate public facilities. There were smaller move¬ the balcony), and African Americans in ments in cities such as Wilmington, Eden ton, Greensboro carried out a boycott of local theaters Williamston, and others. Public facilities were (to protest the absence of racially balanced finally integrated with the passage of the national movies). Kelly Miller Alexander Sr. reorganized Civil Rights Act of 1964. the Charlotte chapter of the NAACP in 1940 and In 1954 the United States Supreme Court ruled then worked to build the organization throughout in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that the state. Also during the 1940s, the NAACP segregated public schools were unconstitutional, assisted in organizing boycotts to protest inferior meaning that the schools must become integrated. segregated education. Students from the North But schools in North Carolina desegregated slow¬ Carolina College for Negroes picketed in the state ly. The Greensboro school system became the first capital to demand improvements at the school. in the state to comply with the Brown decision. In 1957 a few African American stu¬ dents were admitted to white public schools in Greensboro, Charlotte, and Winston-Salem. However, these actions did not achieve complete integration. State leaders who opposed integration devised several plans, including the Pearsall Plan, adopted by the General Assembly in 1956 in an attempt to delay desegre¬ gation by allowing all parents who opposed integration to use state funds to pay tuition for private schools. African Americans and their sup¬ porters continued to push for deseg¬ regation of public schools, however. Community action and court cases eventually helped to desegregate the A March 13, 1966, civil rights demonstration. Image courtesy of the Neivs and Observer Collection, North Carolina schools. In Swann v. Charlotte- State Archives. Mecklenburg Board of Education, a fed¬ eral court ruled that busing could be Major civil rights organizations such as the used as a tool to help integrate the public schools, NAACP, SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership and the Supreme Court upheld the ruling in 1971. Conference), SNCC (Student Nonviolent Yet some African Americans opposed the desegre¬ Coordinating Committee), and CORE (Congress of gation of public education, since they feared losing Racial Equality) played an important role in the their community schools and jobs. For instance, a struggle for civil rights in North Carolina. In 1947 yearlong protest took place in Hyde County in CORE sponsored the Journey of Reconciliation, an response to a plan to close black schools and send interracial bus trip designed to test compliance African American students to white schools. with Morgan v. Virginia, a 1946 United States Another key occurrence in North Carolina that Supreme Court decision outlawing segregated became a national event and, in the process, interstate bus travel. Teams of blacks and whites helped to propel the Civil Rights movement for¬ left Washington, D.C., and traveled on buses ward was the Greensboro sit-ins. On February 1, through the South, stopping in Durham and 1960, thousands of college students were brought Chapel Hill. Riders faced violence on their stop in into the movement when four African American Chapel Hill and were arrested in Asheville and freshmen from North Carolina A&T College in

6 TH/H, Fall 2004 equal access to city services, integration of public facilities, better housing, and the right to vote. The Twenty-fourth tion, which tries to Amendment to the United improve the lives of African Americans by States Constitution in 1964 out¬ emphasizing economic progress rather than lawed the poll tax, which was a political activity. Hunter’s Colored Industrial Fair fee for voting. The amendment, in Raleigh becomes the state’s most popular along with the national Voting social event for blacks. Hunter later starts the Rights Act of 1965, led to an O’Kelly Training School increase in the number of in Wake County in 1910, called by a 1917 African Americans registered to Baltimore newspaper the “finest rural training vote and in the election of school in the entire South.” African Americans to local and 1885 North Carolina statewide offices. Additional recognizes the Croatans, now known legislation passed by Congress as the Lumbee, as an . police officer arrests a protestor at a 1964 demonstration in Chapel Hill. Courtesy of the News American Indian tribe mi Observer Collection, North Carolina State Archives. Time line image of the Croatan Notvial School in the 1960s helped to remove and authorizes separate i Robeson County, ca. 1890s, courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. other legal barriers to equality. schools for them. 1887 The Croatan The struggle for civil rights Normal School opens in Robeson County. It Greensboro entered a downtown in North Carolina included eventually becomes Pembroke State Woolworth store, made some purchases, individuals, church and civic groups, College. Pembroke State University, and the and sat down at the lunch counter and national civil rights organizations, com¬ University of North requested service. They were denied munity leaders, and others. The many Carolina at Pembroke. 1888 Fifty-four Croatan service because they were not white, but factions did not always agree on which Indians in Robeson County petition the U.S. the students refused to leave. They issues were most important or on the government for school remained until the store closed, and they methods to use to achieve their goals. By funds. 1889 The Eastern Band returned the next day with more stu¬ the late 1960s, a rupture, or break, became of Cherokee is incorpo¬ rated under North dents. The cause gained momentum. Sit- evident between the older, more estab¬ Carolina law. ins quickly spread to major cities across lished civil rights organizations and the African American mem¬ bers of the Woman's North Carolina and then throughout the newer organizations and their younger Christian Temperance Union break away to South, helping to bring about the deseg¬ participants. These divisions would form WCTU No. 2, regation of lunch counters and other pub¬ remain. But the actions of all of the which will have 400 members in 19 chapters lic facilities. organizations eventually spurred civil by 1891. Like the origi¬ nal group, the new one Ella J. Baker, a graduate of Shaw rights legislation that led to the integra¬ reports directly to the national organization. University in Raleigh and a field secre¬ tion of public facilities in the state. North Carolina is the only state to have a tary for the NAACP, called a meeting at The removal of legal restrictions in black women’s temper¬ Shaw University in April 1960. Baker housing and the access of some African ance union. 1892 The State Colored believed that black college students Americans to higher-paying jobs have Normal School at Elizabeth City opens to should have their own civil rights organi¬ changed the makeup of many traditionally train African American teachers. It eventually zation. She and the students founded the African American residential communi¬ becomes Elizabeth City Student Nonviolent Coordinating ties in inner cities. The communities no State University. Slater Industrial Committee (SNCC), and they traveled longer consist of people from all economic Academy is founded for African Americans. It across the South to work in local commu¬ levels. The African Americans who could eventually becomes Winston-Salem State nities coordinating civil rights activities to afford to left these inner-city communities. University. end segregation and discrimination, and The poor residents who remain do not 1893 The federal gov¬ ernment opens the registering African Americans to vote. have important role models who could Cherokee Boarding Golden Frinks, who became a field raise expectations among the young. School. The state opens the secretary for the Southern Christian Although the Civil Rights movement Agricultural and Mechanical College for Leadership Conference, planned, orga¬ accomplished much, a great deal remains the Colored Race in Greensboro to teach nized, and led marches primarily in east¬ unfinished. Now, new problems exist for practical agriculture and ern North Carolina that addressed issues a new generation. mechanical arts and to provide academic and such as desegregation of public schools. classical instruction. It

THJH, Fall 2004 7 With Deliberate Speed: North Carolina and School Desegregation by Jefferson Currie II

Tn the 1800s and early 1900s, North Carolina Carolina leaders—mostly whites—decided to schools were segregated by race, meaning that study the situation and find a way to avoid true black, Indian, and white children went to sepa¬ integration. In 1954 Governor William B. Umstead rate schools for their own race. Although the created the Governor's Special Advisory United States Supreme Court (in the 1896 case Committee on Education to consider the effects of Plessy v. Ferguson) and the North Carolina legisla¬ the state's obeying the Supreme Court ruling. The ture had declared that separate education must be bi-racial (black and white) committee reported to equal, it usually was not. Many black and Indian the legislature that desegregation “throughout the students remember during the early 1900s receiv¬ state cannot be accomplished and should not be ing old, outdated textbooks that white students attempted." had used for many years. Black and Indian teachers earned salaries that were routinely lower than the ones white teachers received. The system of segregation, of which edu¬ cation was only a part, caused Lumbee Indian Curt Locklear to feel infe¬ rior to whites—a feeling that, he said, was some¬ thing that “you were born with . . . you were reared with." Although this sys¬ tem had existed since the foundation of North Carolina's public education system in the 1800s, the United States Supreme Court in 1954 ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that school segregation was unconstitutional and must end. After the Supreme Court ruling, North Carolina had to desegregate its schools. Before integration occurred, these elementary students attended an all-white school. Image courtesy of the North Carolina But many white people in Museum of Histon/. the state, as well as some African Americans and American Indians, strongly opposed desegrega¬ Luther Hodges became governor in 1955, and tion. Instead of quickly integrating the schools and although he opposed desegregation, he ordered a educating students of all races together. North new committee to study the issue, because the

TH]H, Fall 2004 United States Supreme Court had ruled Within the system of segregation, that desegregation must happen "with all members of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian deliberate speed." This new committee community had struggled for many years established the Pearsall Plan, named after to establish a school for their children. the group's chairman, Thomas J. Pearsall. The Indian students had no school to eventually becomes the The new Pearsall Plan began a system of attend, because in Halifax and Warren Agricultural and Technical College of local—not state—control, freedom of Counties, where the Haliwa-Saponi lived, North Carolina and then N.C. A&T State choice, and vouchers. The freedom-of- there were only two school systems—one University. choice system allowed students to attend for black students and one for white stu¬ 1896 George Henry White benefits from the school they wanted, and the voucher dents. The Pearsall Plan allowed the Fusion politics by win¬ ning election to the U.S. system allowed parents to use state Indian community to use state money to House of Representa¬ tives from North Caro¬ money to support their child's education establish a private Indian school in lina's 2nd Congressional District. He serves from in a private school. In effect, the Pearsall Warren County in 1957. Eventually, the 1897 to 1901 and seeks to promote and protect African American inter¬ ests. He introduces the first anti-lynching bill and appoints African Americans to federal positions in his district. White is the last black representative for the next quarter century and the last from the state until 1992. 1898 The Wilmington Race Riot occurs when white Democrats over¬ throw Wilmington’s elected Republican gov¬ ernment. Whites burn the office and press of the African American newspaper the Daily Record. State news¬ papers report 11 blacks killed, 25 blacks wounded, and three white men killed. Black and white Republicans resign, and the Democrats install a white supremacist city government. North Carolina sends three African American infantry companies and two white regiments to serve with other segre¬ gated units in the Spanish-American War. John Merrick and Dr. Aaron Moore found the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in Durham. 1900 Democrats regain control of the governor¬ ship and the General Assembly through a harsh white supremacy campaign. The “Suffrage Amendment” to the state constitution institutes a Elementary-age students at an all-black school before desegregation. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. Time line image of literacy requirement for representative George H. White. voting. It includes a “grandfather clause" that allows illiterate white men to vote but effec¬ tively disfranchises men of color. Because many Plan did little to integrate North county made the school public. The Cherokee had previously voted Republican, Carolina's public schools. With a few Indian school existed until 1965, when all Democrats take advan¬ tage of an 1895 federal exceptions, such as in Greensboro's Warren County schools integrated. court ruling that the Cherokee are wards of schools, most schools in North Carolina A federal court later ruled the Pearsall the federal government to curtail their suffrage. remained segregated. Plan unconstitutional, and the state Local registrars deny them the right to vote.

THJH, Fall 2004 9 assumed control over local school districts. By this trying to make us go to school with these people." time, schools in North Carolina had begun to Although many individuals in the Lumbee/ desegregate. But numerous school systems had not Tuscarora community actively fought the loss of integrated. The United States Supreme Court in their schools, eventually Robeson County desegre¬ 1971 upheld a decision that declared that the gated as well. Charlotte school system must desegregate, and, if Although the hard-fought struggles of the past necessary, it must bus students to schools outside achieved the integration of schools in North their communities to achieve integration. After this Carolina, today many people think that racial decision, public schools throughout North groups are beginning to segregate themselves in Carolina began busing students in order to deseg¬ schools again by choice. With culturally specific regate fully. By the 1971-1972 school year. North charter schools, and the end of mandatory busing Carolina finally had met the requirements of the to achieve integration, schools in many communi¬ Supreme Court's Brown decision satisfactorily. ties are becoming predominantly black, Hispanic, African Americans and American Indians often Indian, or white. While the situation continues to disagreed on whether integration was the best change across the state, North Carolina will never thing for their communities. The majority of again move to a system of forced segregation. As African American communities supported the former United States president James A. Garfield desegregation of schools, but within the Lumbee/ said, "Next in importance to freedom and justice is Tuscarora Indian community of Robeson County, popular education, without which neither freedom many people felt that Indians could better main¬ nor justice can be permanently maintained." tain their culture and small communities if they controlled the schools that their children attended. Former Indian school principal Danford Dial noted that many Indians also resented having to attend schools with whites who had mistreated them. He said that Indians “had been driven out of the cafes and driven out of the drugstores, at the soda foun¬ tains and ice-cream counter, and hadn't been served in all these years, and now they're

TH/H. Fall 2004 ‘Tar !Hee(Junior Historian ‘Essay Contest Winner ‘Elementary (Division, ‘First

*Sierra Silvers won the 2004 elementary Tar Heel junior Historian Essay Contest with her THJH, Fall 2004 entry above. She was a fourth-grade member of the junior historian club North Carolina 11 Pioneers, Burnsville Elementary School, Burnsville, Jeannie Miller and Donna Banks, advisers. A closed lunch counter. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. it possible for the color of someone's skin to cause go of fears and hatreds held from generation to so much fear on both sides? I admit I've never generation isn't easy. Even if way down inside been around a lot of black people, but my mom themselves most people know this is wrong, their has a black lady [who] comes into our home to pride keeps them from accepting what is right. Yet clean, and my brothers and I call her Aunt Cindy. on the other side, black men and women did not She is a caring, kind, loving person who sings want to be kidnapped from their homelands and gospel hymns as she works. I feel safe and happy brought to a strange country, stripped of their dig¬ while she is in my home, and I can't wait until the nity, and forced into a life of slavery and all that it next time she's to come. Yet here I stand in this entailed. So today, the blacks are angry about the store watching white men and women trying to hardships their ancestors endured, and even pretend that these black men are inferior to whites, though slavery was abolished in the South, they when all the time it is our behavior that is in need are still treated unequally. They have no right to of repair, not theirs. If someone asked me what I vote or have access to all businesses. Their chil¬ felt while witnessing this event, I would have to dren are not allowed the opportunity to have as tell them I felt confused, ashamed, and embar¬ good an education as white children. Finding good rassed. jobs is difficult for them. But all these things are Suddenly Mom appeared and gently took me by dreams of the African American. God created all the hand, and we slowly worked our way out of men to be equal. Our country was born out of the the store. I said, "Mom, what's going on? Why is desire for freedom from persecution and settled by everyone so mad at these four men? What did they many different nationalities. We all have one com¬ do wrong?" mon bond, which is a desire for a better life for our Mom said, "Quiet, Sierra. We'll talk about it families. The blood, sweat, and tears of all races later, when Daddy comes home." We rode in are a part of this country's growth. We must learn silence the rest of the way. to live together in peace or risk destroying all that That evening I could hear Mom and Dad talk¬ this nation has worked so hard to build. United we ing. Finally, I could stand it no longer, so I went will stand, [and] divided we shall fall." downstairs. That night as I knelt to say my prayers, I asked "Daddy," I said. "Could we talk about what God to help all people everywhere to remember happened today? I would like to understand that all men are created equal. His word teaches us what's going on." to "do unto others as you would have them do Daddy took a deep breath and pulled me on his unto you." Tomorrow, when Aunt Cindy comes, lap. I'm going to give her a big hug and ask her to "There are a lot of us who would like to under¬ bring her granddaughter along the next time she stand this thing that is happening to our nation. comes to our house. Her name is Sally, and we're Sierra. White people in the South are being asked the same age. After all, my mom says [that] you to change the only way of life they know. Letting can never have too many friends.

12 THjH. Fall 2004 “Double Voting” in Robeson County: A Reminder ©'IF an Unequal Past

African American stu¬ by Bruce Barton* dents are built in North Carolina. 1919 Local officials deny voter registration to Cherokee veterans of Believe it or not, at one time double although tobacco and cotton are still sta¬ WWI. voting was as common and accept¬ ple crops in Robeson County. 1920 The 19th Amend¬ ment to the U.S. able in Robeson County as the Constitution gives Double Voting in Robeson County women throughout the widespread jobs of cropping tobacco or nation the right to vote, before 1975 though North Carolina picking cotton. None of these exercises is does not ratify the I remember well the time before the fed¬ amendment until 1971. common among the people there today. Cherokee women try to eral courts outlawed the evil practice of register to vote, but local Double voting has since been outlawed, double voting. Back then in Robeson officials prohibit them. and mostly Hispanic croppers and pick¬ 1921 North Carolina County, some people had two votes, and establishes the Division ers have replaced the American Indians, of Negro Education, with others had only one. Before 1975, six Nathan C. Newbold as blacks, and whites who in the past per¬ director and George E. school systems existed in Robeson Davis as his assistant. formed the necessary farm chores— County. They were Lumberton, St. Pauls, 1924 Federal law places Cherokee lands in trust Fairmont, Maxton, and Red with the federal govern¬ ment and grants citizen¬ Springs (each of these towns had ship rights to all Indians. North Carolina holds its own school system), and the that these rights apply in the state only after tribal Public Schools of Robeson lands are allotted. County, which included everyone 1928 Annie Wealthy Holland of Gates County else. So people who lived within forms the N.C. Congress of Colored Parents and the town limits of Lumberton, Teachers, the first such organization for African Maxton, St. Pauls, Red Springs, Americans in the state. and Fairmont had two votes for 1929 Union agitation and a textile workers’ board of education members. strike at Loray Mill in Gastonia lead to the They voted on the makeup of deaths of the town’s police chief and of white their own boards of education, as labor leader Ella May well as the board of education for Wiggins. 1930 Federal law grants the rest of the county (the citizenship to Cherokee Indians in North Robeson County schools). But the Carolina. residents served by the county 1932 Black ministers in Raleigh protest the dedi¬ school system each had only one cation of the War Memorial Auditorium vote. That part of the county's because they have to sit in the balcony. population was 60 percent Indian, 1935 Indians in Robe¬ 20 percent African American, and son County become eligible to organize 20 percent white. under the federal Wheeler-Howard Act, I remember double voting as passed the previous year. Individuals must be "the most evil political system at least half-blood Indians to receive recog¬ ever devised by man," as one nition. prominent Lumbee Indian educa¬ 1938 African American students in Greensboro tor said at the time. The first arti¬ initiate a theater boycott to protest the absence cle I ever wrote for the newspaper of racially balanced movies. Carolina Indian Voice, a weekly Only 22 of 209 people publication based in Pembroke, tested in Robeson County qualify for recog¬ was entitled simply "Double nition as Indians. Qualifi¬ cation is based on This cartoon appeared in the book An Indian Manifesto, written by Bruce Barton in Vote?" Many columns on the assessment of physical features. 1983. It shows the Lone Ranger and his sidekick, Tonto, who is protesting against nefarious practice of double voting the double vote. Image courtesy of Bruce Barton. Time line image of button courtesy of 1939 In response to the the North Carolina Museum of History. appeared in the publication before Gaines decision, North Carolina begins offering

*Bruce Barton, the founder and first editor of the newspaper Carolina Indian Voice, recently retired from teaching history in the Public Schools of 13 Robeson County. He is now a freelance writer who focuses on the subject he knows best—the progressive Lumbee Indians of Robeson and adjoining counties. He also serves on the Civil Rights Exhibit Advisory Board at the North Carolina Museum of History. the federal courts outlawed the votes of the residents of unfair scheme. The practice basi¬ the Robeson County . n > ; / Facts to know cally kept many people of color Double voting is a nnllH„ , school administrative out of positions of power in the that gives onp o ^ ca Prachce unit. District court judge VotesWSr°UPOfP'°Pfe two Robeson County school system, Algernon Butler, in the because the rural Indian and Eastern District's federal black residents were not able to court, had originally ruled Lumbee Indians make up the overcome the double vote of the argest Indian tribe east of th. in January 1975 that double mostly white voters within the 1 ississippi River. They resi f • voting was acceptable towns. The white voters usually southeastern North rt * 10 because "a compelling state elected white people to public sasssr^1* interest justified participa¬ offices, including the county tion of city board members" school board. Often the white in the affairs of the county County, with 38 percent Inri■ „ members elected to the county Percent white ^ indlaa 33 school system. The school board actually lived in America^ 4 Richmond appeals court, Emberton i"CP tHisrmfc the towns, where their children however, essentially over¬ went to school, yet they con¬ ruled Judge Butler's original trolled the county's rural ruling by saying, "We reverse schools. It was a strange situation indeed! the district court and remand Double Voting Broken [or return] the case for By the mid-1970s, the question "Have you heard declaratory judgment and the fashioning of other from the lawsuit to break 'double voting'?" had appropriate relief." The ruling from the appeals become a form of greeting between Indians and court canceled double voting forever. The three- judge panel in Richmond, with Judge Harrison L. Winner writing the decision, declared that "the votes of the residents of the county school board geographic area are unconstitutionally diluted in the election of the seven members of the county school board." The Lumbee Indians, especially in Robeson County, were happy indeed! The lead attorney for the lawsuit was noted civil rights activist Barry Nakell. Nakell said in a recent interview that "we should never forget to give credit to former resi¬ dent superior court judge Dexter Brooks," who was a Lumbee attending the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law at the time. Nakell remembered that "[Brooks] did outstanding work in the litigation and had the fortitude to see the suit through." Nakell added, "The decision opened up exciting prospects for Indian voters, who could now partic¬ ipate in the running of their school system." After double voting was outlawed, the single-system Superior Court Judge Dexter Brooks, who died in 2002. At the time of his death, he Public Schools of Robeson County had two was the senior resident superior court judge in Robeson County. Image courtesy of Lumbee Indian school superintendents and numerous Indian board members and administra¬ their friends in Robeson County. And there the tors. The five town school systems and the county matter rested until April 23, 1975, when the United school system eventually merged into one, the States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, sit¬ Public Schools of Robeson County. The eleven- ting in Richmond, Virginia, changed the situation member board of education is presently made up resoundingly by ruling that double voting was of four whites, four Indians, and three African unconstitutional because it essentially diluted the Americans.

TH]H, Fall 2004 Footsteps of Change with VISTA by Alice Eley Jones* graduate courses in liberal arts and the pro¬ fessions at the N.C. College for Negroes in grew up in the small northeastern to uplift black people. The goal repre¬ Durham and in agricul¬ I ture and technology at the Agricultural and North Carolina port village of sented a tall order for young lives, but it Mechanical College in Murfreesboro. I belonged to that was necessary. Greensboro. 1940 North Carolina generation of post-World War II “baby I became one of the first black stu¬ abolishes the poll tax, used to limit minority boomers" who came of age in the pros¬ dents to attend the previously all-white voting. perity and Cold War tensions of the The Indian Normal School of Robeson 1950s. My life was simple enough. The County grants its first days and nights of my youth revolved college degree. 1942 The Southern around my family, First Baptist Church, Conference on Race Relations brings together and Riverview School. My favorite 59 black leaders from 10 southern states at the activities were reading, cooking, and N.C. College for Negroes. A committee watching television. I had a black dog headed by Charles S. Johnson of Fisk named Blackie and a white cat named University issues the Durham Manifesto, Snowy, and I shared with my brothers which demands voting rights and equal educa¬ and sisters a yellow parakeet called tional and job opportuni¬ Chucky, as well as a black rabbit named ties for African Americans. The author's eighth-grade teacher, Dudley E. Flood (second row, Satan. 1943 Black tobacco standing at right), inspired her to excel in education as a traditional workers go on strike at In the fifth grade, I discovered what way of helping fellow African Americans. Image courtesy of Alice R. J. Reynolds Tobacco slavery truly meant to the history of my Eley Jones. Time line image of 1951 strategy session for entering the laiu Company in Winston- school at UNC-Chapel Hill courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of Salem. African American ancestors. I also History. The N.C. Conference of NAACP Branches forms learned that there were laws created to in Charlotte. deny me rights guaranteed to other Murfreesboro High School. Upon my 1946-47 Cherokee veterans of WWII Americans because of the color of my graduation in 1968, the Reverend James register to vote. skin. For the first time in my life, I grew A. Felton (local teacher and civil rights 1946 Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, a Chero¬ understandably fearful. Segregation leader) invited me to join the Volunteers kee crafts cooperative, forms. stole the innocence of my youth. in Service to America (VISTA) program 1947 CORE tests a Supreme Court decision Mr. Dudley Flood, my eighth-grade at Shaw University in Raleigh. against segregation in interstate bus travel by teacher, inspired my classmates and me My parents were understandably sending eight African to become well educated in order to uneasy for me to become involved. It American men on Greyhound and improve the lives of our people. To do was a difficult time in North Carolina Trailways bus rides. Riders are arrested in so would mean to follow in the foot¬ and in America. In the fall of 1968 I Asheville, Durham, and Chapel Hill. This steps of Booker T. Washington (college could vividly recall the recent and vio¬ "Journey of Reconcili¬ ation" becomes the president, educa¬ lent deaths of several model for the 1961 Freedom Rides. tor, and cofounder civil rights leaders in The first Indian mayor of of the Rosenwald our nation: President the town of Pembroke is elected. Previously the Schools project), John F. Kennedy and governor appointed the mayors, all non-Indians. George his brother Robert; 1951 A court order Washington Medgar Evers, requires the University of North Carolina to Carver (educator Mississippi leader of admit minority students to its graduate and pro¬ and scientist), the NAACP; Malcolm fessional schools. Floyd McKissick, Harvey Mary McLeod X, former Nation of Beech, J. Kenneth Lee, and James Lassiter Bethune (educator Islam civil rights become the first African Americans admitted to and political leader; and the the law school. leader), and others Reverend Dr. Martin 1952 Catholic parish Alice Eley Jones as a student at Murfreesboro's segregated schools in North who had worked Riverview School, ca. 1957. Image courtesy of Alice Eley Jones. Luther King Jr., to name Carolina begin desegre¬ gation.

* Alice Elei/ Jones operates her history consulting business, Historically Speaking, as well as Minnie Troy Publishers, in her THJH, Fall 2004 hometown of Murfreesboro. In 1969 Jones received the Minnie Fuller Memorial Scholarship for her outstanding work as a VISTA volunteer. Throughout her career, she has served in various capacities in the history field and has won numerous awards. a few. Because of the controversy over civil rights, black churches were being bombed and burned. Riots had become common¬ place on college campuses. Northern cities were engulfed in flames. And antiwar demonstrations and civil rights marches filled urban and small-town streets alike. However, I readily accepted Rev. Felton's invitation and completed a year of service to my people and my country, and this contri¬ bution continues to influence my life.

VISTA Volunteers In 1963 President John F. Kennedy spoke of a domestic (meaning inside the United

States) volunteer program modeled after the Jones (in dark glasses on left) poses with a group of fellow VISTA volunteers at a 1969 newly established Peace Corps, which conference held at New Ahoskie Baptist Church. Image courtesy of Alice Eley Jones. worked internationally. President Lyndon B. Rocky Mount, in eastern North Carolina, Johnson declared a “war on poverty" and signed became my permanent field assignment. My the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. The act regional supervisor was Earl Stancell, based in created VISTA and fulfilled the dream of the Washington, D.C. My field supervisor was recently assassinated President Kennedy. Thelma J. Miller, of Durham's Foundation for I completed six weeks of in-service training in Community Development. Together Thelma and 1968 and lived on the Shaw University campus. I I printed and dis¬ received training as a community pensed community organizer to serve as a liaison leaflets; organized between poor communities and the community groups; government institutions created to recruited students assist them. who had dropped out My first in-service field duty of school into Job was to provide voter education Corps, an employ¬ information to the people of south ment training pro¬ Raleigh, where many African gram; and organized Americans lived. Many of the peo¬ day-care centers and ple confided that the 1968 election senior citizen groups. was the first one in which they We also acted as ever voted. Several were frightened advisers to students and would go to their precincts at the black Booker T. (voting places) only if driven there Washington Senior by me or other volunteers. As a High when they rule, VISTA volunteers were During Jones's year of community organization, she worked in both urban and rural areas. She noted that the living conditions of voted to boycott allowed to take voters to their many rural blacks had not changed since the end of the nineteenth classes to protest the polling places to vote but could not century. school's proposed enter the buildings with them. closing and merger with the white Rocky Mount I educated community members on their civic Senior High. responsibilities and civil rights. Community I attended civil rights meetings where impas¬ members, not the volunteers, assumed the leader¬ sioned leaders demanded change and organized ship roles. At the end of my year of service, I demonstrations. I was introduced to Eva Clayton, could either retire from VISTA or be reassigned to a civic leader and businesswoman, and Floyd a different community. The goal was to prepare McKissick, an attorney, civil rights leader, and community members to become leaders them¬ businessman, in the Warren County pine forest selves.

16 THJH, Fall 2004 slated to become the Soul City commu¬ nity. I attended meetings in Winston- Salem with Black Panthers (a militant, youthful civil rights group) and 1952-54 Waccamaw Indian School opens in marched with Howard Fuller (director Columbus County. It operates until 1969. of the Foundation for Community 1953 Elementary Development), Ben Ruffin (a North schools at Fort Bragg army base are desegre¬ Carolina college student leader), and gated. 1953 The state changes Arch Foster (a staff member of the the name of the people At the end of her year as a VISTA volunteer, Jones was awarded formerly called the Foundation for Community Develop¬ Croatans, Indians of the Minnie Fuller Memorial Scholarship in 1969. She used the ment) in Durham. I met national civil Robeson County, and money to enroll at North Carolina Central University, where she Cherokee Indians of rights leaders Julian Bond, Golden earned BA and MA degrees in history. She considers her most Robeson County to the important work to be the annual programs that she has presented Lumbee. Frinks, and Jesse Jackson at a Raleigh at Historic Stagville since 1985. Here she pours libations at a special 1954 In response to the civil rights conference. I often found ceremony for esteemed historian Dr. John Hope Franklin (in light Brown decision, the coat) at a 1996 Stagville program. Image courtesy of Alice Eley Jones. Greensboro school board begins an effort to myself in the midst of the nearly con¬ desegregate the city's stant civil unrest in Rocky Mount, public schools. threatening telephone calls, and my car 1955 The University of Raleigh, and Durham. North Carolina in Chapel was routinely followed. I rarely traveled Hill admits the first In the summer of 1969, two African American fresh¬ alone or at night. I accepted that my men: Leroy Frasier, John Americans walked on the moon, and I Lewis Brandon, and took my first airplane flight. I had been telephone was tapped. The VISTA Ralph Frasier. organization would provide an attorney The General Assembly selected to attend the national VISTA adopts a resolution if I were arrested, yet black lawyers in opposing racial integra¬ Volunteer Conference in Washington, tion in the state’s public Rocky Mount, schools. The legislature D.C., as the rep¬ gives local school Raleigh, and resentative from boards control over the Durham volun¬ desegregation of their Shaw University. schools. teered their services 1956 The General I was honored to Assembly adopts the anyway. Though I Pearsall Plan, which meet many peo¬ offers North Carolinians came close several alternatives to attending ple from different integrated public times, I was never backgrounds schools. arrested. 1957 The Haliwa Indian from across the School opens in Warren My most lasting County. It operates until nation who were 1968. impression from dedicated to Small numbers of that year with African American stu¬ empowering fel¬ dents enroll in previously VISTA remains the white public schools in low Americans Greensboro, Charlotte, Jones recalls that many tenant farmers were afraid to listen to her gratitude of the and Winston-Salem, through educa¬ discuss voting rights, for fear of being evicted from their struggling beginning a period of farms. Time line image of a ca. I960 sit-in in Raleigh courtesy of the people whose com¬ token integration. tion and civic North Carolina Museum of History. munities I served. I Seven black activists led participation. by Rev. Douglas E. also learned that to Moore challenge segre¬ In the short gation with a sit-in at help those who are less fortunate than Durham’s Royal Ice span of a year, I marched for equality Cream parlor. ourselves makes us good citizens. along with students from Shaw 1958 A large group of America needs the resources of all her armed Lumbee break up University, St. Augustine's College, a Ku Klux Klan rally near people, and being a citizen of goodwill Maxton. North Carolina State University, North is the greatest gift we can give our Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Carolina Central University, and the visits North Carolina. He youth, our nation, and ourselves. delivers speeches in University of North Carolina at Chapel Raleigh and Greensboro. 1960 Four black stu¬ Hill. Marchers included high school stu¬ dents from A&T College dents, children, the elderly, men, of North Carolina stage a peaceful sit-in after women, blacks, whites, and American they are refused service at a Woolworth lunch Indians. counter in Greensboro. The mode of protest I grew accustomed to being stopped used by Ezell Blair, Franklin McCain. David by local police officers, county sheriffs, Richmond, and Joseph McNeil quickly spreads and state patrol officers. I received across the South.

THJH, Fall 2004 17 ACTIVITIES SECTION

Map Activity Numerous civil rights-related events took place in North Carolina during the struggle for racial equality. Some of these incidents are listed below. Place the name of the county in which the event took place on the blank line beside the clue. Use the information in this issue of the magazine and other resources to complete the activity. On the map provided, chart these incidents by placing a dot in the counties that you list. Answers appear at the bottom of the page.

\ ALLEGHANY ASHE NORTHAMPTON ■\ " SURRY ROCKINGHAM CASWELL PERSON VANCE WARREN

HERTFORD 'v GRANVILE /{ WATAUGA \ WILKES YADKIN C-—

V-' ALAMANCE DURHAM DAVIE X; ALEX EDGECOMBE

IREDELL v " ' V \ DAVIDSON WASHINGTON BURKE RANDOLPH CHATHAM MLSON MCDOWELL CATAWBA ROWAN --_-_—r- \ ! ! SWAIN LINCOLN \ "\ C ~\ RUTHERFORD HENDERSON CABARRUS JACKSON STANLY MOORE POLK \ CLEVELAND GASTON MONTGOMERY TRANSYLVANIA ^_MECKLENBURG MACON ^

RICHMONO HOKE CUMBERLAND

SCOTLAND

1. County where race riot occurred in Wilmington in 1898_ 2. County where private Indian school was established in 1957_ 3. County where a sit-in took place in 1957 at Durham's Royal Ice Cream parlor_ 4. County where the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was founded in 1960 at Shaw University in Raleigh_ 5. County where the National Guard was deployed after five African American men were lynched in 1906 in Salisbury_ 6. County where nationally recognized sit-ins began on February 1, I960, in Greensboro_ 7. County where a United States Supreme Court decision in 1971 allowed busing to be used to integrate the Charlotte schools_ 8. County where the unethical practice of "double voting" occurred_ 9. County where a Ku Klux Klan rally was stopped in Maxton in 1958 by American Indians_ 10. County where Golden Frinks organized a movement in Edenton to protest segregation_ 11. County where a yearlong school boycott helped to preserve historically black schools_ 12. County where the first black students were admitted to the University of North Carolina law school at Chapel Hill in 1951_

THjH, Fall 2004 a8ut\io 'cl -ap^H 'll -uumoiq qi .'uosaqoy 5 :uosaqoy q f&inqua|>pa^ / fpjojIinQ 9 fuuMoy £ t1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ^uieqjnQ £ fuajji?^ 3 .'jaAOuviq I 'SJaMSuy Promotional Activity Throughout the Civil Rights era, individuals created buttons, posters, and other memorabilia to promote aspects of the movement. Below, see examples of buttons produced during the era. Each one carries a different message. Consider an issue that concerns you today. It may be related to your school, your church, or some other organization. What important aspects of the issue do you wish to promote? After you determine what you wish onlookers to learn about your issue, create a design for a button, poster, bookmark, or other item. Use the space below for your design. After your design has been created, use the necessary materials to pro¬ duce your item and then share it with your class.

Images of buttons courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. THJH, Fall 2004 19 Personal Reflections: Lest I Forget the Civil Rights Movement, the Ligon Jubilee Singers, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Ann Hunt Smith*

Tell me, do you dream? I know you do. Shocked, slightly bewildered, and overwhelmed, I faced a challenge to recruit young people to the Dreams, how real they seem. choral program. Since class schedules had become That's why I dream. final before school ended the previous year, I had to create a group that would meet before the regu¬ One of my fondest dreams became a reality lar school day began. I designed a class that when, in September 1967,1 became the exposed students to the rich cultural heritage of vocal music teacher at my high school traditional African American music. An outgrowth alma mater, John W. Ligon, in Raleigh. My former of the class was the development of a pageantlike teacher, Emily May Morgan Kelly, had taught music-drama presentation entitled "Black Music in music for more than forty years in the city's only Historical Perspective." Auditions were held to high school for blacks. Mrs. Kelly had dedicated select thirty-eight talented students—the number her life to exposing African that could fit on a chartered bus with two chaper¬ American children to the ones when we traveled to best of classical choral litera¬ perpetuate the singing of ture. black music. Including During the 1950s, when I members of the morning was a student at Ligon, it group and my regular was considered an honor to chorus enrollment, one be a part of a chorus and, hundred voices sang at especially, to be selected for our first performance of one of the special ensem¬ Peter Wilhousky's bles. When I returned to arrangement of "The Ligon as a teacher, that was Battle Hymn of the no longer the case. Republic," on the stage European classical music of Raleigh's Memorial had little appeal to many of Auditorium. The mission the students. Some students' to revive an interest in interests were sparked by the choral program at the new electives that were A group of singers harmonizes. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of Ligon High School was designed to prepare them History. accomplished. for a world of advancing The classes in the reg¬ technology. And a group of underprivileged and ular music curriculum—Mixed Chorus, Boys' and disadvantaged youth was being snared into a false Girls' Ensembles, and Music Appreciation—were vision of hope and fulfillment through the use of filled to capacity. The early-morning group became drugs such as marijuana and heroin. But an amaz¬ the Ligon Jubilee Singers, who performed through¬ ing number of drug users came from prominent out the city of Raleigh at schools and churches in families in Raleigh. They knew that when tested black and white communities. Leading soloists and for the military draft into the Vietnam War, they sectional leaders, to the surprise of teachers and would be rejected if a trace of any illegal substance students, were also star athletes, cheerleaders, and were found. others. Between 1968 and 1971, before the integra-

THIH, Fall 2004 'Ann Hunt Smith is a former teacher and student at Ligon High School in Raleigh. She wrote the song 20 "Po‘ Martin" and has been a champion for change during her adult years. Presently, she is a composer, a playwright, and a music director for two outdoor dramas and an indoor theater production. tion of the school, the Ligon Jubilee huddled together to hear the final word. Singers performed concerts in Virginia, It was after seven o'clock on April 4 when New Jersey, New York, and Massa¬ King was pronounced dead. CBS inter¬ chusetts, captivating audiences with rupted regular programming as Cronkite selections ranging from plantation work discussed King's life and his contribu¬ 1960 SNCC forms in songs and "signal songs" used along the Raleigh on the campus tions to the Civil Rights movement. The of Shaw University. Underground Railroad to concert network presented footage of King's 1965 North Carolina institutes the freedom- arrangements of traditional spirituals. speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop," of-choice plan, which allows parents to choose (The Fisk Jubilee Singers, from whom the which he had delivered in Memphis on the public schools their Ligon Singers got their name, introduced April 3 at Mason Temple, the headquar¬ children attend. 1965 The homes of the spiritual to the world in 1871.) ters of the Church of God in Christ. (This Charlotte civil rights activists Kelly Alexander William Dawson, Nathaniel Dett, Jester address has been called "prophetic," Sr., Fred Alexander, Julius Chambers, and Hairston, and H. T. Burleigh as King had hinted at the Reginald Hawkins are were favorite black com¬ end of the speech that bombed. The Haliwa receive state posers whose arrange¬ he might not live to recognition as an Indian ments the Ligon see the end of tribe. 1968 A federal court Jubilee Singers the Civil rules the state's freedom- of-choice plan unconsti¬ performed. Rights tutional. Some of my movement.) Henry E. Frye becomes the first African American most unforget¬ No televi¬ elected to the N.C. House of Represen¬ table experi¬ sion tatives in the twentieth century. ences reporters Howard Lee is elected occurred were on mayor of Chapel Hill, making him the first during my the scene African American mayor of a predominantly white years as when southern city. 1968-69 African music director King was American parents and of the Jubilee shot, students in Hyde County protest school reassign¬ Singers. In this because of ments with a yearlong boycott of public article, I hope to an official schools. Cafeteria workers at the convey the impact curfew University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill that the Civil Rights imposed in go on strike for better movement and the Memphis in an wages and opportunities. Black student activists death of Dr. attempt to pre¬ lend their support. vent civil rights 1969 In Godwin v. Martin Luther Dr. King during a visit to Durham in 1958. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Johnston County Board Museum of History. Time line image of HydS County boycott march in 1969. of Education, a federal King Jr. had on my violence. court declares the Courtesy of the Nezos and Observer Collection, North Carolina State Archives. life and on the However, as Pearsall Plan unconstitu¬ tional. lives of my music soon as the Police and National Guard fire on civil rights students. media demonstrators at N.C. A&T College in Greens¬ At sunset on April 4, 1968, a shot rang announced his death, riots and distur¬ boro. One student is killed, and five police out. Dr. King, who had been standing on bances reportedly broke out in more than officers are injured. the balcony of his room (No. 306) at the 125 cities in America. Students from St. Durham resident Warren Wheeler founds Wheeler Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Augustine's College paraded through the Flying Service, becoming the first African American lay sprawled on the balcony floor. He had neighborhoods in east Raleigh (where I to own a commercial traveled to Memphis on a mission to lead lived), chanting words of protest. airline. 1970 The Winston- a march in the city in support of striking On the afternoon of April 5, 1968, stu¬ Salem chapter of the Black Panther Party sanitation workers. Walter Cronkite had dents at Ligon High School could hear a receives its charter from the national party. The almost completed his report on the CBS crowd of angry voices chanting, "Burn, chapter has its begin¬ nings in the East Evening Nezvs when he received the news baby, burn!" Later we learned that stu¬ Winston Organization of Black Liberation, a that Dr. King had been wounded. All dents from nearby Shaw University ran group of African over the city of Raleigh, as in cities down Fayetteville Street in outrage. American students advocating community throughout the United States, families Hudson Belk, a department store close to activism to combat

THJH, Fall 2004 21 the Shaw campus, was set ablaze. Sirens drowned the lawn in front of the segregated Howard out the angry voices as smoke fumes filled the air. Johnson motel. I also told the students that It would have been difficult to contain my stu¬ renowned civil rights leaders had visited our city dents in the classroom if the principal had not to outline plans for the 1963 March on Washington. announced over the intercom that students leaving I will always remember James Farmer, founder of the building would be expelled for the rest of the the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), because year. I don't remember discussing with other he ate dinner in my house after one of our strategy teachers how they calmed their students, but I workshops at the Davie Street Presbyterian exclaimed to my students' watchful eyes and Church. A bus of Freedom Riders had stopped in attentive ears, "You know those rioting must not be from Raleigh. Why would Raleigh citizens want to destroy their own property?" It angered me to see Dr. King's principle of nonviolent resistance being cast aside so soon. Then I began to share with the students some historical facts about the Civil Rights movement. The first SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), an off¬ shoot of the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), had been organized on Shaw's campus in April 1960. The SCLC had been founded and led by Dr. King, who sought to promote harmony among blacks and whites as a war was waged against all forms of injustice. By the time of King's assassination, groups had formed in opposition to his philosophy of nonviolent resistance. We were witness¬ ing this rejection in the cry for "black power" from militant students. Some of Raleigh's civil rights leaders joined the group to calm the angry mob. When school was dismissed at Ligon, parents were waiting to escort their children home. Students who had to travel by public transporta¬ tion were alarmed to see the National Guard patrolling the downtown area, using bayonets to control the actions of the protesters. Fear hovered over the city that day and persisted throughout the period until King's funeral. Two of my talented Jubilee Singers lingered at Raleigh to aid our civil the close of the day with questions about the Civil rights leaders in organizing citizens for picket Rights movement and comments about their par¬ lines. Some of the Freedom Riders camped out at ents' involvement in the movement. I shared with the farm of a local white citizen who was active in them my involvement with the college students at the movement. Others slept at the homes of Shaw University and St. Augustine's College from involved Raleigh citizens. Some people, afraid of 1960 to 1962 in strategic workshops that prepared losing their jobs for publicly protesting, con¬ us to "sit in" and "stand in." We picketed in down¬ tributed to the cause by providing meals for the town Raleigh and protested nonviolently against weary marchers. Not until they arrived in South segregation at lunch counters, public parks, the¬ Carolina did the Freedom Riders experience trou¬ aters, and swimming pools. Once we were ble, and some were jailed, though they protested drenched with water sprinklers as we paraded on peacefully.

TH/H, Fall 2004 "Do you think that King's dream of Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains racial equality will become a reality?" and to the Luray Caverns in Virginia. For asked one of my students. I did not give many, it was their first time to the moun¬ an answer. I remember walking to the tains, and for all of us, a first time to the piano, sliding along the piano bench, caverns. This was a period of peaceful police brutality and racial discrimination. skimming over the keys in a jazz-blues reflection after a busy, eventful, and yet Other North Carolina cities also have Black progression. For the first time, a melody productive school year. We continued on Panther chapters. with lyrics emerged. As I sang, the other 1971 After a federal to Richmond, Virginia, where we had court in Charlotte orders student rushed to get a tape recorder. been invited by a chorus member's rela¬ crosstown busing to achieve integration of Was I being inspired from hearing the tive to give a concert at a local church. the public schools, the Supreme Court upholds speech "I Have a Dream"? Could it have The performing area was much smaller the decision in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg been surfacing—my own dream, which I than the large churches and auditoriums Board of Education. envisioned after living one year in an to which we were accustomed. We made A march to save North Carolina's historically International House with thirteen women that adjustment by eliminating from our black colleges and uni¬ versities, which were from different cultures around the world? performance the long line of people por¬ threatened by the merger of all state-supported (In 1958 segregation laws prohibited my traying slaves being driven from a slave senior institutions into the University of North attending the University of North ship to a plantation. (The wails and Carolina system, draws 3,000 students. Carolina for graduate study. The state chants of the moving line of slaves set the The Coharie and had to award me a grant to attend a uni¬ mood for the songs of sorrow that fol¬ Waccamaw-Siouan receive state recognition versity of my choice, and I chose the lowed as spontaneous cries against the as Indian tribes. The General Assembly University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.) conditions of life on the plantation.) We establishes the N.C. I wish it were possible for you to hear began the story by having the slaves hud¬ Commission of Indian Affairs with Bruce Jones, the soulful melody that I composed on dle together after a day's work, and I pro¬ a Lumbee, as the first director. that day, April 5, 1968. Here are the lyrics vided narration to connect the origins of The Lumbee Guaranty Bank in Pembroke is for "I Had a Dream Last Night." black music. Then a group of singers in established. It is the first Indian-owned and -oper¬ the church in Virginia awed us with a ated bank in the nation. I had a dream last night. And then I had the song that they had created about Dr. A white-owned grocery I dreamed that men of all strangest dream. King. store is firebombed dur¬ races, An angel beckoned me ing racial violence in Wilmington. Nine African Forming one nation, near, When we returned to school after sum¬ American men and a white woman, known as Would one day be in our Pressed close to my ear. mer vacation, the Jubilee Singers reminded the Wilmington 10, are history. I heard him say: me of that song. I began to arrange a convicted of arson and other charges. They And love, justice, and "Child, you're on your piece for my group to perform, borrow¬ have their convictions equality, way. This is the day! overturned in 1980. We'd have these three. A day when dreams can ing the Virginia group's chorus. I called 1972 Lumbee Horace Locklear becomes the drift out of sight. our rendition "Po' Martin" and dedicated first American Indian to I had a dream last night. A day when darkness it to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Beginning pass the North Carolina bar exam. It took me wandering in must give way to light, with a poetic monologue, I set the mood Tuscaroras from space So truth can reign." for our bluesy folk piece. Robeson County join To some unknown place, other Indians in occupy¬ ing the Bureau of Searching for peace and a OH! Oh! Oh, oh, oh! Indians Affairs building Martin Luther King is dead, but blessed be wise little unity. I had another dream last in Washington, D.C., Martin. He lived a life of nonviolence. He wanted peace during the Trail of Lord, won't You please night. Broken Treaties protest. amid the hatred and grief. He felt no humans were too The Tuscaroras steal let these be? low to stoop and lend a hand. We all shall reap, for he 7,200 pounds of records from the building and did sow a seed ofloi’e in man. take them to Robeson County. The Guilford Native However, it is impossible to feel the American Association I stopped and looked into the eyes of my incorporates in students and added this "tag": power of "Po' Martin" without hearing it Greensboro. 1973 Henry Ward performed vocally. Oxendine. a Lumbee Tell me, do you dream? I know you do. from Robeson County, Dreams, how real thei/ seem. becomes the first (The group performs the following with American Indian elected That's why I dream. sections of the chorus entering at ran¬ to the General Assembly. dom.) The 1967-1968 school year ended, and Old Main, the oldest Low Voices: Martin Luther King is dead! brick building at the Ligon Jubilee Singers traveled to Pembroke State Group 1: WJto killed po' Martin? University and a symbol

THJH, Fall 2004 23 Female Trio: Po' Martin. Verse 3 (Mrs. Smith sings solo): Group 2: It's a shame! Shame, shame, shame. But remember at that same window, the Lord stood by Group 3: What a waste! Lord, help us! Martin’s side. For the blood of our Savior Martin claimed long before he died. Verse 1 (Solo Voice): An assassin at the window of a Tennessee town. He (Mrs. Smith continues): waited until he saw him, and then he shot Martin No, it ain't no shame. Luther dozen. Oh no, it ain't no shame. No, it ain't no shame. Chorus (sung to an old spiritual, "Oh, I Know I've To live and die in Jesus' name. Been Changed"): To follow Martin Luther's fame. Oh, ain't it a shame! (The last line is repeated with all singing in har¬ Oh, ain't it a shame! mony.) Oh, ain't it a shame! They shot Martin Luther down. (The song ends with every voice chanting Martin's name at a pitch they choose. This creates a disso¬ Verse 2 (Solo Voice): nance that represents the pain and frustration Martin Luther, yes he died, and the world ne'er forget experienced because of King's assassination.) all the doors Martin opened. Martin Luther King! Martin Luther King! Oh, he lives forever yet. (The final word, Dead, is spoken emphatically and Chorus: is repeated over and over, with the voices dimin¬ Oh, ain't it a shame! ishing until there is silence.) Oh, ain’t it a shame! Dead! Oh, ain't it a shame! They shot Martin Luther down. In the midst of bleakness and distress, and in exchange for despair, defeat, and destruc¬ tion, Martin Luther King Jr. mustered up the faith to dream. The Ligon Jubilee Singers and their teacher dreamed as well. When the Ligon School was integrated in September 1972, the transition went smoothly. Elite whites from north Raleigh had been intro¬ duced to blacks from low- and middle-class environments through the Ligon Jubilee Singers' performances throughout the city. Though conflicts reportedly occurred in other schools, the Ligon School experienced no disturbances. The group called the Ligon Jubilee Singers dissolved as the high school students moved into other high schools in the city. The Ligon Choraliers, a group of junior high singers, emerged. This multicul¬ tural group warmed hearts in Raleigh with its repertoire of patriotic and folk songs geared toward establishing better relation¬ ships and respect for everyone. Today the Ligon School, established in 1954, is celebrat¬ ing fifty years of excellence in the Raleigh community.

ior's scrapbook contains a version of the song "Po' Martin," written in honor ; date at the top says February 1968, the song was actually composed in King's death, linage courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History.

THjH, Fall 2004 The Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina and the Battle of Maxton Field of cultural pride, burns by Jefferson Currie II under suspicious cir¬ cumstances. It is recon¬ structed in 1979 and eventually houses the Department of American ne day in the 1930s, sixteen-year- somebody do something about it?" He said, Indian Studies and the O Museum of the Native American Resource old Sanford Locklear was riding "Nobody can't get, you can't do nothing with Center. in a car with his father near their them." I says, "Why?" He said, "Well, it's an 1973 Clarence Lightner becomes Raleigh's first home when he had an experience that organization," he said, "and they pull togeth¬ African American mayor. would help him to decide later in life to er." Says, "You can't, you can't mess with He serves until 1975. 1976 The Metrolina defend his people, the Lumbee Indians. them." I says, "Well, why couldn't, you Native American Association incorporates Mr. Sanford learned that day about a know, a, a group of people go out there and in Charlotte. group of people called the Ku Klux Klan. run them away?” Says, "It's their land. The Waccamaw-Siouan tribe begins governing They're having meetings on it. They can do itself by tribal council I saw a group of people out there in the field. and tribal chief. what they want to do." There urns a lot of people out there grouped 1977 The General Assembly repeals the around, and I saw people with hoods over The Ku Klux Klan formed in Pulaski, state’s ban on interracial marriage. their heads, and I, I was young, I didn't know, Tennessee, after the Civil War had ended. The General Assembly declines to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. 1979 Members of the Communist Party and the Ku Klux Klan clash during an anti-Klan rally in Greensboro. Klan gunfire kills five Communist supporters. A court later clears Klan members of murder charges. Civil Rights Time Line (United States) 1830 Congress passes and President Andrew Jackson signs the con¬ troversial Indian Removal Act calling for American Indians in the East to be forced from I J ij pi their homes to lands mPM wsm west of the Mississippi 114 ^ |i. |£; : River. LM f if 1831 Slave preacher Nat Turner leads 20 fol¬ V .» . ^ - fH : lowers in a bloody revolt through Southampton County, Va., near the North Carolina border. The North Carolina mili¬ tia is called out to assist in stopping the rebellion. 1832 The Supreme This ca. 1960s image shows Klansmen holding a ceremony in a field. Time line image of protestors at a ca. 1966 Ku Klux Klan rally. Both images Court rules that the Cherokee Nation consti¬ courtesy of the News and Observer Collection, North Carolina State Archives. tutes a sovereign nation within the state of Georgia, subject only to federal law. That ruling and I asked him [my father] what those peo¬ Six former Confederate army officers remains the basis for American Indian tribal ple was doing out there. ... He said, "Them's established the social organization in the sovereignty. winter of 1865-1866. The society soon 1835 A small, unautho¬ Klansmens." I said, "Wia, wha, what they rized group of men signs gonna do?" And he told me, said, "That's an became an outlet for white southerners the Cherokee Removal Treaty. The Cherokee organization." He said, "Wien they gather opposed to the blacks and whites who Indians protest the treaty, and Chief John like that," said, "they talk about," he said, supported the new Republican-controlled Ross collects more than 15,000 signatures, rep¬ "sometimes they go to people's house and beat Reconstruction governments in southern resenting most of the Cherokee population, on them." I said, "Why," I said, "why don't states. The Klan activities in North a petition requesting the

THJH, Fall 2004 25 Carolina were often ceased, and the organization again broke into intensely focused on peo¬ smaller, local groups. ple (black, Indian, and Following the end of World War II, returning white) who supported the black and Indian military veterans pushed for civil rights gained by greater rights within their communities. After the African Americans and United States Supreme Court ruled in the Brown v. Indians as a result of Board of Education decision in 1954 that school seg¬ Reconstruction policies in regation was unlawful, African Americans and the South. Often while American Indians in North Carolina pushed even wearing masks and hoods, harder to break down the system of Jim Crow laws the Klan staged raids to that limited their freedoms. The Ku Klux Klan disarm persons of color, reacted to this struggle for civil rights by intimi¬ burn the houses and out¬ dating people of color and their white supporters buildings of people friendly through cross burnings, marches, and rallies.

A KJansman appears in costume on a to blacks and Indians, and During the 1950s, a major leader of the Klan in nineteenth-century postcard. Image attack vocal Republican North Carolina was an evangelist and radio courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. supporters. Eventually preacher named James "Catfish" Cole. To generate North Carolina arrested support for continued segregation. Cole traveled numerous Klansmen in the the state holding 1870s for these raids and Klan rallies that ■Indians't II hat Indians/' activities, ending most overt thousands of white actions. But some smaller North Carolinians groups, loosely affiliated supported. Into with the old Ku Klux Klan, Robeson County, maintained their violent home of Sanford activities well into the late Locklear and hun¬ nineteenth century. dreds of other At the dawning of the Lumbee and twentieth century in North if % Tuscarora Indians, ■ {£} Carolina, African Americans Cole brought his and American Indians had message of segrega¬ lost all political power tion in 1958. within the state and federal Locklear recalls governments as a result of that he first heard the actions of "white about the Klan's supremacist" leaders. coming to Robeson Under the cruel system County while in a known as Jim Crow, people barbershop in of color lost their right to Pembroke: vote and were generally This editorial cartoon refers to the disrupted January 1958 Ku Klux Klan rally at I beared them about oppressed by segregation Hayes Millpond, near Maxton. Image courtesy of the Museum of the Native American Resource Center, UNC-Pembroke. burning cross, what, laws and social customs. In crosses, at the social, economic, and Lumberton. And after political instability after World War I, the Ku Klux then, I went [into the] barbershop to get a haircut, and Klan gained new power. Blacks, foreigners, and there was men in there talking about it, and said they trade unionists, among others, were blamed for the was coming to Maxton. Says, "Let's meet them in condition of the country and attacked by the Klan. Maxton; let’s not give them the chance to come to Klan membership in the United States swelled to Pembroke." more than 3 million in the 1920s, and blacks and Indians continued to suffer the humiliation of per¬ On a crisp, cold Saturday night in January 1958, sistent persecution by the group. By the 1930s, the the Ku Klux Klan began to assemble to hear Cole large, organized Klan marches of the 1920s had deliver a speech titled "Why I Believe in

26 TH/H, Fall 2004 fSS Segregation." Before he could begin -■ <. owou** speaking, Indians began to stream into m the field beside Hayes Millpond outside Maxton. The Indians, ready to break up U.S. Senate to withhold the rally, brought sticks and weapons to ratification. The petition intimidate the Klansmen. Locklear fails. 1836 The U.S. House of recounts how the Klan was defeated that Representatives passes -r0ss Bui the first “gag rule,” night: 'ramg designed to prevent the introduction, reading, or And we got there. 1 asked the man, I asked discussion of any anti¬ Sat fui* ^ slavery bill or petition. him what was he doing there. He said, "We 1838 Approximately 17,000 Cherokee are come to talk to these people." I said. "Well, M Jan.» forcibly removed from North Carolina, you're ain't gone talk to these people tonight." j R, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama to the He said, "Yes, I am." I said, "No, you ain’t." Indian Territory, present- day Oklahoma, along And so words was exchanged, you know. And the 1,200-mile “Trail of Tears." Some 4,000 to about that, about that time, I pushed on him 8,000 Cherokee die dur¬ and pushed him back, and I throwed the gun ing the removal process, Handbill for the Saturday, January 18,1958, rally and about a quarter to half of on him. I pushed him, you know, and I cross burning sponsored by the North Carolina the total population. Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Image courtesy of the 1857 North Carolina throwed the gun on him. And I told him not Museum of the Native American Resource Center, UNC- native Hinton R. Helper Pembroke. publishes an antislavery to move. "And don't you move; if you do, book, The Impending well, I'll kill you," that's what 1 said. And he Crisis of the South, in not deter the Civil Rights movement, New York. had his light up there. My brother-in-law however. Today North Carolina is a dif¬ The Supreme Court shot, he shot his light out, and when he shot issues the Dred Scott ferent place. People of all races and decision, which states the light out, 1 kicked his tape player, recorder. that blacks are not con¬ minority groups are able to vote, receive sidered citizens and that That's ivhat happened down there. slaveholders can legally a quality education, and live their lives take slaves into the western territories. The After Locklear and the other American free from oppression. Though the strug¬ Court's decision angers antislavery northerners. Indians broke up the Ku Klux Klan rally, gle took many long years, civil rights 1859 Abolitionist John Brown seizes the U.S. many Indians today are a reality. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va., in an attempt fired their shot¬ That achievement to incite a slave insur¬ guns into the came about per¬ rection. Two free African Americans from North air, and the haps as a result of Carolina, Lewis Sheridan Leary of Klansmen fled. Indian activist Fayetteville and John Anthony Copeland of Authorities Carnell Locklear's Raleigh, join Brown’s forces. Leary is killed arrested Cole self-proclaimed when federal troops cap¬ ture the insurgents. shortly after the three keys to suc¬ Copeland is tried and executed for treason, rally and cess—"faith in along with Brown and charged him what you're others. 1860 Abraham Lincoln, with inciting a doing, and deter¬ who opposes the expan¬ sion of slavery in the riot. He was mination, and western territories, wins the presidential election. convicted in faith in God.' The Republican ticket, which he heads, does court and sen¬ not appear on the ballot in North Carolina and tenced to a year other southern states. After the election, seven in prison. southern states leave Scene of a cross burning near St. Pauls, Robeson County, during the 1950s. the Union by the follow¬ In spite of Image courtesy of the Museum of the Native American Resource Center, UNC- ing March. being stopped Pembroke. 1861-65 Civil War. that evening in 1863 President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Robeson Proclamation, freeing slaves in the seceded County, the Klan continued to hold ral¬ states. lies in North Carolina. Robert Jones African American men are allowed to join the pushed to organize the Klan in the 1960s U.S. Army and serve in segregated units under and gained support throughout the state white officers. that lasted well into the 1980s. The Klan did

THJH, Fall 2004 27 Love May Lead to Freedom, but It Usually Takes a Few First Steps: The Story of the 1960 Greensboro Sit-Ins by Dr. Millicent Ellison Brown*

"Move over. I can't see.” community had set the foundation for a 1956 United States Supreme Court decision outlawing "Go down that aisle. Maybe we can get to racial segregation on public buses. the front.” David and Ezell would never forget that night on the Greensboro campus, Dr. King's words, or "Stop pushing. There's no more room!” his passion for standing up for change. They knew o many people were piled into Bennett that somehow they wanted to be a part of the College's chapel in 1958 that David Richmond change. But they now understood that passion had and Ezell Blair, both seventeen years old, to be backed with a strategy, or plan, for organiz¬ were fussing with one another as much as with ing. Blacks there in Greensboro, across North anyone standing in their way. They had come early Carolina, and throughout the South and the nation enough, they thought, to get to see and hear the continued to be deprived of the simplest rights— famous black min¬ sitting, eat¬ ister from Alabama ing, living, that everyone was working, talking about. No playing, seats were open, and learn¬ but eventually the ing where young men found they chose room on the floor and in close to the stage. facilities as Dr. Martin good as Luther King Jr., any pro¬ who had worked vided for successfully with whites. dozens of commu¬ Local min¬ nity leaders and isters and thousands of ordi¬ leaders nary citizens, was that the about to speak. He young soon explained to men knew, the audience his many of role in challenging them in an the laws and cus¬ organiza¬ toms that had tion called always given bet¬ (Left to right) David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, and Joseph McNeil on Sycamore Street outside the ter treatment to Woolworth's on February 1, 1960. linage courtesy of the Greensboro Daily News. NAACP whites than to (National blacks. Dr. King told the packed crowd about the Association for the Advancement of Colored famous thirteen-month-long Montgomery Bus People), had long encouraged people to work for Boycott (1955-1956). By refusing to ride the buses, fairness and just principles. Dr. King's exciting walking long distances, and banding together, that words and dedication represented what countless

THJH, Fall 2004 *Dr. Millicent Ellison Brown works as an assistant professor of history at North Carolina 28 A&T State University in Greensboro. She also served as the guest curator for the upcom¬ ing Civil Rights exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of History. people in When told numerous they could not places were say¬ sit down to ing and doing: order food, the the time had students kept 1864 Fugitive slave laws are repealed. come to make their seats and 1865 The 13th Amendment to the U.S. America oper¬ refused to Constitution outlaws ate as a true leave the store slavery. 1865-77 democracy. until it closed. Reconstruction. The next year An empty lunch counter that displays a sign Lunch Counter Closed. Time line The next day 1866 Congress passes image of a ca.1890s ballot box used for voting. Images courtesy of the North Carolina a Civil Rights Act, which the two teens Museum of History. they returned declares people of color to be United States citi¬ attended the with approxi¬ zens and nullifies the states' “black codes.” Agricultural mately twenty- 1867 The Congressional and Technical (A&T) College of North five more students. There were eighty- Reconstruction Acts grant voting and other Carolina (now North Carolina A&T State five supporters by the third day, and four rights to men of color and place the Southern University), located in their hometown. hundred by the fourth. These students states, including North Carolina, in military dis¬ They took the image of someone very came from local high schools and colleges, tricts under Federal army occupation. much like them—young and black—and especially A&T and Bennett College, 1868 The 14th shared it with two other freshman stu¬ where King had spoken almost two years Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants citi¬ dents, Joseph McNeil and Franklin before. Lunch-counter seats were always zenship to “all persons born or naturalized in McCain. The young men spoke in their left open for any white supporters to take the United States.” dormitory rooms of how others were a part, with students from Greensboro's 1870 The 15th Amendment to the U.S. stepping forward to insist that old ways Guilford College and Woman's College Constitution gives all men the right to vote. of treating people of a different color so among the first white students to join in. 1870-71 Congress passes the Enforcement unfairly would have to end. One night Word spread quickly in newspapers Acts to control Ku Klux someone threw out an idea. The four and on television across the state and Klan activity and to pro¬ tect the civil and political agreed they were willing to "make a nation. By the third week of the demon¬ rights of people of color. 1875 Congress passes down payment on manhood." The day stration, as hundreds of marchers picketed a Civil Rights Act, which provides for social the four students, Franklin in his army the Greensboro stores and sat at the lunch rights, such as equal ROTC uniform, walked the six or seven counters, young people were organizing treatment in public places, and political blocks and sat calmly at the F. W. "sit-ins" in stores and at counters rights, including access to jury duty, for people of Woolworth Building lunch counter on throughout the South. Students, who had color. 1883 The Supreme South Elm Street was February 1, 1960. no special skills or resources, recognized Court declares the Civil Rights Act of 1875 Blacks were allowed to buy goods at how important it was to participate in the invalid for protecting all other counters in stores such as biggest change the country had seen in social rights. 1887 The Dawes Act Woolworth's, but many years. allows the federal gov¬ ernment to partition they couldn't sit A committee Indian reservations and assign the parts to indi¬ down to eat. If appointed by vidual tribal members in George an attempt to establish they bought private ownership of food, they would Roach, Indian lands. 1896 The Supreme have to walk Greensboro's Court rules in Ptessy v. Ferguson that “separate away with it or mayor from but equal” accommoda¬ stand along the 1957 to 1961, tions are constitutional. 1905 The Niagara walls. After pur¬ and made up Movement, forerunner of the NAACP, is founded chasing tooth¬ of black and in upstate New York and renounces Booker T. paste and school white citizens Washington's accommo- dationisi policies. W. E. B. supplies, the four met regularly Du Bois, one of its lead¬ trying to end ers, demands immediate young men went racial equality and to the lunch the demon¬ opposes all laws that discriminate against counter at the strations. African Americans. A scene from a sit-in at a lunch counter in Raleigh in 1960. Image courtesy of the 1909 The NAACP forms back of the store. North Carolina Museum of History. Adults who in New York.

THJH. Fall 2004 29 had been encouraged by the actions of the youth stepped up to demand that city and other government offi¬ cials take the protests seriously. Even though the president of A&T, Dr. Warmoth T. Gibbs, feared what state officials would do to the college for supporting such "radical" action, he told critics, "We teach students how to think, not what to think." The protests lasted six months in Greensboro and ended only because of a United States Supreme Court decision made that summer declar¬ ing it unconstitutional to segregate arant in Chapel Hill, ca. 1960s. lunch counters. On July 25, 1960, Woolworth opened its lunch-counter seats to anyone who had the money to buy, not just white customers. By to be peaceful and nonviolent when pressing for the end of 1960, "sit-in" demonstrations had justice, even when crowds were rowdy and violent evolved into protests against segregation at beach¬ toward them. es, libraries, parks, pools, restaurants, and other Slowly, some stores and businesses in the South public places. They had been organized and partic¬ began to change policies, but the majority still ipated in by young and old in every southern and treated blacks in an inferior and unjust way. The border state, even Nevada, Illinois, and Ohio. Civil Rights Act of 1964, passed under President As a result, fewer people bought tickets, food, or merchandise at places that kept blacks "out." Marchers, picketers, and media attention made it uncomfortable for whites or blacks to come to 'COLORED SERVED' IN REAR

The sign above indicates one of the reasons that African Americans were seek¬ ing equal treatment under the law.

Lyndon B. Johnson, finally made it unconstitutional for black citizens to be denied public access any¬ where in the nation. The 1965 Voting Rights Act guaranteed that same right at the voting booths. The beginning of the most successful student- organized and student-led movement in American aeing detained in the Wake County Courthouse ca. history is remembered with a statue at the four Greensboro students' alma mater. The university annually awards its Human Rights Medal to oth¬ ers still working to keep love for humanity as the these spots. As money was lost, people nationwide foundation for freedom—when some of us are began to see the impact that economic boycotts willing to take those first steps. could have on helping to bring about social change. Blacks demanded to be hired as clerks, not just to be "allowed" to act as customers. Always, there was a commitment on the part of protestors

TH]H, Fall 2004 “The Great Agitator”: Golden A. Frinks 1910-30 In the most by Shirl Spicer active years of the Great Migration, huge numbers of African Americans move away from the South to escape Jim Crow and search for Soul Power!. . . Soul Power! 1920, Golden Frinks grew up in Tabor higher wages in the Northeast and Midwest. Black Power!. . . Black Power! City after his family moved to North An estimated total of 3.5 million leave between People Power!.. . People Power! Carolina. When he was seventeen, he 1890 and 1930. Right on!. . . Right on! moved to Edenton. Frinks was a United 1914-18 World War I. States Army veteran who served during 1915 The Supreme Court outlaws the With fists raised, members of the World War II as a staff sergeant at Fort “grandfather clause.” 1917 The nation enters audience paid homage to “The McCullough, Alabama. Following active WWI. Many Indians and African Americans serve Great Agitator" on July 24, duty, he returned to Edenton, eventually in Europe, the former in 2004, as North Carolina laid to rest one of married Ruth Holley, and began the fight white units and the latter in segregated units. its greatest unsung heroes of the Civil to obtain equal rights for the local popu¬ 1920 The 19th Amend¬ ment to the U.S. Consti¬ Rights movement—Golden Asro Frinks. lation of African Americans. tution grants voting rights For most of his eighty-four years. Golden Frinks's career as a civil rights activist to women. 1922 The Dyer Anti¬ Frinks led generations of young and old, and organizer began in 1956 with a move¬ lynching Bill passes in the U.S. House of African American and American Indian ment, which involved hundreds of people Representatives but fails to take a stand and demand their “equal in Edenton, to desegregate public facili¬ in the Senate. 1924 Federal law part to enjoy the fruits of America." ties such as the movie theater, stores, and declares all Indians to be citizens. restaurants 1929 A stock market in town. crash begins the Great Depression. Over the 1938 After a black stu¬ dent is denied admis¬ next six sion to the University of Missouri law school on years, the basis of race, the Frinks Supreme Court rules in Missouri ex rel. Gaines spear¬ v. Canada that the state must provide equal edu¬ headed the cational facilities for him. struggle in 1939-45 World War II. 1941 The nation enters Edenton to WWII following the attack on Pearl Harbor. defeat the Many African Americans serve in the military in unjust prac¬ segregated units. All black marines train at tices of Jim Montford Point, the seg¬ Crow by regated section of Camp Lejeune. using the A. Philip Randolph calls for a march on tactics and Washington to protest the unfair treatment of strategies blacks in war industries. Pres. Franklin D. that would Roosevelt responds with become his an executive order that forbids employment dis¬ trademark. crimination in the defense and government Golden Frinks (second from left, wearing medallion) leads a Hyde County school boycott march in February 1969. Andrew Through contract industries. Young is beside him. Courtesy of the News and Observer Collection, North Carolina State Archives. Time line image shows 1942 CORE, a civil African American soldiers training at Camp Lejeune, ca. 1942. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress. nonviolent rights group dedicated acts of civil to direct action through nonviolence, is founded disobedi¬ in Chicago. 1943 CORE stages the Who was this “Great Agitator" and ence, such as sit-ins, protests, demonstra¬ first successful sit-in demonstration in “Mr. Civil Rights," as those closest to him tions, and marches (led mainly by young Chicago. affectionately called him? Born in Florry people), Frinks led dozens of communi¬ 1948 Pres. Harry Truman approves County, South Carolina, on April 26, ties throughout North Carolina toward

TH]H, Fall 2004 woman accused of killing her jailer after he had assaulted her in a North Carolina prison during the early 1970s. In 1973 Frinks marched to the state capital of Raleigh along with the Tuscarora Indians to support their struggle to gain tribal recognition and representation on the Robeson County school board. During a recent interview, Frinks shared what he thought was one of the most memorable things about those movements in Williamston, Edenton, and other counties in North Carolina.

The change. Attitudinal change is one thing. Because once you have a couple of days with a community, community begins to understand. One thing about it, in all of my movements, I tried to keep the press with me. I never tried to push the press away. So that the news would get out, whether good or bad. And I would deal with it. That. . . change . . . the community would change, gradually, and get closer and closer. And I remember in Fuquay-Varina, a group stood Golden Frinks during a February 2004 interview with curator Shirl Spicer. Images courtesy of Shirt Spicer. back until the next morning . . . [because] they didn't understand. . . . The next morn¬ freedom from the injustices of segregation and ing they marched out of the town with us, you see. racial discrimination. In 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. personally selected Frinks to become a First they didn't understand. But they stood back and field secretary for the Southern Christian watched, you know, and see what we were saying. . . . Leadership Conference (SCLC) in North Carolina, And the black church would open up. We would always a position he held until 1977. find that one church [that] would open up. And then Golden Frinks's unique style of activism wore some of them would come to the church and then under¬ down racist political practices, earning him the stand what we were doing, and then they would join in nickname "The Great Agitator." He led more than with us. a dozen movements for civil rights for African Americans and American Indians throughout Jailed eighty-seven times for his civil rights North Carolina, three of which rivaled well-known activities in North Carolina and throughout the movements such as those in Birmingham and Southeast, Golden Frinks remained a passionate Montgomery, Alabama. The Hyde County School advocate for racial justice during the course of his Boycott led to the desegregation of public schools life. Frinks delivered a poignant speech in the late and the preservation of historically black school 1970s that included the passage below. (The entire buildings in that county. The Edenton, speech has been recorded in a commemorative Williamston, Plymouth, and Greenville movements booklet titled The Great Agitator: "We Shall contributed to the desegregation of public facilities Overcome Someday.") In the passage, Frinks recalls and the integration of public schools. the many turbulent and tragic incidents from the Frinks's activities were not limited to North Civil Rights movement. Carolina. He worked with SCLC throughout the Southeast to fight for racial equality. He also spear¬ I am here this midday with you—and should I say get¬ headed individual cases of alleged racial injustice, ting here was easy would be a [misnomer]—for I came such as that of Joann Little, an African American the hard way. We as black people must never forget. . . On my way here l got gunned down in Georgia, I was

THIH, Fall 2004 bombed in Sunday school in Alabama, we men have died for. We must be determined to were shot in the back in Mississippi, I came live for, in the instance upon respect for these across the [Edmund Pettus] Bridge beaten rights, not just for the weak, or the strong, and bleeding . . . but for the unpopular as well as the popu¬ desegregation of the . . . 1 came by the funeral of Martin Luther lar—the minority as well as the majority. . . . military and creates the King Jr., the body of Malcolm X, and the Asking that no special treatment I ask, we Fair Employment Board. 1950-53 In the Korean slain, limp body of John Kennedy. I came by want as equal part to enjoy the fruits of War, minorities serve in integrated units. tent cities, for poor people who only wanted to America . . . 1954 The Supreme vote. ... But more important I AM STILL You America can no longer put down with Court overturns the Plessy v. Ferguson deci¬ COMING ... authority . . . or jail those who have put their sion by ruling in Brown v. Board ot Education of ... I came by signs reading I AM A life on the line for freedom ... 7 AM STILL Topeka that segregated public schools are MAN. . . . But there lay bleeding in his front COMING. . . . unconstitutional. yard a Harry Lee Dickens . . . shot by a white 1955 The Montgomery Bus Boycott begins in minister's wife—I am a man and I AM Among the hundreds who gathered on Alabama after NAACP member Rosa Parks STILL COMING . . . that rainy afternoon in late July 2004 to refuses to give up her seat in the front section ... I came by a riot in Washington, D.C., celebrate the life of this hero were of a bus for a white pas¬ senger. The boycott lasts until the buses are desegregated the next year. The Interstate Commerce Commission orders integration of buses and trains and their waiting rooms for interstate travel. 1956 The “Southern Manifesto,’’ signed by 101 congressmen from the South, protests school desegregation. Congress passes the “Lumbee Bill,” which recognizes the Lumbee as an Indian tribe but denies them services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Supreme Court out¬ laws the segregation of tax-supported colleges and universities. 1957 Congress passes a Civil Rights Act aimed at ensuring that all peo¬ ple can exercise their right to vote. It estab¬ lishes a bipartisan Commission on Civil Rights to investigate and intervene in cases of denial of voting rights and equal protection under the law because of race. This is the first civil rights legislation in 82 years and the first in the 20th century. Golden Frinks (at right) participates in the 1973 Tuscarora Indian march to Raleigh. Image courtesy of the News and Observer Collection, North Carolina State Archives. Time line image of segregated classroom courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttles- worth establish the SCLC to coordinate and blacks laying dead in Watts, in Frinks's lifelong companion and wife, local efforts in the South to work for civil rights. California — because America passed them by Mrs. Ruth Frinks; their daughter. Dr. Pres. Dwight D. because of their color—I AM STILL COM¬ Goldie Ann F. Wells; and a host of family Eisenhower sends federal troops to enforce ING . . . and friends. One lasting reminder from desegregation at the for¬ merly all-white Central I came by the fields of battles where our Golden Frinks resonated throughout the High School in Little Rock, Ark. They escort forefathers fought wars to make fast these reflections shared by numerous people the nine African American students who truths that all men are created equal —I came who had labored tirelessly at his side: first integrate the school. holding high the hopes and dreams of "Our struggle for civil rights is not over." 1960 Congress passes a Civil Rights Act that America—ever ready to defend what some establishes penalties for

THJH, Fall 2004 m What We Can t Do Alone. We Can Do Together by Mac Legerton*

We often forget how much we need and workers, who were recruited and hired to work in rely on other people. None of us learned the meatpacking industry. Consequently, you are to feed ourselves, walk, or tie our shoes more likely to meet people of other ethnic or racial on our own when we were children. We hear so groups in Robeson County than anywhere else in many messages that tell us we can and should rural America. make it on our own, and we start to believe it. Thirty people of various races and from all Such a statement just isn't true. We need each walks of life gathered together in Robeson County other. We rely on each other and are incomplete in 1980 to form the organization Center for without each other. Community Action. We held community meetings Many of us understood the truth of this message throughout the county and met with other mem¬ when we came together in the 1980s to improve bers of the three major races: European American

tree thousand participants marched and rallied in Pembroke in 1986 to protest GSX, a proposed seven-state regional toxic waste facility. The march was part of an eight-year mpaign to halt the siting of the toxic waste facility in the area. Image courtesy of Mac Legerton.

our county of Robeson. This county is a very spe¬ (white). Native American (Indian), and African cial place. Robeson is the most "ethnically diverse" American (black). We asked people numerous rural county in the entire United States, according questions such as: to the book Rural Communities: Legacy and Change. •What are the major causes of poverty in the This characteristic was true in the 1980s, and the county? county is even more diverse today. In the 1990s, •How are people discriminated against because of Robeson experienced a large influx of Latino their race, their sex, or their level of income?

THJH, Fall 2004 *Mac Legerton is the founder and executive director of the Center for Community Action in Lumberton. He 34 is an ordained minister in the Southern Conference of the United Church of Christ. Legerton is a writer, motivational speaker, and workslwp leader in youth, adult, and community development programs. • What policies and laws need to be to a more balanced and fair system with more LBJ Signs Swee changed or adopted to improve political, diverse leadership social, and economic opportunities and •Education improvement and school reform Rights Bill Int treatment of all people? •Public assistance reform—with better and broader delivery of services to the poor, sick, We collected the information from and underprivileged these discussions and compared our find¬ •Employment reform—better wages, benefits, obstructing anyone’s ings to United States Census Bureau attempt to register to and conditions vote or to vote. information and other published data on •Economic development—more locally 1961 CORE sponsors Freedom Rides across our county and state. We made a list of owned, small businesses the South to enforce the 1955 Interstate all of the people and organizations in the •Agricultural reform—alternative crop pro¬ Commerce Commission order for integration of county that could help change and duction with less use of pesticides and herbi¬ interstate public trans¬ improve Robeson. As we progressed over cides portation. •Environmental protection of the land, water, 1963 The March on the years, more people surfaced and came Washington to support and wildlife civil rights legislation forward as leaders and contributors, draws some 250,000 •Cultural and multicultural curricula for our some of whom we people. Dr. Martin Luther schools King Jr. delivers his had not known famous “I Have a •Youth and Dream” speech. before. Four young African adult leader¬ American girls are killed Besides making ship develop¬ in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist a commitment to ment Church in Birmingham, organize and unite Ala., the site of civil We under¬ rights mass meetings. people of many Riots follow in the city. stood from After police arrest Dr. races and walks of Martin Luther King Jr. the begin¬ and other ministers life, we realized demonstrating in ning that the that we had to Birmingham, Ala., and effort would turn fire hoses and work on more than police dogs on the pro¬ take the testers, King pens his one issue at the “Letter from a hard work Birmingham Jail” urging same time. All of clergy across the coun¬ and cooper¬ try to support the Civil the problems and Rights movement. ation of solutions that we 1964 The 24th A portion of the symbol of the Robeson County Church and Coummunity many Amendment to the U.S. Center, representing the three major races reaching out to work together. Constitution outlaws the identified and poll tax. Image courtesy of Mac Legerton. Time line image of the July 3, 1964, Charlotte groups, orga¬ selected related to Observer headline reading "LBJ Signs Sweeping Rights Bill into Law." Courtesy Congress passes a Civil of the North Carolina Museum of History. nizational Rights Act that outlaws increasing equality discrimination in employ¬ leaders, and and social justice in ment, public facilities, thousands of and education. our county. We knew that it would take Congress passes the ordinary citizens to be successful. Economic Opportunity about twenty years to accomplish every¬ Act, the centerpiece of Different coalitions and collaborations Pres. Lyndon B. thing we hoped for, but we were commit¬ Johnson's “War on were developed to address different ted for the duration. We wanted to cor¬ Poverty.” The act pro¬ issues. If the approach and work that I vides for job training, rect the historical imbalance in our local adult education, and am describing seem overwhelming, they loans to small business¬ society by combining the strategies of es, and its programs often were. For many years, and up to the include VISTA, the Job community organizing, grassroots Corps, Head Start, Adult present, our social-change work has been Basic Education, and empowerment, research, coalition build¬ Economic Development. an around-the-clock job. Change rarely ing, and policy change. COFO, a network of civil comes easily for us as individuals, fami¬ rights groups that The major social-change needs and includes CORE and lies, communities, institutions, systems, SNCC, launches a mas¬ goals that we identified over the first sive effort to register or cultures. black voters during the three years of work fell into the following “Freedom Summer.” In the 1980s, we faced great conflict 1965 Police attack categories: crowds of men, women, and turmoil during this process of change and children as they •Equitable and more professional racial rep¬ cross Pettus Bridge in resentation in county and municipal govern¬ in Robeson County. When controversial Selma, Ala., on a march toward Montgomery. ment events unfolded and conflicts intensified, “Bloody Sunday" inspires a series of •More professional elected officials and crises erupted that often spiraled out of protest marches control. Anger, fear, and insecurity can throughout the administrators Southeast. Dr. Martin •Court and law enforcement reform—leading cause humans to harm one another. The Luther King Jr. leads a

THJH. Fall 2004 35 lives of several leaders of the social-change move¬ has both a district attorney office and a public ment were threatened, including my own. There defender office working as advocates for their were six major public leaders of the reform: two clients. We have lawyers and judges of the three Indian, two African American, and two white men. major races who respect one another and their They were attorney Julian Pierce, John Godwin, clients. state representative Dr. Joy Johnson, Rev. Sidney We now have one county wide school system— Locks, Rev. Bob Mangum, and myself. Julian the Public Schools of Robeson County. Before 1975, Pierce, director of Lumbee River Legal Services, we had six separate school systems, and we were was murdered while running for public office. The down to five systems by 1988, when the North serious political struggles that we experienced in Carolina legislature allowed our citizens to decide the 1980s were similar to the per¬ by vote whether to merge the schools into one sys¬ ils and traumas of war. Both the tem that had fair and equi¬ anticipation of desperately table funding for all needed change and the resistance our children. Faced to that change can cause people with the serious need to act in harmful ways. These to improve education, are the burdens of the human administrators and struggle for freedom. leaders are learning Because of the civil rights how to improve schools struggles of the 1980s and the and our students' edu¬ blessings of new opportunity cational performance. and freedom, Robeson County We now have is now a better place. Some Lumber River State Park, Luther Britt Park, successes that we have To ihe Citizens of Robeson County achieved follow. River Way Outdoor We now have the three Adventure and major races represented on Education Center, and the county commission board, £ other ecological treasures the school board, and the del¬ m for public enjoyment. egation to the North Carolina f Back in the 1980s, our House of Representatives. Julian T Pjcrcc county was selected as the We accomplished these site for two multistate ... results through redistricting toxic and low-level (reshaping election districts), radioactive waste facilities. by creating different districts Both the citizens and local where each race had greater The front and back of a handbill used during the Julian Pierce judicial governments successfully campaign. An NAACP lawsuit had resulted in the special judgeship opportunities to elect its own for which Pierce was campaigning. Even though he had been killed, fended off these proposals Julian Pierce did win the election posthumously. His opponent ended representatives. Robeson up serving in the office. Image courtesy of Mac Legerton. after spending millions of County may have the most dollars and organizing thou¬ ethnically diverse rural government in the United sands of people to stand in opposition for eight States today because of our accomplishments, years. Our parks and environmental programs which we have realized together. The challenge provide new incentives and strategies for protect¬ now is to make our political system even more ing and promoting our land, water, and air inclusive, creating opportunities for our new resources so that we will never again face similar Latino neighbors to have a place at the toxic threats. decision-making table. With its cultural and ecological diversity, In Robeson County, we now have a public Robeson County is a microcosm of our state and defender system, one of the few such systems in nation. If we can join together here and be success¬ rural North Carolina. Our urban counties have ful at improving our community, we can inspire public defender offices that represent low-income others who face similar challenges. We can also defendants, but nearly all of the rural counties do keep learning and keep challenging ourselves to not. We have a more balanced court system that do more. ra THJH, Fall 2004 •We are learning to evaluate who in our in North Carolina will participate in REGISTER & VQTf REGISTER YU HiT.pl communities is not afforded equal oppor¬ efforts to improve the quality and the ‘•ICMTS OUCATIOM tunity and treatment. equality of life in their communities. In ■ ■ (OMIT* •We are learning to open our eyes and the end, the energy and commitment of T see how all people's interests are not young people represent a unique oppor¬ i PP037 successful march from being equally protected and equally pro¬ tunity to create a larger, more cooperative Selma to Montgomery a moted. effort to improve our state, our nation, few weeks later. 1965 Congress passes •We are learning how to reach beyond and the status of our human family and a Voting Rights Act pro¬ hibiting interference in the boundaries of the familiar and work our planet. anyone’s right to vote. with others for the common good of all. Malcolm X, a former minister with the Nation •We are learning how to be wise advo¬ of Islam, a black nation¬ cates, not blinded by our own passions— alist, and founder of the Organization of Afro- even for good—in ways that build American Unity, is assassinated in Harlem, bridges between people and institutions, N.Y. instead of burning them. 1965-75 In the Vietnam War, minorities serve in integrated units. In the end, freedom is not so much 1965-68 Urban racial what we are free from as what we are riots take place in Los Angeles, Newark, free for. Yes, freedom is about having Detroit, and Chicago. rights. But more important, freedom is 1966 The Black Panther Party is founded in about being responsible for how we use, Oakland, Calif. expand, and share these rights. CORE and SNCC adopt the “black power” con¬ It is my hope that as a part of their cept. citizenship, more and more young people 1967 The Supreme Court overturns a Virginia law prohibiting interracial marriage.

1968 Congress passes a Civil Rights Act pro¬ hibiting racial discrimina¬ tion in the sale or rental of housing.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.

1969 The Supreme Court rules that school districts must end racial segregation at once.

1972 Congress passes the Equal Rights Amendment, and it goes to the states for ratifica¬ tion. Because it is not ratified by the required number of states, it does not become constitu¬ tional law.

Shirley Chisholm becomes the first African American woman to run for president.

1978 The Supreme Court rules in Bakke v. Regents of the University of California that racial quotas to achieve student body diversity are unconstitu¬ tional, but that race can be a factor in university admissions decisions.

1979 The American Indian Religious Freedom Act guarantees religious freedom to members of Indian tribes, including the right Citizens at a public hearing in 1985 to halt the siting of a low-level radioactive waste incinerator in St. Pauls, linage courtesy of Mac Legerton. to hold traditional cere¬ Time line image of signs used at a ca. 1966 voter registration march courtesy of the News and Observer Collection, North Carolina State Archives. monies.

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