Joel Buchanan Archive of African American History: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/ohfb Samuel Proctor Oral History Program College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Program Director: Dr. Paul Ortiz 241 Pugh Hall PO Box 115215 Gainesville, FL 32611 (352) 392-7168 https://oral.history.ufl.edu AAHP 458 Mickey Michaux African American History Project (AAHP) Interviewed by A.J. Donaldson on October 15, 2016 58 minutes | 27 pages For information on terms of use of this interview, please see the SPOHP Creative Commons license at http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AfricanAmericanOralHistory. AAHP 458 Interviewee: Mickey Michaux Interviewer: A.J. Donaldson Date: October 15, 2016 D: Today’s date is October the 15th, my name is A.J. Donaldson, graduate student at the University of Florida working on a PhD on Black Power in North Carolina. I am sitting here with Representative Michaux, just—all right, I just want to ask my first question which was: what got you interested in politics, especially in North Carolina? M: I got interested in politics through a very good friend of mine named Martin Luther King Jr. D: Oh okay! M: I brought Martin to Durham, North Carolina in 1956—October of 1956. I had a conversation with, well I knew his brother before then but I got ahold of him— Louis Austin, Louis Austin was editor of the Carolina Times. I was heading a trade week program, which was a Black Chamber of Commerce thing, that year and I had to get a final program, rally program, going. I went to Louis I said: “Well what if we invite”—and this was right at the end of the, near the end, of the Montgomery Bus Boycott situation—so I said “Louis, what if we invite Martin Luther King Jr. to Durham as the rally speaker.” He said “That’s a good idea.” We got on the phone at that point and call Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, got ahold of a lady who is the mother of a friend of mine who is Martin’s secretary. Ms. Proctor said: “Well he’s not in right now I’ll have him call you back as soon as he gets in.” I guess about maybe fifteen or twenty minutes later he called back, and we told him what the situation was, he said “I always wanted to come to Durham.” I said “well Martin I knew you brother when he was at Palmer, you AAHP 458; Michaux; Page 2 know Doc Brown had to call for your daddy to come get your brother. He said “I understand that.” Anyway, Martin came here in October of 1956. He stayed at the house with my parents, we fed him and whatnot, that’s when we got to be good friends. Every time he was in North Carolina he stayed with us. In fact, my brother went to Boston University probably as a result of Martin being in the house. But anyway, along about 19—I had started law school, about 1963, somewhere in that neighborhood, we were talking and he said “You know Mickey, we’re looking for economic power, we’re looking for social power, we’re looking for political power. The only way you’re going to get to do any of these things is that you’re gonna to have to have some political power. You’re gunna have to be sitting in the halls where decisions are made and all of the people come in and”—I said “Martin you’re right!” and we went on talking. He said “You know, you’d be a good politician.” I said “You’re out of your ever-loving mind.” But that was really the start of it and we talked, you know things just occurred, like I said every time he was in North Carolina he stayed at the house. So in 1964, my senior year—my last year—in law school, I was a four-year law school student because I worked full time. My classmate was Maynard Jackson— D: Oh! Maynard Jackson the Mayor of Atlanta? M: Atlanta, yeah. So anyway, Maynard—here again I was in charge of another program, the Law Day program et cetera in law school and this is another thing cause this has to do with Bobby Kennedy and the Kennedys. Anyway, Maynard and I got to be good friends and so I said “Maynard you know all these talks I’ve had with Martin, he always said—I think I’m gonna try something.” This was our AAHP 458; Michaux; Page 3 class that was graduating that year. So in [19]64 I filed to run for North Carolina State House. D: [Laughter] Okay, 1964 M: 1964 D: Which month, do you remember? M: It was in probably— D: I think it was Nov—probably October, okay I’m with you 1964 M: No but this was probably—I didn’t have but one class that semester and the primary I think was in May or something like that— D: Oh that’s right I’m with you, I’m with you M: So I probably filed in February or somewhere like that, but anyway. I went and filed and folks started coming around, and Maynard got involved in it. Just a lot of folks came up—anyway—I got in the primary that year, lost it by one hundred and twenty votes, but the bug sort of bit me by that time. I ran again in ’66, and this was—the Civil Rights Act was passed in ’64 and signed in ’64, I didn’t make it to the signing ceremony because I was studying for the BAR exam. Civil Rights Act of ’65 passed, the Voting Rights Act passed in ’65, I didn’t make that signing either because I was still studying for the BAR exam, but in ’65…I filed again…no it was ’66. It was ’64 and ’66, oh in ’65 I didn’t make it to the signing of the Voting Rights Act—all these times Martin was on my case about coming to all of those things. But anyway, I filed again in ’66, ran, and by that time they were beginning to change the rules in North Carolina. It used to be it was an open seat and you ran at large, not in districts, so in ’64 and ’66 I ran at large, came close again, AAHP 458; Michaux; Page 4 didn’t quite make it. In the mean time I got involved because I was catching hell from the State BAR Association because of my activities in the Civil Rights. They had a quota on Black folks who passed the BAR during that period of time, no more than two or three Blacks passed the BAR exam. D: And not only were you a part of a quota, but you were involved in the Civil Rights Movement and they’re telling you— M: Yeah, yeah, well I mean the first year I took the BAR exam which was ’64 I didn’t even know I was gonna be allowed to take it. I got called in to the executive secretary of the board law examiner’s office the Saturday before the BAR exam was being given and told they were going to allow me to take it. Didn’t pass it, figured something was up. ’66 same thing happened, but they got a little bit more lenient. I’m sorry—’64 I took it in ’64, I passed it in ’66 so…I thought I took that thing three times? But I passed it in ’66 and the only two Blacks who passed the BAR exam in ’66 were my brother and me. D: Hold on, wait a minute. [Laughter] In the state or North Carolina, the only two Blacks were you and your brother? M: Mhm, in that year 1966. Like I said before, they only allowed two to three a year— D: Yeah— M: Yeah, and we were the only two who passed it in 1966. D: Wow, okay. M: Yeah that was fifty years ago this year. Practicing law for fifty years, anyway, so finally got that and soon my relationship with Martin was—in ’68 I filed to run for AAHP 458; Michaux; Page 5 the State House again. This time though, actually it was still an at-large situation but you had to run for a seat because of what was happening with Black folks during that period of time, folks tried to change the rules. Instead of running at large you ran for a seat but it was an at-large seat. We had two seats, anyway that was the year that Martin got killed—’68. Now, Martin was supposed to have been in Durham we were supposed to be on the campaign trail here. That year Reggie Hawkins, who’s a Black dentist out of Charlotte was running for governor. Martin was gonna pick him up in Charlotte, do Greensboro and Winston-Salem, come to Durham and eat—he loved my mother’s cooking—we would eat and then we were going east. I was running for State House then at that time. Martin called me and said “Mickey I can’t make it I’ve got to go back to Memphis we’ve got problems there, call the office and let’s see if we can find a date that we can come because I want to do this thing with you and Reggie and catch all these places in between.” Well of course you know what happened at that point.