so this is history. 3520 african-american history since 1865. we're at north county, central university, and today i'll be lecturing about activism in

north carolina. so first, i'll give you the main of this lecture. it's going to be like five or six, and then we'll get into the actual examples of so historically black colleges, university were important movement spaces for the long black freedom movement. so they were kind of essential to the civil rights movement, the black power movement, black student continuously use the campus space, mobilize for freedom on their campuses and surrounding communities. and in doing so, they transformed their local campuses, communities north carolina and elsewhere. typically when we're we learn about hbcu activism in north carolina, there's a focus on the greensboro four or 1960, but kind of everything else right gets left out, right? so this lecture is about the decades of activism that predates 1960 and the decade of activism excuse, the acronym that after 1960.

so putting those into context and not just talking about right. some other takeaways is think about the different strategies utilized to end segregation. right? this is not just one strategy, right? we've already talked about lawsuits when you talked about marches, direct action. right. we talk about advocacy using using newspapers and writing some self-defense. right. so just think about those different strategies and how used in the hbcu context of this is a point that i talked about a lot the laws and the legal system were important but application in enforcement matters right. because you know, we are we talk of the how the 13th, the 14th and 15th amendments were still on the books. right. when the black nadir happens. right. those laws are still on the books. but they weren't enforced. right. and allow for segregation to go throughout the land. right. so, again, enforcement matters. right, in large part when it comes to segregation enforcement is through policy culture and

the use of violence at the struggle for desegregation occurred in k-through-12 and higher education institutions and children and other sacrifice in order for ending segregation to occur right so usually we'll talk about shorter in youth in terms of the civil rights movement and black power movement. but we see them as activists in their own right. right. you hear about the brown versus board of education students, but we don't think about the actual children. right who had to desegregate or try to desegregate schools. right. we think about thurgood marshall, right. but so short in our essential to kind of this black movement as, people who are agreed by discrimination and racial violence. right. but also as and organizing great children, organizing students, organizing throughout the whole black freedom movement. okay. also student active is of all

ages challenged oppression and other inequalities. the student movement was diverse in demographics with varying motivations, tactics and causes. and not all african-americans advocated for integration. some people advocated for equal resources while maintaining separatism. they advocated for black determination and power to rule over their own communities. right. so not all african-americans wanted interrogation in a large, white, central right was able to get a lot of resources strategically during segregation. so because they didn't want to integrate the founder central kind of use that get more resources for central so getting central graduate school early on right using that kind of segregation and racism to help the black community in this university in particular. and so not only hbcu use are

just a logo of all the kind of. know kind of houses this 11 four year institutions. at one point it was the most four year hbcu of any in one of the reasons why we have so many hbcu is because there was a significant black population in north carolina and that is tied to what? slavery. right. so slavery was a major factor. north carolina. and so they're after slavery, right there remained a large black population. right. a lot of this population is kind of center stage, particularly in the piedmont region or the middle region of the state. and that's where you find kind of the major urban centers of north carolina. so you have charlotte, winston-salem, greensboro, raleigh, durham, all that kind of piedmont section. so most of the schools are within that area.

so that in terms of curriculum early enough, kind of hbcu issues and issues in general, they were largely more elementary or more on literacy kind of thing, began going back slavery in, you know, education being denied education being denied. but we talk about resistance to that and people still learning how to read and write and utilizing that in different ways. but again, a lot of the kind of initial instruction was to teach people literacy and do more like stuff we associate with k-through-12. now, that kind of education, these institutions would transform to a more higher ed institutions later did, depending on the need, right? if we educate people to to be literate k-through-12 kind of education they need institutions to be further educated. so that's why they kind of

became more higher educated, focused. for example, esteemed scholar in race leader a julia cooper, a tennessee agassiz normal and collegiate institute for her primary and secondary education, as well as serving briefly as instructor at the institution and she's actually one of the first black women to get a ph.d. i mean, she got it. i believe in europe and mary mary mcleod bethune is also a famous race leader who attended primary education of we see use a barber scotia college. right. so a lot of these very important race leaders as seen in auckland we see use her many of the historically black colleges university the north kind of began with the focus on religious and often their founders religious organizations such as the baptist methodist, african-american episcopal and the presbyterian church. the second motivating factor for establishing is we see used in

north carolina was to educate so they could then educate the black masses again because of discrimination, banning of education and writing there was the black mass as a whole. and we are talked about in the south as a whole. there wasn't a publicly funded education in the south until reconstruction. so so it's a large population that's not educated. so the focus was on religion ministers and also creating teachers so they could educate kind the the primary secondary education. okay. although many of the education institutions for african-americans in north carolina were founded by white benefactors or funded by white benefactors african-american leadership was essential to the survival of those institutions. as soon as the first classes begin to graduate, alumni began teaching at establishing in schools throughout north carolina. so you'll find that a lot of the

people that attended the hbcu, they were early, right? they would go on found other hbcu, right. so the alumni of the older as we see used were found in the hbcus like they will state was founded by alumni of another not hbcu. so you see that's why these are connected so so very much yes so you'll find that example throughout the history of all hbcu in north carolina. so remain connected. okay. and so this is just a list of years that they were founded. and so as you can see, most of these institutions are founded in the 1860s. so shortly after the civil war. right. so shall university. 1865, st augustine's university, 1867 barber school. shaw college, 1867 jesse smith 1867 five state university 1867 bennett college 1873 livingstone

college. 1879 is the city state university 1891 no agricultural and technical university 1891 was the same university 1892 and last but not least, north central university 1910. right? and again, as a lot of them, except we're basically not kind of such a university begin as primary secondary institutions. okay. okay. so this slide is going to talk about we talked about the history of hbcu in north carolina. this slide gets into the history of activism at hbcu in north carolina. so again, there's a overfocus 1960 and 84 in particular. and that kind of a racist decades of history of activism. and so there were sustained student movements this hbcu during the early to mid 20th century north kind it hbcu student activists engaged in

multiple successful moments they range in participant size and duration prior to the 1967 movement, student activists engaged in activism directly internally toward campus administration, faculty, staff and governing board and externally against anti-black oppression right. so they were not only just going anti-black oppression, right? they were also battling their teachers, their administrators. right. fighting for instruction. right. in 1931, william stuart nelson became the first black president, assuring university after students, alumni, faculty and staff advocated for african-american. so a lot of these early presidents of these institutions were, white men and getting a lot of the benefactors are white men, as so students in the 1920s as saw really advocated for black leadership. right. and they also, as spring race repression. right. they experience suspensions. right. threats of expulsions.

so this was happening in the 1920s and 1930s, but they were successful at getting the black president. from 1937 to 1938. bennett college in norman and his students picketed the carolina theater for their anti-blackness. so we've talked a little about kind of anti-black movies for the birth of a nation, those kind of things. and so they were anti-black depictions in these films and the students kind of thought to organize against this, right? also, there was discrimination in seating in certain theaters, blacks, legs, people had sit in certain spaces right. that were not equal in terms of quality. right. and so in 1937, 1938, some students at at&t and bennett college got together to organize against this. right. and they were also joined by high school teachers and other faculty members. right. so throughout we think about campus activism, faculty members

are involved, teachers are involved. students are involved. also, people who are activists but graduated. right. alumni, right. are essential to kind of the continuation of this movement work. right. they didn't forget about their institutions and the people, right. when they graduated, they were still together with current student students right to do activist work. right. and so we'll find out throughout this. right, that this is happening. i refer to them as activist alumni. they're not currently students. right. but they have a connection with these institutions. and then they use that connection to have solid or collaborate with current students and teachers. the faculty members that see this is a sample of activist alumni. so jq jackson c, smith university and noted act was journalist trevor w anderson recruited jesse as u undergraduate student leader

hawkins to lead a group in picketing against the charlotte post office for discriminatory hiring practices in 1943. right. so he attended primary and high school education c smith in a very city in the 1920s. trevor anderson he then becomes a journalist and activist and he works for the post office. a means discrimination. he also when he was a student and after he was a student he would use newspaper black newspapers to criticize the administration of the issue. and sometimes we do it anonymously right. so it also speaks to the fact that even if you graduate right if even if you're no longer a part of the university, you still feel duty to it. right? and a duty to having the best environment, the best people in charge. right. and part of the response of the administration to them, criticizing them was to try to repress, repress that kind of

criticism. right. so, again, part of at campus hbcu is activism on campus against administrators, against tehers. right. at the same sometimes teachers, administrators, the faculty members, collaborators were is right. so it's kind of the internal work that's going on. and so originally hawkins who is about 17 at the time he starts college at 14, but at 17 he's a student leader and activist he joins the post office of post office picketing in the 1940. right. it gives other students involved. right. and then in the 1960s, he's going to be a key alumni activist. alumni are adults who help student activist in charlotte, north carolina. right. so you see i see that connection between alumni activists, the current one. so he would be a key person. someone tries anything, recruited him, motivated him and collaborate him. and then later, 20 years later, he do the same thing for other student activists like the end

of us. he served as a organizing structure for north carolina youth activists prior to the 1960 sit in movement, a student activist routinely referenced being involved in acp as youth prior to attending college, also, acp had college chapters throughout state. by 1955, there were 45 youth council in college chapters in north carolina, right? so when we talk about student activism, we like to talk about how the space kind of encourages radicalism or encourages them to act right. but you don't come to campus a blank space, right? you're you're before you get to campus, right. in your communities, you're space for racial discrimination you may have activists in your right or in your community kind of shapes, what you're doing right. you don't just become kind, cautious when you go to college. right. so some these student activists

were already kind of oriented to that. right. some of them weren't right in in the campus wave kind of serves as that kind of movement space that could encourage that kind of work. but i think we have to make room for both that. right. you come with something, right you can herself a campus right. you can join other like minded people or debate people right strategies and stuff like that. and that serves as a space that kind of motivates movement work right. and so this is happening. acp is essential to that. well before this, the movement in 1960 there are doing that youth mobilization on college campuses. north carolina. so all those sit ins as a tactic existed before the 1960s. the use as, a sense of it of repression. and i think that so the first in movement does not happen in 1960. right. sit ins have been used as a strategy, right. for decades before.

but it kind of becomes very popular during this time. right. and because the way the movement spread in north carolina and, then throughout the united states, it becomes more of an international thing. right. it's not just one movement, right? it becomes i mean, it's not just one one moment becomes a movement. right. a dozens of of sit ins as a tactic. it becomes really popular. and so that's why we associate sit ins with 1960, in particular in greensboro. again, it begins before that. so a sit in is a civil disobedience tactic during demonstrators attempt to integrate public facilities and businesses by asking for service and they refusing to when denied the service. so the sit in on february 1st, 1960 by for north carolina students in a woolworth's in north carolina sparked the sit in movement. soon thousands mostly students, followed suit and sit in

demonstration as it began throughout the country. those are the students at the all female local historically black university, bennett college participated in the movement, including participating in gillian's right. so again, you only focus on the anc for right? you ignore all the other as soon as it participated in it, right? you also in the war, the women, the black women who were involved it anc and it been in college. right? who were essential to the successes of the movement in terms percentages bennett college even though it's a smaller it was a smaller institution the anc had more of a student body participated in the sit ins then anc right and so you won't kind know how these movements were successful if you don't take a step back and look at all who were involved right. these are hundreds and thousands participants. and if you only focus on the for and you only focus on that one day that they started right, you ignore the months and months and months and months that you took. right. to ultimately integrate.

right. and it also said legal cases right. they're not just doing bull, they're using these different avenues. right. to be successful. but it gave you only focus on that. one day you erase all that. okay. and speaking to my point, when the sit ins spread in north carolina, it happens on february 1st, 1960, right in initially spreads, mainly in they also had hbcu in north right. so express places. it had hbcu and also spreads at places that have a significant black high. right. so black high schools are also participating in the city movement and they are of the movement space, the integral movement space in the places they don't have a college university right. so that's happening. so this is they're 1960 by march 60, you see that that has

increased right. the black that is no spaces they had sit in demonstrations and had hbcu. the two blue ones are places that had historically white institutions right and then the red are places that had kind of significant black high school involvement. okay. but again, schools, youth activism is essential, kind of it spreading right and then is spreading in or on a first. these to gain momentum to then spread to states and then spread throughout the country. right so without its first spreading issues in north carolina, you wouldn't have a movement right? it'll be only happened in greensboro right. it wouldn't have happened elsewhere. right. without kind of the other campuses. join me in. so again, this is where the hbcu are. again, this is same pattern as the demonstrations i see that

connection. okay. and i thought know piedmont right in the middle is where most the hbcu are so we see the city are way over there and then fable right there. okay, so the newspapers we're making these connections that oh, they're spreading it. hbcu is right. one of the earliest places outside of north carolina that spread to was hampton at hampton university. right. so again, there's this connection between this movement spreading where places that had hbcu or significant black high schools. right. and so the newspapers were making these connections. right. these newspapers, that kind of thing. what was happening. this place, this place in finally this place in north carolina. right. -- will see victory in north carolina. right. so they're making these connections between these movements. right. but when think about this has happened at at&t or this has happened in greensboro, right we ignore the spread of these things. right. and how this also the way that

there can be collaboration. right. and we always talked about with the beta in 1937, 1938, right student activists were willing to collaborate with other campuses right to. do this kind of work and one of the key newspaper, black newspaper writers and editors in north carolina, he for a student, hbcu students join together and join it and make a larger boycott movement in the 1930s. right. so a lot people saw the power right of atiku's joining together the campuses to do this kind of movement work. right and so they started in 1937, right? so when it actually happens in 1960, there is this kind of contest to it, right? it just didn't happen. adam, anywhere. but again, we only focus usually the mainstream, connect only focuses on february 1st, 1950, right. and so this is a statue day, february for a statue there was

criticisms of the statue, particularly about bennett college activists and their role. right. the one of the former faculty of bennett college, she's like, there ought to be a woman on that statue right in. there are two iconic pictures from the greensboro sit in movement, right. is this one where they make the statue from and there's another one? well, the sitting i showed the other one earlier. let me see if i can go back to it this one right there. all these people are not the greensboro four, right? these are these are different men. right. and so even even when the iconic photos kind of don't the space of this movement is right then to there are more than four people participating at right. and by to day three, right. bennett college activists were participating right. and so again, if you focus only on one day, you what it takes to

make a movement successful. right? and the sacrifice they take. right. so think about college, right? you thinking about going to dances, who you date, right? you think about heart tests and exams, right? they also were organizing movements, dealing with policing, potentially getting arrested. right. figuring out, okay, we should have so many people go on this or we should have, you know, some people go for 4 hours, then we have another group come in. they had to carpool right? some people were some students were parents. right then. think about childcare you're right, some some were married. right. so we we we think of these people as just not people. right? not humans. not students. right. we ignore all the things they were experiencing. right. because in the midst of boycotts, they say we're thinking about the dances. if they were thinking about dating.

right? these things hitting go out the way. also, some student activists. athletes, student athletes. right. and so all these things factor into the movement, right? some. their work could have slid by participating. some students didn't graduate. right. based on their participation. right. and so i think we need to think kind of those sacrifices made. right. when we think about these movements. right. right. and so speaking to that, we should not just focus on 1960, in 1958, bennett college allowed martin luther king jr to speak on campus and this was controversial because initially they wanted to speak at nc right bennett college is for private institution anti is a public institution and so they experienced government pressure

and threats from the kkk and other members and not allow them to speak at anti and partially because bennett is a private school right they allowed or allowed they didn't have the pressures of government resources and things on them. they were able to have mlk kind of speak on their campus right. and so this happens in 1958, in 1959. so december of 1959, bennett college and their student newspaper, they post article says, do you stand? and they're really advocating people to do the work right? do something. discrimination and violence. we're experiencing right. take action. and this is happening before february first, 1960. right. so when the controversial moment is that a lot of times with the 84, we talk about being spontaneous like we just decided to go and join and do this and do this and do this right. but a number of those for were participating in city organizations and meetings.

right. they had we're in strategies sessions before 1960. they were in strategy sessions at bennett college and with bennett college students. right. and so some bennett college students like the men went without us. right. so they were planning this. right. this article kind of shows that they were wanting to do direct action. you know, in a student news video saying, what are we going to do right? and then february 1st, 1960, the is well for now start right. but you can't trace the strategy that happened before. right at least to that right. and so these are just more newspapers, the participation of bennett college student. right. surely after the first sit in, they decided to form a student organization and. one of the the president of bennett college becomes one of the co-leaders of that organization. right. so again, as students at large bennett college students are part the success of the movement also when the movement keeps going on the summer, what

happens this summer? what do you go you stay on campus, you go home, right? so youth, black youth in high school and middle school kind of take up the boycott and demonstrations right. so again, you have to think about multiple people. they're participating and leading to the movement. also students who were home grown, right. they can in keep participating right. so again, this is a long term movement, right. that happened when you only focus on that first day, you ignore of what was necessary to make successful and then. so this is more kind of sit ins. you see the women are involved. they're they're so bennett college participation was essential to it. that's it. and you had picketing, right? it was present and. a lot of times people be like, well, north con is very progressive, right? but they also experience violence and threats. right. one of the the ways that they

were protected was the football came and was a little intimidating to people. right. so i guess is progressive rap, right? that isn't me. they experience violence, right? in the 1950s, there was a crossover. anything on multiple hbcu campuses. so they are experiencing. right. and later in 1960s, civil rights leaders, homes will be bombed in charlotte. right. so north kind of has this kind of violence, its underbelly right that we'll talk about later. okay. and then 1963 and they may not exist soon in activism in north carolina is actually larger than 1963, is more they're participating the mid 1960s than to participating in 1960. right. and so this picture is a group of bennett college students being jailed in an old polio. okay and so one of the big

things is their president player, which is one of the first black women presidents of colleges, universities. she supported them in their activism. she brought them their homework, brought them food and telegrams to their parents. right. because at the same time, administrators and faculty are basically are the parents all kind of guidance, right. when you're on campus. right. and so she sent telegrams say that, no, i support the students and i'm making sure they're safe and protected. right. so again, ministries are part of movement work, right. but she also is part of the thing where a white teacher at bennett college, her husband was tied to leftist radicalism. right. accused of being a communist. right. and that teacher was run out of bennett college by doctor player. right. so it speaks to the fact that

administrators, you know, support activism and movement work and freedom work. right at the same time, they can restrict the right. a lot of the times as soon as they've been a classroom particular day, wish they were rebelling against. they had to wear white gloves and to sunday vespers service and, stuff like that. right. so they're restricting some of the restraining policies, right? not going out certain hours. and so administrators are containing these multiple roles. right. and will it be players? a great example of the person who does that. right. she's both and not either aware. but surely after. the 19th, 67 movement starts in february, one of the king junior comes in support. he comes to durham, north carolina, to support and they have a meeting at a local church. and part of that meeting, they encourage activists and student

activists to come together right from different campuses to come together, try to organize. right. and he also says quoted as saying, fill up the jails. right so he sees encouraging very publicly student activists in north carolina to keep doing that work. right. but he's also giving the space. right, using the resources of slc. right. to organize students. right. working together. right. so is happening in february of 1960. right. and this is a picture of them going to a woolworth's in durham, carolina. the student, the person on the right for fryer, y'all to our right is a student blessed name streeter and so he was a student at central university at this time they're accosted and a journalist, black journalist, a photographer for the local the carolina times is arrested and roughed up. right. so this is significant, speaks

to the violence of the front as well. right. so this is happening in february of 1960. and he lit history. he's a very important to the activists. and so there was that initial kind of february kind of trying to organize student activists of different campuses but then the i could see considered to be one of the key organizer of civil rights movement ella baker. she in and says we should have youth organization right so ella baker she has roles in the icp the sdlc snick. despite battling sexism in these organization tions, she was a proponent of organization or bottom up leadership. so basically like we don't need that leader at the top. we need multiple leaders at the bottom. everybody can be leaders, right? grassroots leadership. so she says strong people don't need strong leaders. right. if you're stronger, you don't need someone telling you what to do. right so she wanted to encourage youth, right, to be their own leaders, organize their own

organization. right. not having it. don't adult organizations like icp, sdlc, telling them what to do? and so she trained and influenced many of the major leaders of the civil rights movement and she had tanisha university right from 1980 to 1927 for her secondary and collegiate. so again, activist alumni right so this is the kind of form that they set out kind of get people to be involved in this youth meeting. they organized a youth leadership, a showing university in april, april of 1960. and so she basically says we'll help provide. we want you to sit and delegate. right, because we don't need too many people being there so we can actually get work done. right. so thin delegates from your communities and campuses so this leads to the founding of snick. the student nonviolent coordinating committee. right. ethnic is a essential part of

the civil rights movement. black power. and so ella baker helped establish this. they played major role in a civil movement, freedom summer freedom ride, the founding of the mississippi. freedom democratic party. voter in march on washington, key leaders were john lewis diane nash, dawes, smith, roberson and stokely carmichael. right. they train local people to lead their own movement, which is corporate participatory democracy. right. so again, they're kind of taking on like ella baker is kind of grassroots led leadership. right. right. and so, again, this kind of activism throughout the state of north carolina is activism is in larger numbers. in the mid 1960s. right then 1967 movement, 500 people are marched in charlotte area to back the rice that college students from local kind of institutions barber scotia college jcc too.

some students from little big white institutions live with some college as well right in that kind of charlotte area. this is an image of boycotts and demonstrations at in durham ad howard johnson's right so this is a very large it happened hundreds and hundreds of participants participated in this these are more examples of this larger movement happening the mid 1960s. right. a majority student activist. right. so again, larger numbers than in 1960. and then this is a picture of whitney baker. whitney is a significant student in north carolina. he was openly he was a student in our class at university. he ended up getting a spring from kind such diversity. but he was a student. he b when he essential student when he began his activism in

1960 and then he actually train and a lot of the youth activists over the years because he was a part of the end of acp youth commando which is a smaller group of people who went north carolina to train actively on organizing. right. and he becomes essential part of canon law kind of student activism and was openly gay in the 1960s. right and from central right but have you heard of them okay. and he openly was he participated in the demonstrations in chapel hill. and who was injured his eyes were injured and he was in prison for his activism right. so that kind of stuff, if you think what happens in mississippi it happens elsewhere happened in north carolina, right. and then the end of it will be discussing kind of post 1960 activism. so activism continued in north carolina post 1965 and later in the black power.

there was activism happening. and cindy smith is of the people can i focus on right so she was from south carolina, a small town, south carolina, piedmont. she came to bennett college as a student after the uprising in greensboro. and so let me go to that. so greensboro uprising happens may of 1969. claude barnes, a student at all black high school, he's radical. he's part of these multiple growing black power movements organizations. he wants to be body president. he was already like junior body president, but he wanted to be senior student body president, the black administration, this allowed him from being a candidate because of his radicalism. the students protested and still voted for him. right. despite it being this allowed. so they protested. use the police because laws and starts attacking harassing both students and teachers.

they run to einstein's campus for support at his campus a student organization of black unity kind of being founded one of the key leaders is nelson johnson. and so they run to this campus to get help. so blue and ethel jackson comes back and goes to support them, they they say you're starting a riot. you're starting this and starting that right? they run back to his campus and. a standoff ensues. right? part of standoff is a couple of days and. civilians, white civilians are going around his campus shooting and threatening people who are participating in this uprising. so it happens for days, the mayor and the governor of the state decides to use the national guard to in the uprising, the national guard shoots up and campus. they shoot up dormitories. they have students in it.

this is a picture of bricks with bullets, them from the dormitory. so anything has a memorial to scott's whole of it. they also provide, you know, helicopters in right. so this is a time where national is is being brought in to in this kind of student led uprising. right. and we think about kent state, right. you hear about kent state, but we don't hear about this kind of violence used against students and the national guard being against students. hbcu this also happens in orangeburg, south carolina, right kind of government. it's it is using to in well soon in activism. right and so they ended that way the students don't get they're not able to walk in graduation one student is killed and to this day they know who killed him. gregory i mean, we still his name is looming right now, but part of north korean activism is

this level of violence and grief right that is occurring at this time and so it is in that that sandy really smith comes into it right she's a first year student at bennett college is after the right she becomes part of nelson johnson his organization of the greensboro association for people. so they're into like fighting the vanishing, providing food and different resources for greensboro communities. she joins this group, an organization they more radical over time sobel becomes you global youth organization of black unity. they're like, well, not everybody is a student right. not everyone is associated with college universities. what do you expand to other people they become they get organizations throughout north carolina and. saint louis maybe as part of that right. that organization, ultimately in

the 1970s, there's a push to kind of consolidate schools. and so they have the save our black schools movement that they can really smith helps and so they end up having thousands of student student activists from throughout by hbcu joining the series in raleigh right to protest to say black hbcu lose enough carolina and so these are images from that from that demonstration and they also have events called black monday in their local communities to kind of save black schools. right. and so she to activist be activist she graduate. right. she becomes part pan-africanism and so anything that's a johnson and that's what johnson was a veteran of the military and then he becomes a later student so he's the older student and so they become members of the communist party, right? they're of the labor movement in north carolina working in factories and testing out

energies. she against sexual harassment in these factories, which is very dangerous kind of work. right at this time. there's a rise in kkk in north carolina and in china grove, which is about close to charlotte. the kkk, the to do a filming of birth of a nation united nation, a 1970s. they do filming to try to get more members support the communist workers party decides to that right and the only they almost come into armed conflict with members of the kkk. so in response to this they decide we're going to we're going to have a deaf to the klan rally in of 1979 in greensboro, north carolina, at a housing project in greensboro, a predominately area. and they advertise this. they tell the kkk members come right, the kkk members and neo-nazis have a caravan, including in their caravan is a

police informant so they know what's about to happen they come to the rally and shoot it up right. and so some of the comments work party do have guns and shoot back this is all on the news so there are video of this happening. one of the people, five people killed is sandy smith. she's killed trying to say black children from the middle of the shoot out. right. but ultimately, no one is convicted a crime because they say, well, y'all, the neo-nazis, kkk members, right. and they weren't attacking you for racial animus. 4 to 5 people killed. this the workers party, five are white. so like it's not racial animus. right. even though sandy smith was black. black woman. and so in any it's a it's a they think they may have targeted at certain leaders of the movement including sandy. so they say it's not racial animus. political animus. right. because you're a communist. this is the reason why this

happened. and so no one is convicted ultimately, they do a civil case. they're able to win a civil case because one of the members of the workers party is not a member of the communist workers party. that's saying, well, because you're not communists, we can't use political animus to justify your killing. right? so they are able to get some money for that. but the involved keep doing movement work, but we think less of an activism, right? they're active. a stop doesn't stop when they stop being students right. they she remained in greensboro politics right after. she graduates and when she dies been a college student are like, well, why didn't we know her right. and so at the end years later, they've done like many demonstrations every year. they do a demonstration in greensboro to. remember them with sandy smith in particular. right. and making that connection.

so she's always been at bill. so sandy smith kind of just the point that i was trying to make. student activism is a part of this long legacy of not just the kind of movements we think about right there collaboration kind of continues throughout years and there are these elements evolving from the violence and sacrifice and loss right. to do this kind of movement work. and so when we think about a student activist in north carolina, we have to include all of these things when we think about it. but thank you again. so questions or responses to the lecture in particular, how do you feel as being an students at hbcu and learning about north hbcu activism? because. she told me, hey, hey you made

hulu into the code with the right it was a head start talking. okay so you're going to part i think it's very fascinating you know being so these are students that were in the same building as well may not be the same bills but the same tables as us. they were students just like us going against the extra work. i think that that shows the commitment they had to changing things for the black community. so i think it's really fascinating i think it's really cool and it's ordinary people choices, right? someone else. going based off what saw i think is just really interesting to know that like these these are people going like the extra mouth to do this. and i just feel like now we just don't have that same kind of like they was fighting for like different things and like they fighting for what we have now. but there is still plenty things we could be fighting for. like hbcu you don't get the same amount of funding that like pwi get that's something we go fight. it's just like i feel like we just need to have that same kind

of energy that they had. yeah. and i think with when comes to movement work, there was never participating. it was always numbers, right? and depending who you collaborate with, right. and so there people doing that work, they need more numbers and they need more involvement. so it's kind of kind of checking in and collaborating with each to do that kind of continue work. now. it's a long way. of also piggybacking of what they said and so you were saying how these were regular college students they had other things, their mind and things like that and admire the fact that yes they were balancing all that. but at the same, they were in college before technology really took off. so they're doing their homework literally in the library, like this is costume as we got information at our fingertips in seconds and got to really know computers so like to actually plan on that and have a life and being library for hours is it is

really inspiring but also did you say with sit in when they were arresting people they took us to a polio hospital in the mid 1960s. yeah. is that the jail was too full or. well this is before like mass incarceration so a lot of in these places where these jail ends or kind of people wanting to get arrested. right they didn't have the space. right. so sometimes you had the bus to other locations, right. because there's not this mass incarceration that we have where they didn't have the kind of jail space kind of include all these people visible from this. yes. but i don't think they were. we're, you know, those people were. but it was just letting use their space as a means to jail these people that we like the salvation army, will oh, yeah. it's still jail, right it still is still jail with a so imagine as you in jail at a polio hospital still having do homework and then you got exam

coming up. or you have a job and now you would deal right. i, i just think it was interesting when started talking about how there was this whole standoff like with the guard coming in because this thing about it now like i know we're adults, but is this like we're still young. we're still you, we're still kind of kids. and the fact that i feel like need to have the government come in i just feel like it just shows the impact that they were really making like they really felt like they were such a threat that they had to have all these people come to stop their movement that really didn't end up stopping. yeah and then greensboro the mayor justified his actions and said that black radicals were. the reason for the violence and for the conflict though his actions were justified and bring the national guard. nelson the leader was arrested

as well. you know, they called when they arrested the students where they automatically like, take him out of school or were they more lenient because were like hbcu administrators? that's a big that's actually a really good question. so it depends on administrators. bennett college white will be player was supportive of seeing activists in work right so it was nice to be a support for that right but there is a group of students, teachers from barber scotia college. many, many houston. she was a student teacher. it's i don't want to say a school and states will north carolina and so they were participating in boycotts and demonstrations and getting involved and so they were taken out of their school and reprimanded by their administrator at barber scotia college. so he wasn't supportive of their activism and their work rise up.

so it depends on administrator. yeah i remember somebody had mentioned like they like appreciate it like the fight that those students had at that time. like the thing about like how we now and i just thought that was like interesting in a point but i also think that it's like important to know how like their environment of spurred their need to resist they had like that sort of like direct violence inflicted onto onto them and i feel like sometimes nowadays it's harder to see when we're being discriminated against unless it's like legislative, like kind of outwardly in our face and try to remember the point was trying to make. yeah, i just think it's important to remember like the ways in which we were like educated as like children and stuff. like it was very softened and whitewashed and i was even remembering like when we learning about the civil rights movement, they gave like a date range when it started to ended

and it's like when they like which black leaders got together and said, yeah, like we're now i'm saying like so think it's just like a mindset. they also mixed in with like a lot of people are just like i feel like a lot of people it's hard to like reside in like community and resist together because we haven't been taught the tactics, acts like revolution and stuff like that. but yeah, yeah. american ideals are largely individualist thinking that's purposeful, right? and so we about, you know, the tech to we this activist and organizing right those adapt right so technology's massive aliens massacre frustration right. they now have a means deal as many people as they as they want. right. so when you think about activism and these these strategies. right they have to adapt with the times right within environment that you're in. right. and and also the repression efforts. right. so that's if you're right,

that's also a factor. with with students getting arrested. i'm sure i'm sure some of them get arrested lot where they racking up a record or fines records some of them were able to them the records taken away or dropped charges dropped but some of the charges remain right so that does affect jobs. right. a lot of people were were blackballed from jobs or participate in the student. so. yeah. so that affects your. of career aspirations in clear point here is one of the members of the greensborough for never graduated from anc and he also developed alcoholism and died a died in his i think when say 50 right he talked about and different experiences in a weight being an activist and being one of the greensboro four. but again we focus on the

greensboro four, but we usually don't talk with them. ask people right. and that's kind of sacrificing losing in the results of the activism they participated. so just a closer inspection on now people people right to an activist are people right? and do you know if, there were there were misdemeanors or felonies? it depends. it varies. state, local. who's charging. what? right. it varied. and so the quinney baker, he he has significant jail time. but he got and they were camps at that time as well. so he spent significant jail time. some people experience fines. right. so it just depends the location. what judge they get the occupants, you okay? well, thank you.