Civil Rights

Public Housing Tenants' Rights – From Durham to the Supreme Court 1969

balau — Thu, 05 May 2016 20:23:16 +0000

Public Housing Tenants' Rights – From Durham to the Supreme Court 1969 balau Thu, 05/05/2016 - 16:23

Lawyer and civil rights activists Floyd McKissick proclaimed, “Tenants cannot be evicted without due process,” when he heard that community organizer Joyce Thorpe had been thrown out of her public housing unit for working to empower low-income black women. As a citizen, she is entitled to fair treatment in the judicial system, and public housing agencies must provide explicit reasons for evicting tenants.

Thorpe lived in McDougald Terrace, a federally assisted housing project controlled by the Housing Authority of the City of Durham, North Carolina. After her marriage fell apart, it was growing concern for her own children that facilitated her efforts in community organizing. To help herself and 20 of her neighbors, she founded and became president of the McDougald Terrace Mother’s Club without the permission of the Housing Authority because they refused to discuss the issue. The Mother’s Club was an opportunity to provide children with day care so that mother’s could seek employment. Following her request for a meeting space for the club, the Housing Authority informed her that her lease would be cancelled without explanation.

Howard Fuller, a leader of Operation Breakthrough, a program supported by Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, organized a picket line of about sixty North Carolina College students that marched outside of the Housing Authority to protest Thorpe’s eviction. In addition, he reached out to one of his mentors in Durham, Floyd McKissick, a lawyer and civil rights leader, to represent Thorpe. He willingly accepted the job.

Initially, the court did not rule in her favor but after appealing her decision the case eventually reached the Supreme Court. The case, Joyce C. Thorpe, Petitioner, v. Housing Authority of the City of Durham (1969) was a victory for Thorpe and the Mother’s Club.

Floyd McKissick insisted that cause must be shown when evicting tenants occupying public housing. Ms. Thorpe’s case was ultimately the foundation of landmark protection of due process for tenants of public housing and encouraged many women to stand up for their rights despite their economic status.

Date

Wed, 10/23/1968 - 12:00

Mon, 01/13/1969 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.89038 35.974997)

Tags:

Civil Rights

Housing

Litigation

1101 E. Lawson Street

Taylor Nortmann

Free Quality Health Care for All: Lincoln Hospital

balau — Wed, 04 May 2016 19:35:01 +0000

Free Quality Health Care for All: Lincoln Hospital balau Wed, 05/04/2016 - 15:35

Lincoln was the only hospital within a 25-mile radius of Durham that would treat African Americans until the early 1960s when Watts Hospital integrated its wards. Before this integration, Blacks often turned to midwives and home remedies for their healthcare. Dr. Stanford Warren, John Merrick, and Dr. Aaron Moore, Durham’s first Black physician, founded Lincoln hospital in 1901 so that the African American community had its own medical facility where Black physicians and nurses could practice and receive training. Many people supported Lincoln’s founding, including a generous donation from Mr. Washington Duke, a well-known Durham businessman.

The lack of access to healthcare was a key strategy of Jim Crow segregation – it perpetuated economic inequality and social immobility. Black Americans in good health are able to prosper, work, and advocate for themselves. The hospital was also an economic engine in the community and served people from across central North Carolina. Lincoln’s efforts to provide quality health care services, available to all despite their ability to pay, helped decrease the high mortality rate in Durham’s Black community. But Lincoln hospital could only rely upon 30% of annual income from patients – the remaining support came from endowments, the city and county of Durham, and other outside donations.

Lincoln Hospital also focused on prevention: health educators, nurses, and physicians conducted workshops for community members at churches, clubs, and schools. They held weekly clinics to teach prenatal and postnatal care to mothers who could not afford personal physicians, empowering them to make good choices regarding the birth and care of their children.

Lincoln Hospital chose to integrate its staff, hiring qualified white medical professionals to expand the number of patients that could be treated. This collaboration of expertise and skill allowed the hospital to provide a safety net for those who were unable to access and afford healthcare. Lincoln transformed itself from a full-scale hospital to Lincoln Community Health in 1976. It continues in its mission to serve the Durham community today, providing services to all citizens including those without health insurance or who could not otherwise afford care.

Sources:

"History." Lincoln Community Health Center. Accessed December 1, 2020. https://lincolnchc.org/?page_id=6340.

"The Lasting Legacy of Lincoln Hospital." The Duke Endowment. Last modified 2020. Accessed December 1, 2020. https://www.dukeendowment.org/content/lincoln-hospital-spotlight-durham-news.

"Lincoln Hospital – Fayetteville Street." Open Durham. Accessed December 1, 2020. https://www.opendurham.org/buildings/lincoln-hospital-fayetteville-street.

Watts, C. D., and F. W. Scott. "Lincoln Hospital of Durham, North Carolina: A Short History." Journal of the National Medical Association 57, no. 2 (March 1965): 177-83. Accessed December 1, 2020. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610830/.

Date

Thu, 07/04/1901 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.910339 35.990443)

Tags:

Healthcare

Civil Rights

Dr. Aaron Moore

Lincoln Community Health Center
525 East Proctor Street (now 1301 Fayetteville Street)
Durham, NC

Amiya Mehrotra and Christina Williams

Sitting-In for Justice – S. H. Kress Lunch Counter 1961

balau — Wed, 04 May 2016 19:22:30 +0000

Sitting-In for Justice – S. H. Kress Lunch Counter 1961 balau Wed, 05/04/2016 - 15:22

Lunch counter sit ins by young people in Durham were inspired by the moving speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Durham's White Rock Baptist Church in 1961.

In 1963, a dark and lonely jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama served as the setting of the conception of one of the most important civil rights documents of the past 100 years. Martin Luther King Jr., following the peak of the non-violent Birmingham Campaign’s unfortunate decent into conflict, penned his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on scraps of paper slipped under his door by a janitor and a legal pad his counsel allowed him to keep. On these scraps, the reverend urged his fellow activists to engage in “direct action, whereby they would present their very bodies as a means of laying their cause before the conscience of the local and national community.” The Civil Rights Movement had escalated to the point that imprisonment for the outspoken activists in the South became more than possible: it was almost a certainty.

Three years earlier, Martin Luther King Jr. had known that his would be the case. That year, he urged over 1,200 people at White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, NC to stay strong, and “not fear going to jail… if the willingness to stay in jail (will) arouse the dozing conscience of our nation.”

These words sparked the imagination of a woman named Fay Bryant Mayo. Mayo was a Durham resident, who, along with countless others, was inspired to launch her own fearless campaign to demonstrate that the unjust laws that were in place were meant to be opposed. Each day, a group of Durham activists including Robert Lawson, Phyllis Shumate and Quentin Baker would gather near the art deco exterior of the towering Kress Building in downtown and enter one at a time.

Each person would stroll through the front door of the department store, buy one sandwich from the lunch counter, and immediately cross into the all-white dining section. As Lawson said, “as soon as you would sit down and bite into that sandwich, the police would come.” These students returned two or three times each and every day to the same sandwich counter in Kress to buy their lunch and sit where they believed they had the right to sit.

This, surely, was the direct action that King would later call for from a cell in Alabama, and these young activists, surely, were ahead of their time.

Works Cited

"Durham Kress :: History." Durham Kress :: Main. Durham Kress and Greenfire Development, 2006. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

Forest, Angela D. "Honoring the Life of King." The Herald-Sun [Durham] 15 Jan. 2003: n. pag. Print.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. "Letter From a Birmingham Jail." Letter to Clergymen of Birmingham, AL. 16 Apr. 1963. MS. African Studies Center- UPenn, Pennsylvania.

Richardson, Lynn. "Martin Luther King, Jr., Visit - Durham Civil Rights Heritage Project: Our Pictures and Stories." Durham County Library, 18 May 2010. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

"S.H. KRESS - SW CORNER MAIN AND MANGUM." Open Durham, n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.

"Students Ponder Next Move." The Carolina Times [Durham, NC] 13 Feb. 1960: n. pag. Print.

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.901048 35.995192)

Tags:

Civil Rights

Lunch counter protest

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

101 W. Main Street

Zack Fowler

Assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Durham Responds with a Silent March

balau — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 20:45:18 +0000

Assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Durham Responds with a Silent March balau Tue, 04/19/2016 - 16:45

Certain events are so monumental that they define the soul of a generation. Where were you when the planes hit on 9/11? What were you doing when MLK was cut down by a sniper’s bullet? Such defining moments unite us all through our most basic commonality—being human. Black and white alike, Americans across the nation reacted with sorrow and anger to the news of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968.

“Rioting Erupts Across the Nation as Mourning Turns Into Violence,” “Trouble Breaks Out in Tar Heel Cities,” “[National] Guard Ordered to Greensboro and Raleigh,” the newspapers proclaimed… but peace prevailed in Durham. In stark juxtaposition to the hostility and unrest that consumed the country, the response of Durham’s black community, especially its youth, reinforced King’s own doctrine of nonviolence. A crucial actor in the planning of the event, Howard Fuller mollified the angry youth of North Carolina College the night of King’s murder. Convincing them to wait until the following morning to hold the march, Fuller recalls, “I didn’t think it was the way to respond to King’s death given who he was.” The 1968 Protest March was preceded by a memorial service, held at the NCC chapel, in which speakers stressed restraint from violence out of respect to the memory of King.

With their heads held high, organized into a single file line, the poised youth marched in silence. One historian notes, “There had been larger marches in the past decade, but none of them matched in tone, the gravitas of this slow cortege through the streets of Durham.” The march started at Fayetteville Street and ended in front of City Hall where a brief prayer service was held and eulogies given. The mourning crowd ordered Mayor Grabarek to accept a list of demands, including the lowering of the flag to half-mast, a city council proclamation honoring King’s memory, and a cancellation of public school on the day of King’s funeral. The normally unsympathetic, white leader acceded to their wishes, recognizing the magnitude of the event nationwide.

Date

Fri, 04/05/1968 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.903449 35.99799)

Tags:

Civil Rights

Protest

MLK

120 Morris Street, Durham, NC 27701 (Former site of Durham City Hall)

Rebecca Spicehandler

Lunch Counter Sit In at Woolworth Five & Dime

balau — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 20:35:44 +0000

Lunch Counter Sit In at Woolworth Five & Dime balau Tue, 04/19/2016 - 16:35

How powerful is silence? Can you really promote a cause by not saying anything at all directed toward authorities? North Carolina College students did just that. They vowed to fight against segregated serving policies through silent and peaceful protest. They would stand up, or, rather, sit down, for their rights. Following the February 1st sit-in protests in Greensboro, Durham students took charge.

On Monday, February 8, 1960, seventeen black North Carolina College students staged sit-ins at three white lunch counters in Durham. Several white Duke University students joined them and pledged to occupy seats until the blacks were served. First they went to Woolworth’s. They sat in vacant seats and asked for service. The waiters refused. But the protesters did not fight back. They remained seated and started talking quietly amongst themselves, studying textbooks, and reading newspapers.

At noon, the store received a fake bomb threat and immediately closed for the rest of the day. Then they left for the Kress store, but did not even make it into the doors before the management closed the store. Next, they marched over to Walgreen’s, but whites had completely monopolized the counters. They had no choice but to leave.

During the protest, no black students were arrested, but two white students from Duke were taken to the station for questioning. The protesters were not dissuaded. They planned to continue the sit-downs the following day. On Tuesday morning, they marched to the stores to reclaim their rights. They were met by signs reading “Closed temporarily in the interest of public safety.” All three stores had been closed.

The protest was brought to a standstill, but did not deem their attempts “failed.” These attempts encouraged nonviolent attempts at justice throughout the nation. For months following, black students all over the Deep South mimicked the Durham sit-ins.

The Durham students showed how powerful protest can be without the interference of hateful words or violent actions. The Durham sit-ins were the beginning of a 4 year nationwide effort that resulted in the desegregation of all lunch counters in 1964.

Date

Mon, 02/08/1960 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.901438 35.995687)

Tags:

Civil Rights

Lunch counter protest

College students

122 West Main Street (also had entrance on W. Parrish Street)

Illana Bernstein

Malcolm X Liberation University - Empowerment Through History and Learning

balau — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 19:58:27 +0000

Malcolm X Liberation University - Empowerment Through History and Learning balau Tue, 04/19/2016 - 15:58

In 1969 local activist Howard Fuller along with a group of Duke students founded Malcolm X Liberation University in an old hosiery mill in downtown Durham. Fuller and the students were unhappy with Duke's progress toward equal resources for black students and the formation of a black studies department, common concerns at the time in universities across the US.

The stated mission of the radical new university was to provide an ideological and practical methodology for meeting the physical, social, psychological, economical and culture needs of black people as well as to provide an alternate to institutionalized racism in education.

Separating itself from typical universities in many ways, the school did not aspire to traditional accreditation but sought validation only through the black community. Perspective university students submitted applications and completed an interview. However, they were not required to have a high school diploma and were eligible for enrollment as a black individual who supported the stated mission of MXLU.

This new university and its founders had turned toward the separatist ideals of the black power movement, an effort to promote black consciousness and to create institutions controlled by black individuals. Malcolm X Liberation University was open in Durham for only a single year before moving to Greensboro where it remained open only until 1973.

The school did not exist long enough to graduate students and its short tenure was attributed to financial issues, strained relations with the white press and civil rights organizations as well as with North Carolina's historically black colleges and universities. While Malcolm X Liberation University did not succeed as an institution of higher learning, it was a powerful example of black power ideas and the role of race in the education system.

For more information: http://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/ir/handle/1840.16/563

https://nchistorytoday.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/durhams-malcolm-x-university-and-howard-fuller/

Date

Sat, 10/25/1969 - 12:00

Fri, 06/01/1973 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.89769 35.98988)

Tags:

Civil Rights

Higher Education

Black Power Movement

East Pettigrew Street, Durham, NC 27701

Hannah Scott

Standing Together – Resisting Lunch Counter Segregation at Evans United Department Store

balau — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 19:34:17 +0000

Standing Together – Resisting Lunch Counter Segregation at Evans United Department Store balau Tue, 04/19/2016 - 15:34

“Did the roof fall in today?” Mayor Mutt Evans asked the manager at Woolworth’s five and dime in the downtown Durham in July 1960. The business had just served a Coke to its first black customer. It was the start of a new era for the Bull City and as Durham’s first Jewish mayor, Mutt Evans was uniquely equipped to navigate the period’s racial tension and lead Durham towards a brighter future.

Though Evans faced intense anti-Semitic resistance during his campaign in 1950, his slogan “Equal Representation for all People” resonated with Durham’s African American community. Their support enabled him to win the election and serve Durham from1951 through 1963, the most volatile years of the civil rights struggle. Evans’ leadership was not confined, however, to his terms as mayor. He also advocated for racial justice as an ordinary citizen.

Evans and his family owned Evans United Department Store on West Main Street. The store boasted the only integrated lunch counter in downtown Durham during the 1950’s. When authorities demanded that Mr. Evans build a wall between black and white customers at the lunch counter, his refusal to compromise his company’s pro-integration stance led to an ingenious solution. By removing its seating and raising the counter to an elbow leaning height, the lunch counter at Evans United Department Store remained integrated through a technicality that allowed blacks and whites to stand, but not sit, together.

Evans United Department Store is one example of the complex relationship between Durham’s Jewish and African American communities. The proximity of Pine Street, a middle-class Jewish enclave, to Hayti, Durham’s African American neighborhood tied together the fates of the Jewish and African American communities. By catering to Durham’s underserved black community, Jewish businesses flourished and forged economic ties between the two groups. However, this economic partnership did not always lead to social harmony. For example, during Durham’s civil rights struggle, their justifiable fear of the Ku Klux Klan caused many of Durham’s Jews to remain silent or even resist integration. However, Mutt Evans resisted this pressure both through his individual activism and work in the public sphere. His bravery proved that collaboration has the power to bring honor and justice to all.

Date

Mon, 01/01/1951 - 12:00

Tue, 12/31/1963 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.90842 35.99944)

Tags:

Lunch counter protest

321 West Main Street, Durham, NC 27701.

Annie Piotrowski

Fight for Decent Housing - 1966 Edgemont Community Protest

balau — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 19:20:03 +0000

Fight for Decent Housing - 1966 Edgemont Community Protest balau Tue, 04/19/2016 - 15:20

“Your Neighbor is a Slumlord.”
“High Rent for Firetraps.”
“My Children Sleep with Rats.”

Protesters with painted signs bearing these word marched outside both Abe Greenberg’s office and home during the summer of 1966 in response to his unwarranted hikes in rent and disregard for the needs of his tenants by not meeting Durham’s housing codes. Most of the demonstrators were low-income black women, who, out of frustration, even tried to appeal to Mrs. Greenberg’s sympathy by describing the inadequate living situations of their children.

Greenberg had ignored housing codes and slipped past repercussions for failing inspections, and complaints to City Council were not enough to make a difference. This led to a groundswell of opposition within the Edgemont community, a “War on Poverty” backed by Howard Fuller and Operation Breakthrough. Operation Breakthrough received funds from the North Carolina Fund, which had ties to both the federal government and private businesses. Federal dollars had suddenly become very political. The poor began to organize and protest. Those who had previously felt marginalized had become empowered and were willing to fight for equal opportunity housing.

The construction of East West Expressway in the ‘60s destroyed many houses in the center of the African American neighborhoods of Hayti and Southside, leaving tenants in a very vulnerable position. It gave Greenberg and other landlords the ability to take advantage of many low-income families who were in desperate need of new homes.

Picketing at Greenberg’s private residence created a surge of contention and Operation Breakthrough’s board of directors became polarized. However, action needed to be taken in order to improve living standards and adherence to housing codes in a city where nearly a third of the population was living below the poverty line and in deplorable conditions.

Even though Greenberg’s houses never fully met housing code requirements, other landlords in the area did make repairs for their tenants, and there was an improvement in the enforcement of the housing code. The Edgemont community’s protest was successful bringing improvements to rental housing conditions and helping to redefine the role of Operation Breakthrough in Durham.

For more information: http://www.torightthesewrongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Rankin-Sarah-The-Power-of-Money.pdf

Date

Sat, 07/02/1966 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.92348 35.97277)

Tags:

Civil Rights

Housing

Protest

2601 Stuart Drive, Durham, NC 27707

Kaley Deal

Before Brown v. Board – Conrad Pearson Fights for Desegregating Higher Education

balau — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 17:12:07 +0000

Before Brown v. Board – Conrad Pearson Fights for Desegregating Higher Education balau Tue, 04/19/2016 - 13:12

Thomas Hocutt, a Black student from Durham, wanted to become a pharmacist. But in 1933, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill denied his application to their Pharmacy school on the basis of race. Attorneys Conrad Pearson and Cecil McCoy took up his case and with the support of the NAACP, filed a suit against the University. This was one the first attempts to integrate higher education in the United States. Despite their best efforts, the case known as Hocutt v Wilson was dismissed because Durham officials withheld Mr. Hocutt’s undergraduate transcript, making it impossible for him to meet the requirements for admission to the Pharmacy school. The separate but equal doctrine in education stood for another 20 years.

This result was no surprise to Pearson, but that didn't make it any less heartbreaking. Durham residents were split on Hocutt: some preferred working to add a Pharmacy school at North Carolina Central, and others were supporters of integrating the all white UNC-Chapel Hill. The case inspired other Durham lawyers to initiate civil rights actions of their own and paved the way for one of the most influential civil rights cases, Brown v Board of Education. In 1954, this case rendered the concept of separate but equal unconstitutional and consequently desegregated schools across the country.

Pearson, a Howard Law grad, and McCoy, a Brooklyn Law grad, were vital activists in the movement for Black liberation in their native Durham. They employed their knowledge of constitutional law to combat racial segregation in their home state by taking on civil rights cases that challenged racial oppression. In addition to the Hocutt case, they joined a group of lawyers to file a Durham desegregation case in 1955 called Wheeler v. Durham which led to the integration of Durham public schools.

Sources:

Gershenhorn, Jerry. "Hocutt v. Wilson and Race Relations in Durham, North Carolina, during the 1930s." The North Carolina Historical Review 78, no. 3 (July 2001): 275-308. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23522330.

Date

Wed, 02/01/1933 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.89884 35.98553)

Tags:

Conrad O. Pearson
Attorney and Counsellor at Law
Rooms 8-10 Royal Knights of King David Bldg.
809 Fayetteville St. Durham, N. C. Phone L-1061

Amiya Mehrotra and Jillian M. Williams

Boycotts and Buying Power – Black Christmas Parade 1968

balau — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 16:00:00 +0000

Boycotts and Buying Power – Black Christmas Parade 1968 balau Tue, 04/19/2016 - 12:00

It was a little chilly, but a beautiful day, the morning of November 29th, 1968. Everyone was lined up on Fayetteville Street as the yearly Christmas Parade began. The high school band played all of the best Christmas carols and performers were festively dressed to the nines. Pretty cars with smiling people pulled elaborate floats slowly down the street, and kids with big, toothy smiles toppled over one another to catch the candy that was being tossed to the crowd. Something about this day though, was different than it had ever been.

The Selective Buying Campaign started in mid-July 1968, targeting white merchants in Downtown Durham. More than 29 businesses were put on the “do-not-patronize” list by The Black Solidarity Committee for Community Improvement until their 88 requests relating to welfare, public housing, and equal protection under the law were addressed. This parade turned out to be a monumental event for the movement.

Every year, a white Christmas parade was held in Downtown Durham, but this year, on the same day, there were two parades—one for whites on Main Street and one for blacks on Fayetteville Street. At the very end of the Fayetteville parade, a black Santa Claus was displayed atop a white float. Santa stood proud, symbolizing the unity of the black community under what the Civil Rights legacy tour calls Durham’s most successful boycott, while also serving as a reminder to avoid shopping in the white downtown business district that holiday season.

The large turnout and estimated $900,000 in losses incurred by the white businesses showed the inspiration surrounding what came to be known as the Black Christmas Parade. After this day, 14 more businesses were added to the “do-not-patronize” list, and once the holidays were over, six joint committees were created to address the 88 boycott requests. The downtown business boycott is remembered as the first demonstrations of strong unity within the black community for a common cause. That November, Black Santa brought hope and new promise for blacks in Durham. This gift became tangible on February 16th, 1969, when the campaign came to an official close. For the first time, blacks joined the job market of Downtown Durham, holding jobs as clerks, bank tellers and some even managers of department stores. The year of 1968, Durham’s black community called on Santa Claus to help them fulfill their Christmas wishes. And though not on Christmas Day, they were at least, in part, granted.

Date

Thu, 11/28/1968 - 12:00

Sun, 02/16/1969 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.89655 35.98825)

Tags:

Civil Rights

Boycott

Economic Justice

Pettigrew and Fayetteville Streets

Lindsey Huth