by Charly Mann

Chapel Hill throughout most of its history has been a paradox when it comes to affording blacks the same rights and opportunities as whites. While many of its citizens have expressed progressive ideas about slavery, segregation, and racial inequality, Chapel Hill was usually passive or even reactionary when blacks asked for the same rights as whites.

I became personally involved in the civil rights struggle in town at the age of eleven, in 1960. At that time all the schools in Chapel Hill were segregated. The two motels in town, The University Motel and Watts Motel, did not allow blacks. The Bus Station, then a primary hub for transportation, had separate sides and bathrooms for blacks and whites. Both of Chapel Hill's movie theaters were segregated, as well as about 40% of its restaurants, including The College Café, The Pines, Brady's, Watts Grille, and Howard Johnson's. I was an early admirer of Dr. Martin Luther King and the tactics of non-violence he employed in the 1955 Montgomery Alabama bus boycott. I wrote to Dr. King on several occasions in 1961, and was fortunate to briefly interview him when my father was on sabbatical at the University of California.

This is from my 7th grade class picture at Chapel Hill Junior High School (Class of 1962-1963). It is a microcosm of the dynamics of Chapel Hill in 1962. In the center is Sandra Fe Farrington one of first blacks in a Chapel Hill public school, and one of the smartest and most courageous individuals I have ever known. Directly below her is Nancy Nottingham, a friend of mine since elementary school. Her father at this time ran the University Motel which did not allow blacks. From 1962 to 1964 it was the site of many demonstrations and sit-ins. I am on the right side of Nancy, and had already been a part of a protest at her family's business. On the upper right side is Rodney McFarling whose parents owned the EXXON station across from the Junior High School on West Franklin Street. McFarland was among the most popular individuals at the school and was considered a jock. The Chapel Hill Schools did not officially intergrate until 1966. McFarling was part of that class, and several  fellow blacks students have said that McFarling was one of the most accomodationg and friendliest whites they recall during that first year. Some of the other individuals pictured in the photo are Allen Rawls in the upper left, and Brad Hoffman to the right of Ms. Ferrington. Donna Huff is to the left of Nancy, and Mike Preston is to the left of Sandra.

By 1961 there was already a small but vocal civil rights movement in Chapel Hill. Its original focus was to integrate the Varsity and Carolina theater, and to allow blacks to sit down at the tables, counters, and booths at the Long Meadow Dairy Bar and Colonial Drug Store on West Franklin Street. As I recall, picketing, boycotts, and pressure from the University caused the two movie theaters to integrate by 1962. (I think at the Carolina though, the only blacks that could be admitted were those with UNC student IDs – which in those days were only a handful.) In the summer of 1962, just before I started seventh grade, I began marching in civil rights demonstrations down Franklin Street. These marches would usually start at a black Baptist Church located not far from where Crook's Corner is located today. I was usually the only white youth in these demonstrations. Most of the participants were blacks from the segregated Lincoln High School in Carrboro. There were also usually fifteen or twenty whites in the marches made up of a few students and professors, and Father Parker, a long retired Episcopal minister. The man who seemed most in charge of these events was Hilliard Caldwell, a black man who seemed to me to personify the virtues and beliefs of Martin Luther King Jr. The most active white leader in Chapel Hill's civil rights struggle was Pat Cusick who was in his early thirties and was a UNC graduate student.

In 1960, when I was eleven, I became very interested in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and wrote to him several times. This is the first response I got from his assistant. I was impressed by the well thought out and personalized response.

Even though I was considered somewhat eccentric by most of my classmates for my involvement in the civil rights movement, I do not recall a single slur or derogatory comment ever hurled at me. I think part of this was that Chapel Hill celebrated, or at least tolerated, differences in beliefs and tastes better than most communities. In the summer of 1963, Cusick asked me if I wanted to go to with him to the March on Washington to hear Dr. King speak. I jumped at the opportunity, and recall that, besides Pat and me, most of the others on the bus from Chapel Hill to Washington were black. I got to carry a large sign in the march, and was fairly close to the podium to hear Dr. King’s famous "I Have a Dream" speech, though I confess that seeing and hearing Peter, Paul, and Mary perform made a more indelible impression on me at the time.

Pat Cusick organized the bus trip from Chapel Hill to Washington that I took. This letter is to Civil Rights leader Floyd McKissick who made a speech before Martin Luther King at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington.

In the Spring of 1961, I was living in California with my father who was on sabbatical. Dr. King's organization, the SCLC, invited me to a small gathering of reporters at a church in Berkeley California where I got to talk to Dr King for several minutes. I recall walking about 25 blocks from my house to get to this church, and that there were less than fifteen people there to talk to him. (This is a page in the "book" I wrote about Dr. King for my fifth grade class.)

Over the course of the next several years I plan to offer several dozen features on the history of race relations and civil rights in Chapel Hill. There are many fascinating twists and turns to the story, as I have discovered that Chapel Hill was far more progressive in the first half of the twentieth century than most people think. I believe the town could have made much earlier strides in social justice and integration if some leader could have galvanized the community. As it was, Chapel Hill did not integrate its schools until 1966, two years after the 1964 Civil Rights Bill that outlawed segregation in schools. The University of North Carolina had a handful of black students before 1964, and it was not until 1966 that the University of North Carolina even had its first black basketball player, Charlie Scott.

My one souvenir from the March on Washington

 
This is the forward of my book on Dr. Martin Luther King from March 1961. I remember writing it out the evening after I interviewed him. I recall he gave me some suggestions for my book, and I think may have given me this poem. I have looked for it in his writings and have not found it. I did not assign anyone's name to it in my book, so I will attribute it to me or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.