Primary Source Set

The Southern Freedom Movement: The Effort for Civil Rights in North Carolina

Following the long history of enslavement and the resulting Civil War, states within the U.S. adopted racist and segregationist policies that became known as Jim Crow laws. Throughout these years and continuing today, people have organized against racist and white supremacist systems, institutions, and practices, both through the lens of the Civil Rights Movement and the broader Southern Freedom Movement. This set of newspapers, photographs, oral histories, and other types of documentation describes the lived experiences of people in North Carolina and the efforts of people organizing for racial justice. 

Proceed with caution and care through these materials as the content may be disturbing or difficult to review. Specifically, there are mentions and descriptions of racist and white supremacist violence and murders, oppression based on race, racist and white supremacist language, and offensive former race labels. Please read DigitalNC’s Harmful Content statement for further guidance. 

Time Period

1954-2007

Grade Level

Undergraduate

Two articles from the newspaper on tan paper with little to no damage.

Transcript

(Article 1) What The Negro Thinks About The Indian - BY LEW BARTON - A book largely about the Lumbee Indians, published several years ago, seemed to indicate that the American Negro is opposed to the American Indian. Inquiring into the matter, in connection with my research, I was referred to a statement written by Dr. Martin L. King. The Statement about the American Indian appears in “Why We can’t Wait,” (Harper and Rowe, Inc., 49 East 33rd Street, N.Y., 1963), and is, on the contrary, very sympathetic toward the American Indian. I reprint it here with the kind permission of the publisher: “...To focus upon the Negro alone as the ‘inferior race’ of American myth is to miss the broader dimensions of the evil. “Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century foreward, blood flowed in battles over racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous (the Indian) population. “Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or to [feel] remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it. “Our children are still taught to respect the violence which reduced a red-skinned people of an earlier culture into a few fragmented groups herded into impoverished reservations. This is in sharp contrast to many nations south of the border, which assimulated their Indians, respected their culture, and elevated many of them to to high position.” (p. 120 Signet edition). Scholars have estimated that there were 850,000 Indians in what is now the United States when Columbus arrived in 1492. By 1850, there were only 250,000. (Article 2) Lumbee-Klan Rivalry Dates Back - Back to the 1923 story: The May 9, 1923 issue of the Robesonian announced a $500 reward for the arrest and conviction of 18 men dressed in Klan robes, who had beaten up 2 women of Proctorville. An account in the same issue states that “. . . It has been reported to the board of commissioners of Robeson County that on the night of April 14, 1923 a band of masked men, consisting of eighteen entered the dwelling house of Proctorville, Robeson County and took therefrom the said Mrs. H. F. Purvis and Mrs. Frank Watson and carried them out of town and cruelly whipped them.” The elder Mr. Sharpe wrote, “One pitiful result of such an outrage as that at Procterville the other night is that women in outlying country districts are kept in a condition of nervous fright. Many of them regard every stranger with suspicion and dread.” Sharpe stated in his editorial: “Swift and sudden punishment of those who take the law into their hands is the only remedy. A sense of security will not be restored until the perpetrators of that outrage at Proctorville are punished.” Three of the eighteen men were charged with flogging the women, but when the case was tried in the Robeson County Superior Court the men were acquitted. The case attracted wide attention; and although the Klan escaped punishment, the tide of public opinion was turned at last against them. It has remained so to this day. In 1958, a band of Lumbee Indians broke up a band of Ku Klux Klansmen meeting near Maxton with gunfire. Klansmen are currently attempting to stage a comeback—another rally on the same spot where they were defeated in ‘58. The Superior Court has said no. The people of Robeson County have said no— with the possible exception of those who fought for the Klan in 1923, or their descendants and friends. The old-timer was right. We’ve had a bellyful of Klanism and violence and terror.

The Lumbee. (Pembroke, N.C.) [4/7/1966]

Lew Barton writes in this edition of The Lumbee, a newspaper out of Pembroke, NC, about the Lumbee tribe and the Civil Rights Movement. The name of the paper was taken from the native people of the Lumbee tribe, whose land included what is now called Robeson County and make up around one third of the population there . The articles include statements from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Why We Can’t Wait” on the violence experienced by indigenous people and Black people being tied together. He also describes the history of the KKK in Robeson County and the opposition to them across racial lines, including a confrontation between the Lumbee tribe members and the KKK in 1958.

Contributed to DigitalNC by University of North Carolina at Pembroke

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Pembroke, NC (Robeson County)

The Southern Freedom Movement: The Effort for Civil Rights in North Carolina

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Background

Slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow

Slavery had become a global institution with the rise of colonialism and the ideology of distinct races; a chosen hierarchy accompanied this construct, now known as white supremacy, and was used to justify the violence enacted through colonization. As the now named Americas were colonized, enslaved people from Africa began to be brought to the colonies during the early 1500-1600’s, and the practice of slavery grew exponentially from this point. Slavery was a strongly held American institution until the idea of abolition began to gain more widespread support in the early and mid-1800’s. Catalyzed by this support of abolition and economic motivations, a Civil War erupted in 1861 from the possible end to slavery in the U.S.

After the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) issued by president Lincoln declaring the end of slavery and then the Union’s victory in the Civil War (1865), the Reconstruction period began in the South to rebuild and restructure the post-war region, circa 1865-1877. The 13th amendment was ratified into the Constitution and officially prohibited the practice of slavery within the United States, except for slavery in the form of being incarcerated.

This saw the rise of laws and policies that continued white supremacist ideology, and in the everyday actions and anti-Black beliefs held by individuals throughout the country. The racist phrase ‘Jim Crow’ became the name given to the era of repression and segregation in the United States marked by racist and segregationist laws. This began primarily after the Reconstruction period in response to the increased participation of Black people in the community and politics, especially with the success of Black politicians in being elected in Southern states. These laws were in place throughout the country, not only the South, although the South’s history with slavery and resentment from its abolition among politicians and former slaveholders created a hostile environment in the region.

People experienced oppression both structurally through these racist laws and personally from individual people. Strongly held racist ideologies gave rise to white supremacist organizations, like the Klu Klux Klan, and spontaneous mobs that resulted in terrorizing Black people and the practice of lynchings. The reality of life throughout the South was marred by violence and oppression, and these occurrences became mostly Southern violence.

Resistance to Oppression

Historically, communities have organized to resist structural and communal oppression, from communities establishing Underground Railroad stops in Guilford County, NC, to modern groups protesting against the continued activity of the KKK. Southern community organizing against white supremacist institutions, laws, and violence is known as the Southern Freedom Movement. The Civil Rights Movement in the South falls under this tradition, many preferring the term Southern Freedom Movement since it encompasses more than select civil rights, representing the struggle against white supremacy and for justice and freedom for all Southern people.

North Carolina became an incubator for many movement leaders and organizations during the 1960’s, including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and organizers for Community Organizing for Racial Equality (CORE), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the NAACP. The legacy of the Southern Freedom Movement continues with many organizations throughout the years: North Carolinians Against Racist and Religious Violence, Southerners on New Ground, Black Workers for Justice, and SpiritHouse to name a few.

The Southern Freedom Movement operates on principles of racial, social, and economic justice with a vision for a South that is free of oppression and where all Southerners have safety, health, and happiness. This organizing effort builds solidarity across the U.S. South and the Global South, seen through connections made between Southern organizers in the 1960’s and the events happening with the war in Vietnam and apartheid in South Africa. This expanded view of Southern solidarity is practiced in organizations like the Southern Movement Assembly.

While the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Fair Housing Act in 1968 saw the legal end of explicit Jim Crow laws, racial injustice persists and the Southern Freedom Movement continues to organize across the South and in North Carolina. By exploring the documented history of lived experiences of people in North Carolina and the efforts undertaken to improve the lives of those who live here, we can understand the causes that lead to these movements and their ongoing work and legacies.

Discussion Questions

  1. Views of Protests and Social Movements

    • Reviewing the Carolina Times issue from February 1960, what were the varying opinions at the time of the sit-in protests? How are they each similar or different to how these sit-ins are viewed today?*
      • Now read the ‘Now It Can Be Told’ article from The News-Journal out of Raeford, NC. Which viewpoint from the Carolina times is reflected in this article?*
        • What is the significance of this article being released four months after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.?**
      • How do we see similarities between views of student and broader protest demonstrations during the 1960’s and how student and community protests are viewed today?**
        • Based on the changing views on civil rights protests over time, how do you think the protests of today will be viewed in the future?**
        • Review this article on the four A&T students that sparked the lunch counter sit-ins and this oral history of a professor at St. Augustine University, then read this article on UNC’s refusal to support integration. How do universities’ involvement or abstention in social movements impact the communities in which they reside?**
      • Read these articles (one and two) on Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy as a radical movement leader. How was he viewed while he was alive? How is he viewed today?*
        • What is the difference between these viewpoints and what do you think led to these differences?**
          • Do you think Martin Luther King Jr. and his ideals have been misrepresented over time? What would be the possible impacts of misrepresenting his work and legacy as a radical?**

  2. Greensboro, NC

    • Review the history of the Greensboro sit-ins through this article. What was the impact of the students’ protest using civil disobedience?*
      • Review the article describing Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech at White Rock Baptist Church in Durham. What was the reaction to these protests?*
        • How did this impact the success of the protests in North Carolina and across the South?**
      • Review the article interviewing Rev. Ben Chavis where he describes the ongoing movement for racial justice in 1977 and his arrest for organizing against racial violence in Wilmington in 1971. According to his interview, did the Black community and organizers in Wilmington receive support and if so, from whom?*
        • What were the reasons for support or lack thereof?*
        • What was the relationship between law enforcement and the racial violence in Wilmington? Is this relationship still seen today?**
      • In 1979, community members in Greensboro had organized a ‘Death to the Klan’ rally to protest the continued activity of white supremacists in Greensboro, further history can be found here. How does this relate to the Wilmington 10 and the ongoing organizing for racial justice in the face of racial violence?**
        • Review this article on Sandi Smith, one of the people killed during the Greensboro Massacre and this article from the Guilford College paper on the massacre. What were the differences in the reporting on the massacre?*
          • How does ideology influence perception of this event? How does perception change over time?**
        • Read this article on the acquittal of all people arrested for the murders during the Greensboro massacre and the resulting protest. What institutions and/or ideologies contributed to the acquittal? Was the protest response helpful? Why or why not?**
        • Read this article on guns and the Southern Freedom Movement. How does this relate to the events of the Greensboro Massacre and the arrest of the Wilmington 10?**
          • What do these events share about the reasons why communities may choose armed self-defense?**

  3. Greensboro Telegram and Goodbye Carolina

    • Read the article “Plea for White Supremacy: Strong Speech by a Brave Man” from the Greensboro Telegram and then watch the “Goodbye Carolina” video. How do these pieces of media stand in opposition to each other?*
    • Were the fears of mass Black migration to North Carolina if racial equality through voter’s rights was achieved as described in the article in the Greensboro Telegram a founded fear? Why or why not?**
    • The video from 1964 detailed why students would not be seeking employment or continuing to live in North Carolina, what were those reasons? How have these conditions changed since and/or how have they remained the same?**

  4. Kissing Case

    • After watching this speech by former Governor Luther Hodges, learn more about his role in the infamous Kissing Case and the impact of public relations campaigns in this dissertation. How were public relations used by the governor in defense of his and the state of North Carolina’s actions with these children? How were public relations tactics used by the side defending the children?**
      • Review the history of this case as told by James Thompson, one of the boys arrested during the Kissing Case. What does this show you about the connection between the actions of politicians and public officials and the impact on individual lives?**

  5. What can you conclude about the reality of the Jim Crow era in North Carolina based on these sources?**

    • Do you notice any legacies of Jim Crow still in North Carolina today? Why or why not?**
    • How did the Civil Rights Movement and the Southern Freedom Movement address the realities of Jim Crow and how does the movement continue to address racial injustice today?**

  6. Review the article from the Lumbee quoting Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Why We Can’t Wait.” Then review this source on the position of the NAACP regarding the connection between the movement for racial justice in the United States and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. How are social movements linked and what are the advantages of viewing them as such? Are there disadvantages to social movement solidarity?**

  7. How do the St. Augustine students writing in this issue of The Pen describe ‘Black Power’? What is its relation to white supremacy?*

    • How does this fit or not fit as a part of the Southern Freedom Movement?**

     

    * Questions that check for comprehension

    ** Questions that involve a “deeper dive” in conceptual and historical analysis

This primary source set was compiled by cal lane.

Updated January 2025