To Right These Wrongs by Robert R. Korstad James L. Leloudis

Author:Robert R. Korstad, James L. Leloudis [Robert R. Korstad, James L. Leloudis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Poverty & Homelessness, Political Science, Public Policy, General, History, United States, State & Local, South (AL; AR; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA; WV)
ISBN: 9780807895740
Google: ZvyKF35bPcIC
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Published: 2011-01-20T05:36:44+00:00

Once again, hundreds gathered at St. Joseph’s. This night, the talk was not so much of demands and grievances, but of the discipline that would be required to prevent whites from starting a full-scale riot. As the demonstrators gathered, Howard Fuller and Ben Ruffin “pointed out that there was a good deal of danger because the Klan was gathering downtown. Everyone was told to empty his/her pockets of rocks and any other objects which they might be tempted to throw and told not to pick up a rock or anything during the course of the march.” The group then gathered outside in a carefully planned formation. Adults were placed among the children to ensure their protection and “several people were asked to out-station themselves so that they could keep the marchers in single file and could deal with persons who either got nervous or rowdy. Care was also taken to place certain individuals at points in the line where it appeared that potential troublemakers were grouped.” As the demonstrators approached city hall, they encountered a phalanx of guardsmen and police officers and, standing nearby, a crowd of jeering whites and armed Klansmen. The group paused to sing freedom songs and to hear brief remarks by Ben Ruffin. At that point, a white man pitched a bottle and struck one of the protesters in the head. A small group of young black men surged from the line “as though to go after the whites,” but they were “restrained two or three times by Howard Fuller” and his lieutenants. Concerned by the “apparent ferociousness of the whites lining the streets,” the demonstrators decided to march back to St. Joseph’s as a group rather than, as originally planned, disbanding and returning home individually. Along the way they continued to be heckled and taunted by whites who trailed close behind. The evening ended without further incident, but only because of the leadership of Howard Fuller and the discipline of the uoci marchers, who refused to compromise either their commitment to nonviolence or their determination to seek redress of their grievances.119

Young middle-class white men found amusement in heckling poor blacks who marched for better housing and respect as equal citizens. Photograph by Harold Moore, courtesy of the Durham Herald-Sun.

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