University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Gate City Rising:

Continuity and Change within Greensboros Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s

A Paper Submitted to
Professor Charles C. Bolton
In Candidacy for the Degree of
Masters of Arts in History
Department of History

by
Steven E. B. Lechner

Greensboro, North Carolina

March 2015
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I.

Introduction and Historiographical Context

During six months in 1969, the Gate City Rising gripped Greensboro, North Carolina,

and for a fleeting moment received national attention.1 The Rising started in seemingly modest
fashion, as a protest over a disputed student council election at then all-black James B. Dudley
High School. In late April, Dudley administrators refused to permit Claude Barnes, then a junior,
to run for student council president due to claims that he was tied to organizations perceived to
be radical and militant. Dudley students demonstrated their opposition to the schools autocratic
decision by electing Barnes with write-in votes and taking to the streets to protest. This localized
instance of young black activism evolved into a political moment of great consequence for
Greensboros wider black liberation movement, as African American leaders sought to
understand the motivation behind the Dudley administrators decision, to interpret its meaning
for the movement, and to develop strategies to resolve the dispute consistent with the
movements goal of racial justice.2
Eventually, this Dudley High School storm evolved into a hurricane, the waves of which
crashed directly onto the beachhead of North Carolina A&T State University. Local law
enforcement assaulted Dudley students during three separate protests. The last of these police
actions was so violent that the students sought refuge at A&T. The full might of a militarized
police force with six hundred and fifty guardsmen, two hundred and fifty Greensboro police
officers, nearly one hundred sheriffs deputies, and an unknown number of state highway patrol
officers turned A&Ts campus into a war zone. Three students and six law enforcement officers
1 The terms Gate City Rising and the Rising are used alternately herein and refer to the same series of
events.
2 Claude Barnes, interview by author, Greensboro, North Carolina, February 6, 2015; William H. Chafe,
Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina and the Black Struggle for Freedom (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1981), 185-86.
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were shot during the ensuing chaos. One of the students, sophomore Willie Grimes, lost his life.
National Guard troops, under cover of tear gas and smoke dropped from the air, swept A&Ts
mens dormitories causing over $56,000 of damage and the suspension of the remainder of the
schools academic calendar. Law enforcement terrorized the adjoining African American
neighborhood and detained more than two hundred students on the suspicion that they illegally
possessed or discharged weapons. Ultimately, the North Carolina State Advisory Committee to
the United States Commission on Civil Rights investigated these events and issued a report
critical of the Greensboros political establishment. These dramatic events, which occurred
nearly fifty years ago, have reached the age of memory, the critical juncture where the past is
particularly vulnerable to distortion or neglect. On a fundamental level, this essay constitutes an
effort to memorialize the Gate City Rising and not to permit it to succumb to either fate.3
Of the three published scholarly accounts that squarely address the Gate City Rising, the
best known is William Chafes Civilities and Civil Rights, published nearly thirty-five years ago.
Chafes work covered what he referred to as the black struggle for freedom from 1945 through
1975.4 He included a chapter on the black power movement in Greensboro during the late 1960s
and early 1970s, and it is within this context that Chafe discussed the Rising. There is much to
celebrate about Chafes narrative and analysis. He used an array of source material such as FBI
3 North Carolina State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Trouble in
Greensboro: A Report of an Open Meeting Concerning the Disturbances at Dudley High School and
North Carolina A&T State University (Greensboro, NC, March 1970), 12-13; Richard Daw, National
Guardsmen Sweep A&T Campus: Acting on Orders from Scott, High Point Enterprise, May 23, 1969;
Greensboro Ends Three-Day Curfew, High Point Enterprise, May 25, 1969; Robert Stephens,
Witnesses Describe Grimes Death, Greensboro Daily News, July 7, 1969; Elisabeth Armstrong,
Contingency Plans for the Feminist Revolution, Science & Society, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Spring 2001): 39.
4 This essay uses the term black liberation movement because of its broad meaning. It is intended to
include the civil rights movement, the black power movement, and all other political actions or
movements aimed at achieving racial justice. (See James M. Jones, The Political Dimensions of Black
Liberation, The Black Scholar, Vol. 3, No. 1 (September 1971): 68.)
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records, personal interviews, journalistic accounts, editorials, and other archival information. He
painted a picture of the diversity of status and opinion within Greensboros black community
during the late 1960s and offered insight on the relationships among various elements of that
community, such as young activists and traditional black leadership. Chafe presented a
compelling portrait of Nelson Johnson, the A&T student activist who was an indispensable actor
throughout these events. Perhaps his main contribution was his development of the concept of
the progressive mystique to explain the confusing aspirations, motivations, tactics, and
responses of the citys white power base to racial issues.5
Despite these contributions, Chafes history of the Rising has gaps. His interpretive focus
was on how these events evinced the black power shift in Greensboro during the late 1960s.
Consequently, Chafe was more concerned with events and people associated with A&T than with
student activism at Dudley or how other parts of the black community reacted to these events.
This focus may explain why he did not interview Claude Barnes, who was at the center of the
Dudley student council election controversy, or others whose involvement was primarily
connected to the Risings Dudley phases. Regardless of his rationale, Chafes decision to give
primacy to the A&T elements had an interpretive cost. His history of the Rising did not fully
describe its various phases and omitted certain people who played key roles. Moreover, viewing
these events solely or even primarily through a black power lens failed to fully convey the
5 Chafe, 7-10, 172-202. Chafe characterizes Greensboros white establishments approach to the black
liberation movement from the 1940s to the early 1970s under the rubric of the progressive mystique,
the four pillars of which are: (1) strong preference for consensus over conflict a belief that conflict is
destructive as opposed to potentially constructive, which often led to self-delusional claims about
consensus; (2) the sufficiency of apparent openness this Machiavellian concept suggests that it is
sufficient for the existing power base to provide fora for ostensibly candid discussions rather than engage
in genuinely raw dialogue; (3) paternalism a persistent belief, rooted in racist conclusions about racial
inferiority, that blacks need to be taken care of as a parents might care for a child; and (4) civility a
powerful Southern cultural norm that affected all relationships and created a de facto system that
privileged politeness and gentility over substantive, impassioned debate or public protest.
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ideological and methodological complexity that was present at this time within the citys black
community and inadequately assessed the Risings greater implications. This essay is a modest
attempt to supplement and improve upon Chafes strong foundation.6
In his essay, North Carolina A&T Black Power Activists and the Student Organization
for Black Unity, Jelani Favors used the Gate City Rising as a backdrop to examine issues of
political activism at A&T during the late 1960s and early 1970s and its connections to
Greensboros broader black community. More specifically, he examined the development and
role of organizations such as the Student Organization for Black Unity and the Greensboro
Association for Poor People. Like Chafe, Favors positioned the Rising within the larger black
power movement, although he described the distinguishing aspects of Greensboros version of
that ideology. Favors argued that visible barriers to equality were slowly receding in late
1960s Greensboro, but such gains resulted in institutionalized white supremacy . . . becoming
more deeply entrenched. In this shifting environment, A&T-based activists moved toward a
model built upon community rootedness, self-determination, and flexible strategies that could
include militancy. It is understandable that Favors gave primacy to the Risings A&T phase
featuring the National Guard raid given his focus on the architecture and methods of A&T-based
activism. However, his approach did not develop the critical course of events relating to
Dudleys disputed student election, did not sufficiently address the agency of the Dudley activists
who championed that cause, and did not fit black leaders attempts to resolve the dispute into his
framework. Favorss essay drilled deeper into certain aspects of Greensboros black activist
community but did not present a comprehensive analysis of the Rising.7
Claude Barnes, the Gate City Risings original protagonist, offered a firsthand account of
these events in his essay Bullet Holes in the Wall: Reflections on the Dudley/A&T Student
6 Ibid., 185-95.
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Revolt of May 1969. Barnes opined that the Rising was an unappreciated, misunderstood, and
yet essential element of Greensboros black liberation struggle. As a key participant, he provided
an insiders narrative of the Dudley dispute including the disputed student council election, the
purpose and manner of the student protests, and the connections between Dudley and A&T
activists. Barnes concluded that the black communitys successful defense against militarized
policing and the broad support for the activists objectives distinguished the Rising from other
urban rebellions of the period. He emphasized this support was achieved through the
development of effective multi-class coalitions. To Barnes, the Rising was an event that
symbolized the energy and spirit largely absent decades later. It was proof of the power of
protest politics, and more important, illustrated how a local black community could come
together to fight for real change. Despite his credentials as a political science professor, Barness
essay was not an arms length academic assessment, given his direct link to the people and
events about which he wrote. Nevertheless, it complemented Chafe and Favors by giving a
richer picture of the liberation networks prevalent in Greensboro throughout the 1960s.8
Kelton Edmonds, while an A&T graduate student in 1998, authored an unpublished
masters thesis about the Gate City Rising titled, A Powder Keg Waiting to Explode: An
Examination of the 1969 Dudley/A&T Revolt. Edmondss work notably used oral history from
key participants. His primary conclusions were that the Rising was not caused by outside
agitators as claimed at the time by the white political establishment, and that it was consistent
7 Jelani Favors, North Carolina A&T Black Power Activists and the Student Organization for Black
Unity, in Rebellion in Black & White: Southern Student Activism in the 1960s, eds. Robert Cohen and
David J. Snyder (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, Press, 2013), 255-79.
8 Claude W. Barnes, Bullet Holes in the Wall: Reflections on the Dudley/A&T Student Revolt of May
1969, in American National and State Government: An African American View of the Return of
Redemption Politics, Rev. ed., eds., Claude W. Barnes, Samuel A. Moseley, and James D. Steele
(Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 2000), 91-99.
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with the social climate of the late 1960s that included episodic demonstrations and protests on
college campuses and overreaction by politicians and law enforcement. Edmonds implied that
the violence that occurred on A&Ts campus during the Risings latter phases was inevitable due
to the state of race relations in Greensboro at that time coupled with national trends of unrest on
college campuses. He concurred with Chafe that these events are best understood by fitting them
within Greensboros black power movement and argued that the citys black power activists had
adopted a preference for militancy over negotiation by the spring of 1969. Edmondss addition
to the primary source material related to the Rising was significant, but his work did not offer
new insights on its causes and meanings. Moreover, his account did not flesh out the diversity of
the citys black community during the late 1960s, nor did it articulate how these different
elements reacted to and sought to shape the Risings shifting landscape.9
Michael Anthony Williamss documentary, Walls that Bleed, is the most recent narrative
of the Gate City Rising. Walls that Bleed depicted these events as the continuation of
Greensboros activist spirit demonstrated in the 1960 sit-in, the 1962 and 1963 demonstrations,
and unrest after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s assassination. Unlike Chafe and Favors, Williams
gave equal attention to the Dudley and A&T elements of the story. As a documentarian, he
allowed participants to drive the narrative. In addition to giving voice to those who participated
in the Dudley-based activism, Walls that Bleed argued that the events on A&Ts campus are best
understood as black students unifying to defend their campus against an overreaching, violent
assault endorsed and directed by the white political power base. It is worth noting that the film
included few representatives of the political establishment. However, there was diversity within
the African American voices featured, both with respect to the level of involvement with political
9 Kelton Edmonds, A Powder Keg Waiting to Explode: An Examination of the 1969 Dudley/A&T
Revolt, (MA, thesis, North Carolina A & T University, 1998).
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activism as well as interpretations about the Risings meaning. Williams has shown this film a
few times publicly but has not released it in a formal sense.10
Taken together, these five accounts underscore the causal nexus between the
governmental overreaction and the violence that spilled onto A&Ts campus, explore some of the
primary activists involved with the Rising, examine the white establishment fears and
motivations, and offer opinions about the impact of the black power movement on Greensboro.
Nonetheless, these interpretations do not tell the full story, and some mistakenly claim that the
Rising represents a radical change of course for Greensboros black liberation movement.
Therefore, in addition to fighting against possible neglect of these events, this essay is a step in
the direction of ameliorating reductionist interpretations.11
This essay makes two foundational arguments. First, it posits that throughout the 1960s
Greensboros black activists developed and nurtured a networked approach aimed at racial
justice, referred to herein as the Gate City Way. The Gate City Ways core features were creative
coalition building, use of multiple modalities and methods, and openness to youth-led activism.
This essay also argues that the Gate City Ways networks allowed black activists to successfully
handle external threats and internal challenges present during the late 1960s. Notably, black
powers emphasis on self-determination affected the local movement while young activists
motivated by emerging ideologies became essential parts of the network. This essay also
advances two arguments about the Gate City Rising. The principal conclusion is that the Rising
was a continuation of the Gate City Way but also reflected the importance of self-determination
within Greensboros African American community during the latter part of the decade. Finally,

10 Walls That Bleed, directed by Michael A. Williams (Canvas Studios, 2011).

11 Chafe, 172-202; Favors, 255-79; Barnes, 91-99; Edmonds, 1-61; Walls That Bleed.
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this essay rejects claims that the Rising constituted a failure of black leadership or revealed
disunity among black activists. On the contrary, the Rising was a series of events through which
the citys black activists and indeed the wider black community coalesced.
This essay is divided into five sections. Section I (Introduction) previews the Gate City
Rising and offers a historiographical sketch. Section II (The Gate City Way: Greensboros Black
Liberation Movement of the 1960s) describes and analyzes the citys black liberation movement
of the 1960s and introduces the Gate City Way. Delineating the Gate City Ways fundamental
features makes it possible to assess the continuity between the Rising and Greensboros black
liberation tradition. Section III: (The Gate City Way Negotiated: Greensboros Black Liberation
Movement, 1967 through April 1969) examines how during the latter part of the 1960s the Gate
City Way fostered a negotiation about black power ideology and the movements objectives and
strategies. Section IV (The Gate City Rising) narrates the Rising through a five-staged
periodization that tracks events from the origins of the Dudley dispute in April 1969 through the
NCAC report in March 1970. Part V (Conclusion) presents an opportunity to reassemble the key
questions and conclusions in an effort to better understand the Gate City Rising.
It must be noted that because there is power and meaning in the name by which a
historical event is known, this essay adopts the name the Gate City Rising.12 This term is
12 A recent case in point is the conflict over the historical maker to commemorate an event known
alternately as the Greensboro Massacre or the Klan-Nazi Shootout. Gate City Way veteran Lewis
Brandon submitted an application for a historical marker in December 2014. In the event at issue,
members of the Ku Klux Klan and purported neo-Nazis gunned down five activists with ties to the
Communist Workers Party during a demonstration the activists had dubbed a Death to the Klan rally.
The Greensboro City Council recently sparred about whether this event warranted a historical marker and
argued about its substance. One of the most contested elements of the debate was what to call the event.
In the end, a marker bearing the name The Greensboro Massacre was approved (two council members
voted against the name). (See Jeff Sykes, Greensboro Leaders Clash Over Marker for 1979 Klan-Nazi
Shootout, Yes! Weekly, January 16, 2015, http://yesweekly.com/article-19320-greensboro-leaders-clashover-marker-for-1979-klan-nazi-shootout.html; Greensboro Council Approves Massacre Marker,
News & Record Online, February, 3, 2015, http://www.news-record.com/news/greensboro-councilapproves-massacre-marker/article_f785d58c-ac0b-11e4-b257-1369502ee9c1.html.)
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intended to improve upon the three most popular names applied to these events: the Dudley/A&T
Revolt, the Greensboro Riot, and the Greensboro Uprising. These appellations fail to properly
contextualize the events within the citys black liberation movement, have a pejorative tone, or
support reductionist conclusions. In contrast, Gate City, the nickname bestowed on Greensboro
during the 1890s due to its emergence as an important southern railway hub, highlights the citys
unique role within the black liberation struggle. For the past fifty-five years, Greensboro has
served as a hub within this larger movement. According to civil rights icon, former presidential
candidate, and A&T alumnus, Jesse Jackson, Greensboro was a really thriving black center and
was always in the flow of social, cultural traffic. In addition, the term rising is offered as a
modest improvement on uprising, because of its capacity to serve as both noun and verb. As a
noun, it is synonymous with uprising, but as a verb it connotes flight. In this sense, rising refers
to Greensboros ascent as an important center for new formulations of the black liberation
struggle, such as black power, while also reflecting the work left to do.13
II.The Gate City Way: Greensboros Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s
In many material respects the Gate City Rising was consistent with Greensboros black
liberation movement of the 1960s, i.e. the Gate City Way. This section focuses on the
development of the Gate City Ways distinct contours and cadences from 1960 through 1966.
The Gate City Way was not a rigid, inflexible doctrine, nor was it a local byproduct of the
national discourse on racial justice. Instead, the Gate City Way was a locally developed
amalgam of pragmatism and audacity developed by Greensboro men and women who valued
diversity of thought and action.

13 History of Greensboro, City of Greensboro, North Carolina, www.greensboro-nc.gov.index.aspx?

page=142; Eric Ginsburg, Jesse Jackson, Yes!Weekly, July 17, 2013, yesweekly.com/article-16293jesse-jackson.html.
10

Three fundamental features of the Gate City Way warrant special attention here because
of their relevance to the Rising. First, the Gate City Way was adept at creative coalition building.
Greensboros black activists developed networks of communication and cooperation that
included both quasi-permanent as well as ad hoc coalitions. Closely related to this first operating
principle was the Gate City Ways emphasis on waging a multiple-front battle for racial justice.
Activists believed that successful pressure politics could assume many forms, which encouraged
experimentation. Lastly, the Gate City Way came to value youth activism. Student activists
brought energy and zeal to the movement, and often constituted its vanguard. The Gate City Way
did not guarantee results, nor did it forestall all internal conflict. Nevertheless, it held together
through a remarkably turbulent decade and promoted a richer, deeper brand of unity during and
immediately after the Rising.14
When Reverend Cecil Bishop moved to Greensboro from Washington, D.C. in 1960 to
pastor the Trinity AME Zion Church, he was distressed to see the extent to which Greensboro
remained a segregated town with clear lines of racial demarcation. In addition to geographic
segregation, the citys black community remained virtually locked out of political power at the
municipal level, which made creative and persistent activism the only way to achieve bona fide
change. Consequently, the black activist community developed and nurtured networks that
facilitated communication and cooperation that could be tailored to particular challenges. This
networked approach allowed local activists to represent national organizations, such as the
14 Otis Hairston, Sr., interview by William H. Chafe, Greensboro, North Carolina, 1977, William Henry
Chafe Oral History Collection, Civil Rights Greensboro Digital Archive Project,
http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/735; Cecil Bishop, interview by William H.
Chafe, Greensboro, North Carolina, October 12, 1977, William Henry Chafe Oral History Collection,
Civil Rights Greensboro Digital Archive Project,
http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/752; Cecil Bishop, interview by Eugene E.
Pfaff, Jr., February 5, 1985, Greensboro Voices/Greensboro Public Library Oral History Project,
http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/805.
11

Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) and the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP), while working across institutional lines to meet local needs. Bishop
described black leadership in Greensboro during the 1960s as a dispersed kind of leadership that
many people provided, because everybody had the same problem.15
The Coordinating Committee, forged in the fires of mid-1963, epitomized the Gate City
Ways networked approach. Like the 1960 sit-in, students sparked the 1962 and 1963
desegregation demonstrations, but by the spring of 1963 these mass protests involved people
from all segments of the black community. In response to this community consensus, black
leaders representing the local branches of CORE and NAACP, as well as homegrown
organizations such as the Greensboro Citizens Association (GCA), the Greensboro Mens Club
(Mens Club), and the Ministerial Alliance, formed the Coordinating Committee in order to
speak with one voice during negotiations with city officials. The Coordinating Committee, using
the protests as leverage, pressured Mayor David Schenck to appeal to businesses to change their
policies. This coalition also helped to organize a silent march of over one thousand and seven
hundred African American adults to vividly illustrate the broad support the demonstrations had
within the citys black community and that the protests were more than student agitation. In
response to the mounting pressure, Mayor Schenck declared that it was the right time to throw
aside the shackles of past customs, and in the ensuing weeks several white-owned enterprises
heeded his call and ceased their discriminatory business practices.16
15 Cecil Bishop interview, October 12, 1977; George Simkins, interview by Karen Kruse Thomas,
Greensboro, North Carolina, April 6, 1997, Southern Oral History Program Collection, #4007,
docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/R-0018/R-0018.html.
16 Cecil Bishop interview, October 12, 1977; Chafe, 119-52; Eric Ginsburg, Jesse Jackson, Yes!Weekly,
July 17, 2013, yesweekly.com/article-16293-jesse-jackson.html; Jo Spivey, Schenck Releases Statement
in Regard to Race Relations, Greensboro Record, June 7, 1963; Jo Spivey, Schenck Is Encouraged by
Response to Proposal, Greensboro Record, June 12, 1963. Greensboro police captain, William Jackson,
told Rev. Otis Hairston, Coordinating Committee member, that he knew that older adult white
12

Based on its work during the 1963 demonstrations, the Coordinating Committee became
a key part of the network already favored by Greensboros African American activists. It did not
issue edicts, but instead provided a forum for adult and young activists to consider issues and
strategies, and urged but did not compel delegates to support consensus when it could be
reached. According to Bishop, the idea was that the Coordinating Committee would be
representative of the total black community. The Coordinating Committees delegates retained
their primary affiliations as pastoral leaders, or officers of other organizations. Hence, the GCA
continued their voter registration efforts, the Mens Club continued to serve sundry purposes
ranging from social club to political action committee, and black ministers continued to inform
and counsel their congregations. Additionally, black activists formed connections with
interracial groups committed to social justice issues such as the YWCA, the American Friends
Service Committee, and eventually the Human Relations Commission. The fact that the
Coordinating Committee never became a top-down entity, did not try to usurp power from its
constituent parts, and supported the formation of other creative coalitions, speaks to the high
value Greensboros black activists placed on strategic diversity. The Coordinating Committees
structure was firm enough to encourage cooperation but loose enough not to stifle innovation and
initiative. Thus, it represented the best of the Gate City Way.17
community got the message when you had 1,700 to 1,800 people marching downtown to demonstrate
their support. See Otis Hairston, Sr., interview 1977.
17 Cecil Bishop interview, February 5, 1985; Sarah Herbin, interview by Eugene E. Pfaff, Jr.,
Greensboro, North Carolina, December 14, 1983, Greensboro Voices/Greensboro Public Library Oral
History Project, http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/842; Sarah Herbin, interview
by Kathy Hoke, Greensboro, North Carolina, June 5, 1990, Greensboro Voices/Greensboro Public Library
Oral History Project, http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/853; Jo Spivey, Monday
Action Set on Race Proposals, Greensboro Record, June 14, 1963. In late 1967 the Greensboro Mens
Club published an open letter to pressure the city government to enact policies favorable to the black
community. The open letters specific demands included replacing the at-large city council election
process with a ward system, application for the Model City federal grant program, construction of a
north-south artery to relieve traffic conditions that adversely affected black neighborhoods, and
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Another striking feature of the Gate City Way was its strategic use of an asymmetrical, multiple
front racial justice campaign. Even before the advent of black power ideology and methodology,
the black liberation movement on the national level experienced internal strife about the best way
to achieve change. The NAACP privileged litigation, the Southern Christian Leadership Council
(SCLC) saw non-violent, direct action as the essential strategy, and the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) felt that change was best achieved at the grassroots level.
While these groups cooperated on many levels, they also engaged in turf wars and disagreements
about priorities. In Greensboro during the 1960s, however, activists had access to all paths so
long as they were linked to the broad goal of racial justice. This faith in multifarious activity is
exemplified by the experiences of two Gate City Way warriors of the 1960s: Lewis Brandon,
who emerged as a young leader capable of balancing graduate school at A&T with an
indefatigable commitment to social justice; and Dr. George Simkins, a veteran of the cause who
called out and tried to eradicate discrimination wherever it resided. Both men were affiliated
with national organizations with specific agendas and emphases, but neither let these
relationships trump what they saw as best for the local community.18
appointment of blacks to city and county boards and commissions, as well as the Selective Service Board.
The leaders punctuated their demands by stating that it is regrettable that we must take negative action
when our concerns for Greensboro is positive, but history has shown that our voice is rarely heard. (See
Open Letter: To Superintendent of Guilford County Schools, Carolina Peacemaker, December 16,
1967.)
18 David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (New York: Harper Collins, 1986), 184-85, 202, 482-89; Taylor Branch, At Canaans Edge:
America in the King Years, 1965-68 (New York, Simon & Schuster, 2006), 23, 31, 298-99, 487-89, 51940, 610; Peniel E. Joseph, Waiting Til The Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in
America (New York: Holt & Company, 2006), 130-47; George Simkins interview, April 6, 1997; Public
Hearing of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, testimony of Lewis A. Brandon, III,
July 15, 2005, http://www.greensborotrc.org/hear_statements.php; Lewis A. Brandon, III, interview by
Justin Payne, Greensboro, North Carolina, February 26, 2009, Brock Museum/Greensboro College Oral
History Collection, http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/1530; Lewis A. Brandon,
III, interview by William H. Chafe, Greensboro, North Carolina, July 1978, William Henry Chafe Oral
History Collection, Civil Rights Greensboro Digital Archive Project,
14

Brandons activism not only touched nearly every major point on Greensboros black liberation
timeline during the 1960s and beyond, but his involvement crossed numerous organizational
boundaries and deployed multiple strategies. He helped organize high school students for the
1960 sit-in and continued this work after the television cameras receded. In 1962, he became
part of the COREs initial leadership team in Greensboro, and through this organization
expanded his repertoire to include community organizing aimed at resolving intractable problems
such as substandard housing. As a graduate student in 1966, he lobbied to end A&Ts mandatory
ROTC program, while he simultaneously assisted with NAACP voter registration drives. Near
the end of the decade he became involved with the United Neighborhood Improvement Team,
which later became the Greensboro Association of Poor People, in order to work toward
economic justice. Examining Brandons activism during the 1960s reveals how those called to
cause of racial justice in Greensboro embraced multiple methods to reach the movements goals.
Further, they did not allow organizational affiliations to serve as barriers, and instead consciously
focused on utilizing and improving the network.19
Dr. George Simkins was a highly respected and uncommonly effective leader within
Greensboros black community for more than half a century. A dentist by trade, he used his
position as the local leader of the NAACP to work for racial justice. Unlike the national office,
however, Simkins believed firmly in a variegated approach to reform. He is best known for antidiscrimination litigation to desegregate Greensboros public recreation facilities, hospitals and
public schools, although he also publicly criticized private discrimination, such as the race-based
admissions policy of Guilford College. In the 1963 demonstrations Simkins found numerous

http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/757.
19 Lewis A. Brandon, III, testimony at Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
15

ways to affect the outcome. He coordinated with CORE activists, negotiated behind the scenes,
and then became a member of the mayors Special Committee on Human Relations. What set
Simkins apart, however, was his refusal to be limited to these traditional avenues of change. He
initiated protest politics when he deemed it to be the preferred route, as with his effort to
desegregate Guilford County jails. Simkins defied the NAACPs national office by supporting
the original sit-in the night after it started and even connected former members of the NAACPs
disbanded youth chapter with CORE. William Thomas, one of the defectors from the NAACP
youth chapter and subsequent local head of CORE during the 1962 and 1963 demonstrations,
lauded Simkins leadership during the sit-in campaign and referred to him as a maverick.
Simkins described his own efforts as cutting against the grain of conservatism that predominated
among Greensboros black leadership prior to the 1960s. Simkinss perspective was
straightforward; he supported those efforts that were most likely to achieve tangible results. He
was in many respects the first among equals, and his openness to different methods and
multiple targets helped to craft the Gate City Ways modus operandi.20
The Gate City Way also came to value youth initiative, even leadership. During the
1960s, A&T and Bennett College were at the center of this activism. Four A&T freshmen, Ezell
Blair, Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond, known collectively as the
Greensboro Four, initiated the 1960 sit-in, which inspired a wave of similar action throughout the
nation. In 1962, A&T students such as William Thomas and Jesse Jackson reinvigorated the
campaign to desegregate Greensboros downtown commercial district. Later in the decade, A&T
20 George Simkins interview, April 6, 1997; William Thomas, Jr., interview by William H. Chafe,
Greensboro, North Carolina, undated, William Henry Chafe Oral History Collection, Civil Rights
Greensboro Digital Archive Project, http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/781;
Rhoda Lois Blumberg, Civil Rights: The 1960s Freedom Struggle, Rev. ed. (New York: Twayne
Publishers, 1991), 75-76; Jo Spivey, Committee Urges Equal Treatment for All Persons, Greensboro
Record, May 24, 1963; Jordan Green, Greensboro Civil Rights History Comes Alive in A&T Archive,
Yes!Weekly, December 8, 2010, yesweekly.com/article-permalink-11038.html.
16

students protested Vietnam, demonstrated for an increase in state funding to the school, and
rallied for the termination of mandatory ROTC. Female Aggies waged a highly successful
campaign to end campus policies that discriminated on the basis of gender. At A&T, academics
and activism were not separate pursuits, rather they were coequal parts of a holistic approach to
working toward a more just society. Bennett College students displayed a similar commitment to
activism. They helped to sketch out the sit-in plan and participated in its implementation.
Additionally, they served as the sustaining forces after the fervor of the sit-in campaign
subsided and were directly involved with the 1962 and 1963 desegregation demonstrations.21
Dudley students were also an essential element of Greensboros student activist tradition.
Three of the Greensboro Four were Dudley men. Dudley students were instrumental in the
formation of the Student Executive Committee for Justice, which recruited students from
Greensboros all-black high schools to continue the sit-ins when A&Ts spring semester ended.
In February 1961, these students led the effort to continue the desegregation movement by
targeting downtown movie theatres. Throughout 1962 and 1963 Dudley students or alumni
continued to constitute a significant portion of the active demonstrators working toward full
desegregation of the citys downtown commercial district. Moreover, there were strong bonds
between A&T and Bennett and Dudley High School, due in large part to the number of Dudley
students who went on to attend those institutions. Finally, the Gate City Ways roster was replete
with Dudley alumni, including leaders such as Dr. Simkins and William Thomas.22
21 Linda Beatrice Brown, Belles of Liberty: Gender, Bennett College and the Civil Rights Movement
(Seattle: Women and Wisdom Foundation, 2013), 69-94; Linda Beatrice Brown, interview by C-Span,
Greensboro, North Carolina, January 22, 2015, www.c-span.org/video/?324066-1/book-discussion-bellesliberty; Karen Hughes and Cat McDowell, Desegregation of Greensboro Businesses, 1962-1963, Civil
Rights Greensboro, libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/essay1963/collection/CivilRights.
22 Lewis Brandon interview, February 26, 2009; George Simkins interview, April 6, 1997; William
Thomas, Jr. interview, undated.
17

Each of the Gate City Ways hallmarks creative coalition building, multiple front
capability, and youth activism continued into the late 1960s and through the Rising itself. This
continuity helped the movement weather an unprecedented assortment of external challenges and
internal questions during this period. However, this period was also a time of change, as internal
negotiation among Greensboros black activists reshaped the Gate City Way. The next section
examines the negotiation period from 1967 to the verge of the Rising.

III.The Gate City Way Negotiated: Greensboros Black Liberation Movement, 1967 through
April 1969
The Gate City Ways networked approach was proficient at adapting to a changing
environment. This adaptability was tested in unprecedented ways from 1967 to the Risings
origins in April 1969. External threats and internal challenges raised the temperature enough to
remold Greensboros black liberation movement, but its essential chemical composition endured.
The Gate City Way fostered a negotiation process among veterans and newer activists that kept
the movement on track despite the periods seemingly poisonous atmosphere. By the start of the
Rising in April 1969, much of this negotiation process already had taken place. Therefore, the
negotiation period of the late 1960s is a vital component of analyzing the Rising.
In many respects, Greensboros black community was besieged during the late 1960s.
On the political front, Robert Scott was elected governor of North Carolina in November 1968
based largely on his promise to take a hard line against crime and disorder. During the
campaign, Scott had generally dismissed issues that affected blacks and pandered to reactionary
and segregation-minded elements. Greensboros black community had good cause to be
concerned about Scotts election, especially when coupled with Richard Nixons presidential
victory. In local politics, Jack Elam became Greensboro mayor in the spring of 1969. Although
18

Elam had experienced the movement firsthand as city attorney, appointee to the Human
Relations Committee, and longtime city councilor, he seemed to be, at best, a reluctant reformer
who valued civic calm above all else. Elam claimed that Greensboro could not make
meaningful strides in race relations until all forms of segregation were eradicated, but he did not
believe such change was possible in the near term. Accordingly, Greensboros black community
had no reason to see a change at the top of municipal government as a positive sign.23
The establishments often irrational fear of disorder posed another threat to Greensboros
black community. In February 1968 the North Carolina Good Neighbor Council, an advisory
body to the governor, met to discuss how to avoid what many viewed as the inevitability of
violence in the streets during the summer of 1968. This pervasive paranoia about the prospect
of urban violence coming to North Carolina, often connected to white views about race, may
help to explain a series of questionable police actions in Greensboro in the twenty four months
leading up to the Rising. In May 1967, police beat four young men with blackjacks in front of
their mother when responding to a call about illegal street racing. In October 1968, some
accused officers of having used excessive force during an arrest that put a black sanitation
worker in the hospital. In February 1969, nine police cars and a busload of reinforcements
harassed black attendees at a commemoration of Malcolm Xs death four years earlier and
detonated a tear gas canister during the event. In March 1969, local law enforcement opened fire
on a group of young black men near A&Ts campus, wounding an innocent bystander. The
bystander claimed that the police fired their weapons at the backs of the fleeing group. Local
23Michael Hill, Robert Walker Scott: Governor: 1969-1973, NCpedia, s.v.,
http://ncpedia.org/biography/governors/scott-robert; Crystal R. Sanders, North Carolina Justice on
Display: Governor Bob Scott and the 1968 Benson Affair, The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 79, No.
3 (August 2013): 671-74; Editorial, Carolina Peacemaker, November 25, 1967; A.D. Hopkins, Jr., New
Council, Old Problems, Greensboro Record, May 7, 1969; Editorial, Mayor Elams New Priorities Set
Clear Course for City, Greensboro Record, May 14, 1969; Editorial, The Agenda is Crowded for Citys
New Council, Greensboro Record, May 8, 1969; Editorial, Carolina Peacemaker, December 7, 1968.
19

police appeared to have adopted an aggressive stance against anything they deemed to challenge
civic stability, particularly when the activities in question involved African Americans.24
In a related phenomenon, many elected officials pursued a policy of preemptive action,
whereby they viewed protest politics as a threat per se and used overwhelming force against even
relatively minor disturbances during such demonstrations. The deployment of National Guard
units became a standard policing device. In Greensboro this trend of militarized policing was
driven home in the immediate aftermath of Dr. Martin Luther Kings assassination. Just hours
after the tragedy in Memphis, Mayor Carson Bain requested and Governor Dan Moore ordered
National Guard troops to descend on the citys predominantly black neighborhood near A&T.
These political leaders later indicated that they had executed a plan agreed to six months prior,
revealing the high-priority status the issue of potential urban violence had achieved by late 1967.
Indeed, in the days following Dr. Kings assassination, Governor Moore ordered guardsmen to
deploy in Goldsboro, Raleigh, and Wilmington. In Greensboro, Bains request was ostensibly
linked to reports of vandalism by black demonstrators. By Saturday, Greensboro was under its
first ever curfew and over one thousand guardsmen patrolled the citys African American
sections in what Colonel Guy Langston, force commander on the scene, called a military
tactical situation. On Sunday, police officers camped outside of black churches based on the
apparent premise that any large assembly of blacks posed a threat. Members of Greensboros
black community criticized these excessive tactics and blamed escalating violence on the
presence of the National Guard.25

24 Major Burch Promises Unbiased Report on Police: Investigate Brutality, Carolina Peacemaker,
May 11, 1967; Arthur Johnsey, Good Neighbor Problem: Violence Not Inevitable in State, Council
Told, Greensboro Daily News, February 21, 1968; Sanitation Worker Incident, Carolina Peacemaker,
October 26, 1968; Black Man Shot by Stray Police Fire, Carolina Peacemaker, March 22, 1969.
20

The manner in which city and state officials decided to handle unrest after Dr. Kings
assassination drove a deeper wedge between black and white in the Gate City. What is more, the
Greensboro Daily News lauded Mayor Bains handling of these circumstances, and called for
the black man, tempted to vent his wrath and frustration, to make this a time for creative
utilization of the vast emotional forces set in motion. Then-council member Elam responded to
arguments that the city had trampled on African Americans civil rights by asserting that there
could be no civil rights without law and order. A decade later, Mayor Bain recalled that the citys
handling of the post-assassination unrest was a model to other communities and helped to make
Greensboro a better community. The Rising showed this claim to be utterly preposterous.26
In addition to concerns about the militarization of law enforcement and excessive force,
Greensboros African American community faced the growing threat of Klan violence during the
negotiation period. In the summer of 1967 local Klansmen waged a terror campaign against
Reverend Frank Williams, minister of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, because he had purchased a
home in a previously all-white neighborhood. Over the course of several weeks, they tossed
bricks and other items at or into Williamss home, hurled insults and threats while driving by,
burned two crosses on a nearly property, and delivered speeches from the bed of a pickup truck
25 Negroes March Here; National Guard Called, Greensboro Daily News, April 5, 1968; Three
Wounded as Gunfire Breaks Out in A&T Area, Greensboro Daily News, April 6, 1968; Moore Orders
Guardsmen to Goldsboro, Wilmington, Greensboro Daily News, April 7, 1968; Owen Lewis, We
Suffered Injuries, Inflicted None, Greensboro Daily News, April 7, 1968; Kent Pollock, Greensboros
Mayor Imposes City Curfew, Greensboro Daily News, April 7, 1968; Greensboro Scene: Peace and
Curfew, Greensboro Daily News, April 7, 1968; Dick Vission, The Truth Behind the A&T University
Riots, Carolina Peacemaker, April 20, 1969. A group of concerned students from Duke, NC State, and
the UNC delivered a petition to Governor Moore affirming these same views and requesting that he end
the occupation of Greensboro and other communities. (See Students Ask Intervention by Moore,
Greensboro Daily News, April 8, 1968.)
26 Editorial, To Deny Violence its Victory, Greensboro Daily News, April 7, 1968; City Placed Under
Curfew Until Further Notice by Bain, Greensboro Daily News, April 7, 1968; Carson Bain, interview by
Eugene E. Pfaff, Jr., June 30, 1977, Greensboro Voices/Greensboro Public Library Oral History Project,
http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/791.
21

parked close by. The public and habitual nature of this activity raised doubts about local law
enforcements resolve to deal with the problem. Some complained that the Greensboro police
departments response was aimed as much at alleged criminal responses by blacks as on this
insidious race-based violence. Indeed, white vigilantism had played a central role in triggering
the troubles following Dr. Kings assassination, but the police focused only on the alleged
misconduct of blacks. This same discriminatory pattern would resurface during the Rising.27
The Gate City Way persevered despite these myriad threats. Since the early 1960s the
movements strength had been the pursuit of racial justice through creative coalition building.
The continuation of this practice during the latter part of the decade helped Greensboro to
negotiate its principal internal challenge the emergence of black power ideology in a way that
ultimately benefitted the movement. In the fall of 1967, just over a year after Stokely
Carmichael first uttered the words black power during the Meredith March in Mississippi, the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro hosted the Black Power Forum. Academics such as
Dr. James Brewer, then a history professor at North Carolina College; Dr. Nathan Hare, a
sociology professor formerly with Howard University and author of the controversial book, The
Black Anglo-Saxons; and Howard Fuller of the Foundation for Community Development in
Durham introduced black power ideology and practice. One year later, Carmichael delivered a
speech at A&T that emphasized the need for black men to take care of their own people first. He
identified himself as a revolutionary not a militant, because his aim was not to force the system
to change but to dismantle it by whatever means necessary.28
Black powers core message of self-determination gained currency within Greensboros
African American community during the negotiation period, due in large part to the walls of
27 Harassed and Intimidated: Negro Minister Gets Protection by Police, Carolina Peacemaker, July
14, 1967; Frank Williams Discusses Events of Past Three Weeks, Carolina Peacemaker, July 23, 1967;
Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Final Report, 100-101; Chafe, 160-63.
22

political separation erected and protected by the establishment, militarized policing aimed at
blacks, and the reality of white terror in the city. A commitment to self-determination drove
Nelson Johnson and others to form the Greensboro Association for Poor People (GAPP). GAPP
oversaw six neighborhood associations to work directly on issues such as substandard housing,
fallout from the citys redevelopment schemes, and social welfare issues. Housing was a
particular area of focus as many African Americans in Greensboro not only faced a lack of hot
water, faulty appliances, and dangerous electrical wiring, but were also exploited by abusive
landlords. GAPP altered this dynamic through a strength in numbers philosophy. GAPP
could bring out a hundred students to stand with a mother [who faced] evict[ion] from slum
housing. GAPP employed some heavy-handed tactics, and Johnsons style, particularly when
dealing with the white establishment, could be confrontational. Indeed, some Gate City Way
veterans such as attorney Henry Frye and businessman Herman Gist expressed concern over
Johnsons methods at various times. Nonetheless, GAPPs substantive mission, to work on
grassroots problems, was wholly consistent with the movements objectives, and GAPP quickly
embraced the Gate City Ways networked approach to cooperative activism. In fact, GAPP was
headquartered in space provided by the NAACP, several Gate City Way veterans served as
sponsors, and Johnson forged effective partnerships with influential black business leaders such
as A.S. Webb and B.J. Battle of the American Federal Savings and Loan Association.29
28 The Black Power Forum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, November 1-3, 1967,
University of North Carolina at Greensboro,
http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/2640; Editorial, Black Power Conference,
Carolina Peacemaker, November 11, 1967; J. Lewis Womack, UNC-G Students Hold Forum on Subject
of Black Power, Carolina Peacemaker, November 11, 1967; Editorial, Carolina Peacemaker, December
14, 1968.
29 Sally A. Bermanzohn, Through Survivors Eyes: From the Sixties to the Greensboro Massacre
(Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2003), 75-76; Signe Waller, Love and Revolution: A Political
Memoir (New York: Bowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002), 39-51, Barnes, 92-94; Favors, 258-60;
Nelson Johnson, interview by William H. Chafe, October 24, 1978, William Henry Chafe Oral History
23

The GAPP story illustrates the complexity of the Gate City Ways interaction with black
power. This emerging ideology precipitated a vigorous debate about the movements style and
substance through which activists with black power leanings became legitimate participants in
the network. Largely through this new group of activists, all of whom either grew up in
Greensboro or attended one of the citys historically black colleges, the Gate City Way reached a
point where unified defense of the black community became a paramount concern. However, the
young activists inspired by black power ideology also learned how to work within a diverse
network and came to see the value in other elements of the movement such as direct action and
traditional political avenues. Black power activism did not erode the Gate City Ways
fundamental features; it bolstered them.30
Cooperative ventures involving black power activists were not the only examples of creative
coalition building during the negotiation period. For instance, the Greensboro Citizens
Emergency Committee (CEC) was formed to defend high school students who had been
disciplined for not attending school in order to watch the telecast of Dr. Kings memorial. The
CEC passed resolutions condemning the suspensions and grade penalties adopted by the two
schools, and requested that school officials issue a public apology. Much like the Coordinating
Committee before it, the CEC continued beyond the immediate controversy that gave it birth. Its
leadership included Gate City Way veterans Otis Hairston and Cecil Bishop, and its mission was
Collection, Civil Rights Greensboro Digital Archive Project,
http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/741; James Allen, interview by William Link,
September 11, 1990, UNCG Centennial Oral History Project Collection,
http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/OralHisCo/id/6975/rec/4; Gun Totin Landlord
Reacts to Meeting Invitation, Carolina Peacemaker, July 27, 1968; Richard Vission, Disgrace of
Housing in Greensboro, Carolina Peacemaker, January 13, 20, 27 and February 3, 1969, four-part
series; Nelson Johnson, interview by author, Greensboro, North Carolina, February 27, 2015.
30 Nelson Johnson interview, February 27, 2015; Claude Barnes interview; Favors, 255-60; Barnes,
Bullet Holes in the Wall, 92-94.
24

to work toward the betterment of the total black community. By the summer of 1968, the CEC
was engaged in a number of projects, including boycotts, aimed at ending discriminatory
employment practices.31
The Gate City Way also continued to promote a multiple-front strategy during this time.
For instance, GAPP not only worked on housing and redevelopment issues, but actively
campaigned for attorney Henry Frye for the state legislature and Dr. Reginald Hawkins for
governor. GAPP also started to work on labor issues such as their assistance with A&Ts
cafeteria workers strike for higher wages. At this same time, business leader A.S. Webb, along
with the GCA and the NAACP, called for the resignation of Greensboro superintendent of
schools, Philip Weaver, for failing to adequately pursue the citys bid for a Model Cities
neighborhood renewal grant from the federal department of Housing Education & Welfare and
for failing to integrate Greensboros public schools. Dr. Simkins, in the true spirit of the Gate
City Way, approached school integration from various angles. He backed Webbs approach, took
to the press himself, and made a formal presentation to the Greensboro school board concerning
how refusal to comply with federal guidelines would jeopardize over one million dollars in
education funding. Simultaneously, he worked with the NAACP to prepare to litigate if the
31 Howard E. Covington, Jr., Henry Frye: North Carolinas First African American Chief Justice
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing, 2013), 92; Hal Sieber, interview by William H. Chafe,
Greensboro, North Carolina, November 1974, William Henry Chafe Oral History Collection, Civil Rights
Greensboro Digital Archive Project, http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/770;
Citizens Emergency Committee Newsletter, Carolina Peacemaker, July 6, 1968; Forty Black Students
Suspended for King Memorial, Carolina Peacemaker, April 13, 1968; Citizens Emergency Committee
Newsletter, Carolina Peacemaker, July 6, 1968; CEC to Investigate City, County Hiring Practices,
Carolina Peacemaker, July 27, 1968. Affiliations with national organizations continued to complement
local coalitions. During this period local activists worked with SCLC to launch Operation Breadbasket
and to commit to the abolition of capital punishment and the completion of school integration. One
month later, an interracial group petitioned the Urban League for a Greensboro chapter. (See
Breadbasket Chief Visits Piedmont, Carolina Peacemaker, January 13, 1968; A&T Opens Doors to
S.C.L.C., Carolina Peacemaker, March 29, 1969; Greensboro Citizens to Ask for Urban League,
Carolina Peacemaker, April 5, 1969.)
25

school boards gamesmanship continued, a strategy that eventually broke the governmental
gridlock. Finally, a few black leaders, including Simkins and Frye, tried unsuccessfully to gain
admission into a newly formed social organization, the Ambassadors Club. Their effort was
intended as another way to gauge race relations in Greensboro. The late 1960s presented
numerous issues, but the Gate City Ways multiple-front strategy was up to the challenge.32
Young activists were as engaged in the movement during the negotiation period as they
had been earlier in the decade. GAPP nurtured connections among student activists at black
educational institutions through, among other things, a thriving internship program in which
young people worked on community-based programs. This work complemented A&Ts
community-based programs that relied on student involvement, such as its federally funded
program to train and equip leaders of Greensboros low-income neighborhoods. A&T students
also continued the Gate City Ways tradition of protest politics. In July 1968, nursing students
rallied to support the Dean of the School of Nursing when she was demoted. In December 1968
and February 1969, students promulgated a list a demands that included dismissal of professors
they believed to be incompetent, modification of certain aspects of the dress code, and changes
to certain academic policies. These actions can be seen as part of the wider student protest
movement and the black student protest movement, but they also share a common lineage with
A&T activism from earlier in the decades. The most important point is that young black men
and women in Greensboro were energized during the late 1960s, and their concerns involved
their education, their school, and their community. This spirit was at the heart of the Rising.33

32 Negroes Rejected by Ambassador Club, Carolina Peacemaker, August 25, 1967; Douglas McAdoo,
Other Blacks Join Webb in Asking Weavers Ouster, Carolina Peacemaker, December 28, 1968; A&T
Food Strike Settled, Carolina Peacemaker, March 22, 1969; Forget Appeals Simkins Urges,
Greensboro Record, May 2, 1969; Nelson Johnson interview, October 24, 1978; Nelson Johnson
interview, February 27, 2015.
26

The establishment of the Carolina Peacemaker in March 1967 assisted all three aspects
of the Gate City Way. John Marshall Stevenson, a former A&T professor, created the weekly
newspaper with the express goal of unifying Greensboros black community. The Peacemaker
was far from perfect and a review of Stevensons editorials reveal a certain amount of uneasiness
about the Gate City Ways rejection of a top-down command structure. Nevertheless, the paper
was instrumental to the negotiation period for three key reasons. It kept the black community
informed of successes and issues, and applied continuous pressure on white Greensboro. The
Peacemaker, for instance, ran a multi-part series in 1968 on the abysmal state of housing in
many of Greensboros black neighborhoods. Second, it gave voice to a diverse set of opinions. A
conservative column by Roy Wilkins might appear alongside a piece lauding the bravado of
young black activists. Throughout the negotiation period, Stevenson devoted a great deal of
space to facilitating a debate about black power. His own editorials on the subject reflect how
elements of the philosophy resonated even with Gate City Way veterans. Third, the paper
regularly celebrated youth activism and achievement. Stevenson clearly understood the direct
connection between young people and Greensboros black liberation movement. Although
Stevenson was his own man, he generally supported the Gate City Ways multifarious projects.34

33 Favors, 258-60; Barnes, Bullet Holes in the Wall, 92-98; Bermanzohn, Through Survivors Eyes, 7578; Martha Biondi, The Black Revolution on Campus (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012),
157-60; Nursing School Revolt at A&T State University, Carolina Peacemaker, July 6, 1968; Richard E.
Moore, A&T Steps Up Interest in Solving Urban Concerns, Carolina Peacemaker, March 1, 1969.
34 Chafe, 213-15; Editorial, Responsible Voices Not White-wash Defends the People, Carolina
Peacemaker, May 18, 1967; Dick Vission, Editorial, Make the Peacemaker Militant, Carolina
Peacemaker, September 28, 1968; The Roy Wilkins Column, Freedom from Violence New Year
Promises, Carolina Peacemaker, January 13, 1968; Editorial, From Firebrand to Conciliator, Carolina
Peacemaker, January 18, 1969; The Roy Wilkins Column, Black College Militants Want Jim Crow,
Carolina Peacemaker, January 25, 1969; Editorial, Why Blacks Hate and Fight the Police, Carolina
Peacemaker, June 14, 1969.
27

Greensboros black liberation movement marched forward during the late 1960s because
of the Gate City Way. This networked approach not only provided a ready means by which to
deal with political intransigence, the militarization of law enforcement, and the presence of white
terror, but also facilitated an efficacious negotiation about how best to achieve racial justice. The
Gate City Way was instrumental in channeling the passion of black power into projects that
benefitted the citys African American community and absorbed new activists into its creative
coalitions and multiple-front campaigns. However, these new voices, particularly the young men
and women who were inspired by the concept of self-determination, acted boldly to accelerate
and expand the movement. This apparent paradox of continuity and change defines the Gate
City Way on the verge of the Rising.
IV.The Gate City Rising
Greensboros black liberation movement had made progress throughout the 1960s.
Activist pressure led to the eventual desegregation of many businesses, A&T alums became the
first African Americans to graduate from the states best law schools, Greensboro attorney Henry
Frye became the first black legislator in North Carolina since Reconstruction, and Jimmie I.
Barber became the first black elected to the city council in several years. However, in the spring
of 1969, Greensboros African American community still faced a raft of obstacles and threats.
High unemployment, particularly among young black males; a local political system clinging to
white supremacy, as exemplified by the refusal to integrate the school system, and militarized
policing that had come to view any mass gathering of blacks as a threat to public safety were just
some of the problems facing Greensboros African American community.35
35 Barnes interview; Nelson Johnson interview, February 27, 2015; Barnes, Bullet Holes in the Wall,
91-93; First Negro Law Graduate, Carolina Peacemaker, October 21, 1967; First Negro Law
Graduate, Carolina Peacemaker, November 4, 1967; Lumping of Negro Colleges Called Unfair by
A&T Prexy, Carolina Peacemaker, November 4, 1967
28

As in the past, the Gate City Way represented the best path forward. Accordingly,
movement veterans and student activists continued to construct coalitions and pursue movement
goals from multiple angles. Students became the leading voices on the need to ameliorate
poverty, and practiced what they preached by working at the grassroots level. Black powers
message of self-determination made an indelible mark, but the Gate City Way shaped how this
concept was understood and practiced. By April 1969, Greensboros black liberation movement,
while not monolithic, had cohered to a significant degree. At precisely this time, African
American solidarity was put to the test. The Gate City Rising struck directly at the black
communitys values and self-image and threatened to undo its hard-won cohesion. In the end,
however, the Gate City Way endured, and this moment of great consequence exposed the
stubborn persistence of white supremacy and paternalism among Greensboros political elite.36
This section offers a narrative of the Gate City Rising by employing a periodization
model that divides the events into five interconnected but discernible phases. The Risings initial
phase, Profile of a Subversive, encompasses the pre-election edicts laid down by Dudleys
administration that barred Claude Barnes from seeking office and extends through the ensuing
student council election. The second phase, Young Activists Out Front, Again, describes how
Barnes and a small cadre of supporters used the election results as a political moment to attempt
to achieve genuine change at Dudley. The third phase, More Than an Election, tracks how this
widening controversy touched other elements of Greensboros black community, and how certain
people and organizations worked to obtain information about the issues involved and to adopt
political strategies designed to remedy not only the immediate conflict but to achieve broader
36 Bermanzohn, Through Survivors Eyes, 75-76; Barnes, Bullet Holes in the Wall, 92-94; Favors, 25860; Nelson Johnson interview, October 24, 1978; Nelson Johnson interview, February 27, 2015; Gun
Totin Landlord Reacts to Meeting Invitation, Carolina Peacemaker, July 27, 1968; Richard Vission,
Disgrace of Housing in Greensboro, a four-part series, Carolina Peacemaker, January 13, 20, 27 and
February 3, 1969.
29

political ends. The fourth phase, Greensboros Police State, focuses on the fateful period of
May 19 through May 23, during which the white political establishment escalated and militarized
their response to the Dudley protests, and eventually laid siege to A&Ts campus. The final
phase, Aftershocks, concerns the proximate aftermath of these events, including the open
hearings conducted by the North Carolina State Advisory Committee to the United States
Commission on Civil Rights and its March 1970 report, Trouble in Greensboro.
Profile of a Subversive
Junior Claude Barnes left Dudley High School on Friday, April 25, 1969, having been
recognized by his peers as the schools student of the week. In just one week the student body
would select next years student government officers, and it was generally known that Barnes
planned to seek the presidency. His affability, leadership, and experience in student government
made him the putative front runner. When students returned to Dudley the week of April 28,
Principal Franklin Brown and his top administrative team met with Barnes to persuade him not
to run for student government president. Should he not make the decision voluntarily, he
would be barred from putting his name forward. Brown later insisted that the schools election
commission, comprising faculty advisers and student representatives, had come to this decision
independently. To Barnes, however, this meeting left the unmistakable impression that Brown
had the final word, and that the principal viewed the well-respected junior as unfit to serve his
school anymore. Dudley administrators labeled Barnes as a subversive.37
To be sure, Barnes, like the Greensboro Four, William Thomas, and many Dudley
students before him, had gravitated to black liberation politics. He entered a period of selfexamination during the summer before his junior year in which he studied the poetry of Langston
37 Kenneth Barnard, The Dudley Scene, Carolina Peacemaker, May 3, 1969; Claude Barnes
interview; Walls That Bleed; A.D. Hopkins, Jr., Five Banned Students Return to Dudley High,
Greensboro Record, May 12, 1969.
30

Hughes, the philosophy of W.E.B. DuBois, and the politics of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver.
The most powerful moment in his intellectual and political transformation, however, was the
product of local voices. In the summer of 1968, GAPP leaders Walter Brame and Nelson
Johnson stormed into a meeting of the Greensboro Youth Council, on which Barnes served, to
cajole the young black men and women in attendance to take positions on the front lines of the
liberation battle. While their style and tone was more aggressive, these GAPP representatives
conveyed a message similar to that which had inspired the Bennett and A&T students to initiate
the sit-ins and to continue to press for desegregation of downtown businesses in 1962 and 1963.
The passion and energy of young activists formed the fuel for the Gate City Way.38
Moved by this call to action, Barnes committed himself to the black liberation cause. He
adopted the Gate City Ways formula of coalition building and multiple-front activity. He
formed Youth for the Unity of a Black Society (YUBS), a youth arm of GAPP. While the
majority of YUBS members were Dudley students, African American high school students from
other Greensboro schools joined the group. These young activists assisted with voter registration
drives, volunteered for Henry Fryes state house campaign, and supported GAPPs core work on
poverty. Their unique contribution, however, was the creative way they celebrated black culture
in the community. YUBS sponsored blacklash, which were weekly sessions that featured
poetry, music, discussions about African American literature, and presentations on African
culture. These sessions helped to fortify and even expand the Gate City Ways network, even as
they were viewed with suspicion by the white establishment.39
38 Claude Barnes interview; Former Dudley Student Was Lightning Rod of Greensboro Rebellion,
Greensboro News-Record, May 3, 1999; Linda Beatrice Brown interview.
39 Claude Barnes interview; Walls That Bleed; 30 Hard-Core: Panthers Here: Few But Lethal,
Greensboro Record, June 5, 1969; Northern Piedmont Militants Center, Greensboro Record, June 5,
1969; Weusi UmojaApply No Labels, Greensboro Record, June 5, 1969.
31

Barnes and his likeminded Dudley compatriots also attempted to bring meaningful
change to their immediate environment. Their focus on the school climate was consistent both
with A&Ts recent tradition of on-campus activism as well as the growing trend of students at
historically black colleges and universities who acted boldly to change culture and curricula in
substantive ways. In many of these cases, African American student activists demanded black
studies programs and a greater say in institutional decision making. In this spirit, Barnes and his
colleagues requested modification of the schools rigid dress code, which proscribed Afro
hairstyles and dashikis, and advocated for the same level of freedom for off-campus lunch as was
accorded white high schools. Furthermore, they raised issues about the curriculum and the
content of the education and sought to influence the kinds of books and materials used in
English and history classes. A critical mass of Dudleys student body supported these proposals
and came to see Barnes as the face of this self-determination movement.40
These proposed changes met with stiff resistance from Dudleys top brass. During the
prior forty years, Dudley had served as source of pride for Greensboros black community based
largely on its respected administrators and highly qualified faculty. The stern and authoritative
hand of Principal John Tarpley, who guided the institution into the turbulent 1960s, was
legendary. Franklin Brown, who served as a longtime faculty member under Tarpley, tried to
apply this same uncompromising style when he became the schools chief administrator in 1965.
Browns autocratic approach led to the infamous suspension of two Dudley girls in January 1969
for wearing Afros. Dudley administrators assailed the two students as an embarrassment to the
school as well as [their] race. A Peacemaker editorial described the thinking behind the
schools policy as abominable, because it reinforced feelings of racial shame and was based on
40 Biondi, 1-42; Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report, 52; Claude Barnes
interview; Barnes, Bullet Holes in the Wall, 95; Walls That Bleed.
32

the premise that white cultural norms should dictate black behavior and appearance. Many in
Greensboros black community believed that the Dudley administrators stance was unjustified
and extreme. Some even questioned whether Dudleys policies actually reflected the whitecontrolled school board rather than Principal Browns perspective.41
Dudley administrators decided to double down in the face of these internal challenges
and external questions about its policies. They concluded that Barnes represented a threat to
authority and had to be excluded from holding any official position. Initially, Barnes did not
contest this administrative decision, although he saw it as wrongheaded and ignorant. However,
a few of his peers urged him not to allow this injustice to go unchallenged. Together, they
developed a scheme to campaign for Barnes as a write-in candidate through the distribution of
handbills and other material. Word of the administrations ban on Barnes seeking office and the
write-in strategy spread rapidly at Dudley. Dudleys administration, in an attempt to take
preemptive action to prevent a rumored boycott of the election process, had the student council
hold an emergency meeting on May 1, the day before the election, to explain why Barnes had
been excluded from the ballot. Because this session did not yield a satisfactory explanation they
next attempted to explain the decision at the school-wide assembly the next day. Thus, the
assembly became a strange mix of candidate speeches and administrative propaganda.42
Barnes and his closest supporters had tried to arrange for a critical mass of students to
protest the election ban by walking out of the assembly. Brown, anticipating this strategy, seated
suspected protesters in one section of the auditorium. Partly because of Browns cunning but
41 Natural Hair Style Results in Two Dudley Coeds Suspended, Carolina Peacemaker, January 27,
1968; Editorial, Carolina Peacemaker, January 27, 1968; Educational Leader: Principal John A.
Tarpley, University of South Carolina, Museum of Education,
http://www.ed.sc.edu/musofed/dudley_tarpley.html.
42 Claude Barnes interview; Barnes, Bullet Holes in the Wall, 95; Trouble in Greensboro, 1.
33

mostly reflective of the administrations reputation for harsh and swift discipline, only four other
students joined Barnes in the planned walkout. The election went forward with three other
presidential hopefuls despite the modest walkout, and it appeared the controversy might die on
the vine. However, when the results were tallied, Barnes had received over six hundred write-in
votes for president, approximately three times more than second place, Connie Herbin. Although
Barnes had won the election in a literal sense, Dudley administrators rejected all votes for Barnes
because the school constitution did not expressly set forth a write-in process. Throughout the
ensuing controversy Principal Brown held firm to this legalistic position, even after he
conceded that the constitution was flawed in this sense.43
Young Activists Out Front, Again
The Fearless Five who walked out of the election-day assembly were disappointed that
many of the students who had pledged solidarity failed to act at the moment of courage.
However, the revelation that Barnes had overwhelmingly won the election was heartening.
Emboldened by this support, these young people crafted a plan to bring the original prohibition
to light. These student activists had been in grade school during the Woolworths Sit-in of 1960
and the desegregation protests of 1962 and 1963. They had absorbed lessons from these events,
not the least of which was that students could lead, that a small but righteous group could quickly
gain support, and that sustained public protest could achieve political ends even against what
appeared at times to be implacable institutional obstacles.44

43 Claude Barnes interview; Walls That Bleed; Kenneth Barnard, The Dudley Scene, Carolina
Peacemaker, May 10, 1969; A.D. Hopkins, Jr., Five Banned Students Return to Dudley High,
Greensboro Record, May 12, 1969.
44 Claude Barnes interview; Walls That Bleed.
34

Barnes remembered well the energy and spirit of the 1963 protests, and he witnessed at a
young age the way this mood of determination permeated the African American community.
This movement answered in powerful terms his childhood questions about why his family could
not eat in certain restaurants and had to enter a downtown movie theatre from a side entrance and
had to sit in the balcony. These memories were omnipresent as he became more involved in
activist causes. His mother generally supported his activism, and his aunt who lived in
Greensboro was an outspoken advocate of racial justice. However, every step Barnes took
toward political action cut against his fathers pragmatic prescription for success. The elder
Barnes represented a particular strain of thought within Greensboros black community that
believed the surest way forward for young blacks was through academic achievement. This
position saw radical activity as too risky, and in the long run, counterproductive to individual
improvement. Barness decision to stand up to injustice put him at odds with his father.45
The small group of student activists shared their plight with their A&T counterparts, and
sought advice from the American Civil Liberties Union on how to stage a legal protest near
school grounds. The students, now officially suspended, commenced their protest the morning
of Monday, May 5 and continued to march near Dudley throughout the week. The number of
students who boycotted the school in solidarity with their suspended classmates grew daily. On
the afternoon of the fourth day of protests, a large group of students assembled in Nocho Park to
rally behind Barnes and his reform agenda. Barnes addressed the crowd with passion and
purpose, and impressed upon them that this dispute had always been about more than an unjust
election. The fight was squarely about self-determination. Dudleys administration, particularly
Principal Brown, seemed to have adopted the language of fear and stereotyping normally

45 Claude Barnes interview.

35

employed by the white power structure. Accordingly, an increasing number of students grew
concerned about whether Dudley genuinely represented Greensboros black community.46
The students who assembled at Nocho Park collectively endorsed a list of eight demands,
later modified to proposals to reflect a good faith openness to negotiate, to substantively
amend Dudleys practices and policies. The Nocho Park proposals included familiar concerns
such as the strict dress code that discriminated against black hairstyles and African-inspired attire
and the ban on off-campus lunch privileges that did not apply to predominantly white high
schools. Other issues sprang directly from the disputed student council election, such as the
request to officially install Barnes as president, to dismiss disciplinary action against those who
walked out of the assembly, to appoint new faculty advisers to the election committee, to
establish a special committee with student representation to amend Dudleys constitution, and to
a create student court to serve in an advisory role with respect to certain disciplinary actions.
Together, these proposals were intended to bring students into a more equitable partnership with
school officials and reflected the power of the concept of self-determination. Moreover, some of
the proposals were designed to end discriminatory practices at Dudley that did not apply to
predominantly white institutions. The final proposal called on Principal Brown to withdraw his
slanderous charges against the students, including his repeated allegations that Barnes
belonged to radical and militant groups that posed a threat to the Dudley community. This
proposal was a vital part of the package because it required Brown to admit not only that he had
verbally attacked certain students, but that he had denounced vital parts of the Gate City Way.
The Nocho Park proposals set the agenda throughout the controversy, and their general
reasonableness gained the support of various elements within Greensboros black community.47
More Than an Election
46 Ibid., Nelson Johnson interview, February 27, 2015; Trouble in Greensboro, 1-2.
36

The demonstrations on Friday, May 9 dramatically altered the landscape of the Dudley dispute.
Dozens of students joined the demonstrations spurred on by the Nocho Park proposals. As a
result, Greensboro police redoubled their surveillance efforts. During the day on Friday a group
of Dudley and A&T students entered the school grounds with placards and picket signs
criticizing the unjust election and the schools subsequent refusal to consider real reform. The
A&T contingent was bolstered by delegates to the founding conference of Students Organized
for Black Unity that was occurring at the university. The protesters held a rally in the
gymnasium calling for Barnes to be installed and the schools administration to come to the
bargaining table to discuss the proposals. Nelson Johnson used a bullhorn to encourage students
to keep up their fight against injustice. Greensboro police broke up the gathering and Brown
dismissed school early. The police arrested seventeen Dudley students for remaining on school
property after Brown had dismissed school early. At this point, school officials also started to
point the finger at outside agitators as the primary reason this controversy seemed to be
mushrooming, and they viewed Nelson Johnson and his GAPP colleagues as the biggest rabble
rousers. On Monday, May 12, police raided the GAPP house to arrest two black teenagers, who
had been at Dudley earlier in the day, for disrupting a public school and criminal trespass. The
following night police arrested Nelson Johnson on the same charges. Local law enforcement,

47 Claude Barnes interview; A.D. Hopkins, Jr., Five Banned Students Return to Dudley High,
Greensboro Record, May 12, 1969; 8 Proposals Advanced by Students-Dudley Students List Proposals,
Greensboro Record, May 13, 1969; 8 Proposals Advanced by Students-Dudley Students List Proposals,
Greensboro Record, May 13, 1969. During and after the Rising, the establishment argued that the Dudley
students, including Barnes, had been manipulated by outside agitators looking to use the Dudley dispute
for their own political ends. There is no evidence that the Nocho Park rally or the resulting proposals was
the product of non-Dudley students. In fact, Nelson Johnson remembers this event as an organic
expression of the students long-held concerns, and did not have anything to do with the drafting of the
proposals. (See Nelson Johnson interview, February 27, 2015.)
37

which had developed a reputation in Greensboros black community as prone to using excessive
force, was now directly involved in the situation 48
In response to the events of Friday, May 9, various elements of Greensboros black
community met at the Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church, where Cecil Bishop was still the minister.
Dudley and A&T students shared their stories with the group. Principal Brown attended but
refused to say anything of substance. Parents and other adults were concerned that no adequate
explanation had been given to warrant the schools decision to bar Barnes from holding office
and were appalled at Browns utter disregard for their attempts to gather information about the
controversy. Many believed that Brown was being silenced by the white-controlled school
board. Moreover, police overreaction, a long-standing problem, threatened to blow up this
dispute. Greensboros African American community was taking this matter seriously.
Immediately, they used the Gate City Ways networks to gather intelligence, communicate, and
seek some reasonable resolution. Although the editor of Greensboros black newspaper initially
characterized the Dudley controversy as a tempest in a teapot and wondered aloud how a
student election could cause such strong feelings, those who attended the Trinity meeting saw the
administrators conduct as a flagrant assault on the students rights and a manipulation of black
institutions by the white power establishment.49
In the meantime, Dudley students continued to press their claims. They formed an adhoc committee of fifteen that presented the Nocho Park proposals to Brown on Tuesday, May 13.
48 Nelson Johnson interview, February 27, 2015; Claude Barnes interview; Walls That Bleed; Trouble in
Greensboro, 1; Owen Lewis, interview by William Link, Greensboro, North Carolina, December 5, 1988,
Greensboro Voices/Greensboro Civil Rights Oral History Collection,
http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/CivilRights/id/855/rec/1; 8 Proposals Advanced by
Students-Dudley Students List Proposals, Greensboro Record, May 13, 1969; Trouble at Dudley High,
Carolina Peacemaker, May 17, 1969; Rebecca Boger, Black Power in Greensboro, Civil Rights
Greensboro, http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/essayblackpower/collection/CivilRights.
49 Claude Barnes interview; Nelson Johnson interview, February 27, 2015; Trouble in Greensboro, 1.
38

The local print media, based on the escalation of tensions the prior Friday, now picked up the
story and would continue to cover it through the violence at A&T. Brown showed only the
slightest openness to discuss the students requests. He did reveal that Dudley administrators
decided to grant off-campus lunch privileges with parental permission, and indicated that a
committee would be established to consider amendments to the schools constitution. Brown
showed no willingness to move on any of the other proposals, and seemed to be concerned only
with the extent to which the continuing protests were affecting Dudleys normal operations.50
The protest movement continued through its second full week. School officials, in what
was either a complete misreading of the atmosphere or in contempt of black sensibilities,
assigned Owen Lewis, the school districts white public relations director, to take control over
the Dudley campus. Lewis, a former news reporter for the Greensboro Daily News, had only
been on the job for three months. On Monday, May 12, Lewis, Brown, and Lafayette Morgan,
head of Dudleys PTA, met with several Dudley parents and students. Lewis, who controlled the
meeting, kept the discussion focused on discipline as opposed to the students requests. The
meeting did nothing to bring the showdown closer to resolution. In fact, Lewiss sudden
presence and his allegedly disrespectful demeanor widened the rift between school officials and
the black community. Even Mayor Elam accused Lewis as lacking the requisite experience for
his job and of having an abrasive personality.51

50 Claude Barnes interview; 8 Proposals Advanced by Students-Dudley Students List Proposals,

Greensboro Record, May 13, 1969.
51 Trouble in Greensboro, 1; Jack Elam, interview by William H. Chafe, Greensboro, North Carolina,
undated, William Henry Chafe Oral History Collection, Civil Rights Greensboro Digital Archive Project,
http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/728; A.D. Hopkins, Five Banned Students
Return to Dudley High, Greensboro Record, May 12, 1969.
39

With the acerbic Lewis calling the shots, Dudleys atmosphere became more charged as
the week continued. By Thursday, May 15, students, seeing no hope of progress, planned
another mass exodus. Accordingly, approximately one hundred Dudley students walked out of
classes to join the daily demonstration the next day. Another thirty or so students were absent
from school without explanation. Lewis threatened to call the police if the student protesters did
not cease and desist, and some claimed he used racial epithets to deride their actions.52
The Gate City Way was active throughout this period. A&T students supported their
Dudley cohorts and older leaders gathered facts. This process continued during the Risings
second week. As Dudley students presented the Nocho Park proposals to Brown on Tuesday,
May 13, a cross-section of the citys black community met to discuss how best to proceed. This
meeting included Dudley and A&T students, other members of YUBS, black clergy, and other
African American leaders. As had happened during the 1963 desegregation demonstrations,
black leaders endeavored to speak with a unified voice in the hope of resolving the controversy.
Hence, they established the Community Forum on Friday, May 16, and designated businessman
A.S. Webb as its temporary chairman. Webbs selection reflected the manner by which the
Gate City Way had negotiated ideological and methodological ideas during the prior two years.
Webb, much like Simkins, personified the connections between traditional black activists and the
younger activists such as Johnson. He had served as both chairman of the citys interracial HRC
and as an adviser to GAPP. Webb clarified that the Community Forums first order of business
would be to collect facts to avoid the propensity for distortion. He indicated that it was critical
that the entire community know the precise reasons school officials had excluded Barnes from
the student election, who made the decision, who decided not to count the write-in votes,
whether these decisions were made freely or reflected undue influence, and what groups or
52 Claude Barnes interview; Trouble in Greensboro, 1.
40

individuals had been labeled as militant or subversive. Initially at least, Webb characterized the
Community Forum as a fact-finding body that would not make specific proposals.53
The Community Forum held its first full meeting on Friday, May 16. Recent events such
as Owen Lewiss words and deeds, seemed to change Webbs tone and substance by the time the
meeting took place. He opened the meeting by framing the current dispute as being about much
more than a student election; it was about full rights and transparency. Webb stated that all
Americans had the right to an equal education, to work with dignity and to a level commensurate
with ones ability, to register and vote free from intimidation, to equal protection of the laws, to
equal treatment by law enforcement, and to rent or own property commensurate with ones
ability to pay. Webb warned that African Americans cannot permit the white establishment to
intimidate, stifle, and destroy [their] potential leadership. He specifically pointed to the
pervasive practice of describing black organizations as militant, subversive, or in other pejorative
terms, of local law enforcement harassing and intimidating black neighborhoods, and the arrests
of young people for trying to exercise their rights to assemble and protest. Webb challenged the
new city council and Mayor Elam to take swift action to stop these practices. Clearly, to Webb
and other black leaders, the Dudley controversy was an opportunity to say with a united voice,
no more. This view meshed with Barness assertion from the beginning that this controversy
was always about more than an election. The response of the white power base would
determine whether this dispute could be resolved or would widen. Despite the Community
Forums admonitions, the following Monday pushed the situation into the latter category.54

53 School Problem Probe Set, Greensboro Record, May 16, 1969; Nelson Johnson interview, February
27, 2015.
54 Jo Spivey, Webb Outlines Aims of Blacks, Greensboro Record, May 17, 1969; Claude Barnes
interview.
41

Greensboros Police State

A.S. Webb spoke for many African Americans when he stated that the citys police state had to
end. Instead, the establishments mishandling of the third week of Dudley demonstrations
significantly raised tensions, and the disproportionate response to the spill-over issues at A&T
transformed the campus into a war zone. Along the way, whatever trust the local black
community may have had in the white establishment was undermined, and the city was further
divided. These tribulations fortified African American resolve and solidarity.55
The white establishment used a familiar playbook of force and fear to gain control of the ongoing
demonstrations. The spiral toward violence started on the morning of Monday, May 19. School
officials, most notably, Owen Lewis, aggressively ordered protesters to vacate the area. When
students declined to do so, police officers camped nearby aggressively moved in. The officers
claimed that this initial group of approximately thirty-five students had twice marched toward
the school as the police ordered them to retreat. As soon as the students stepped on to school
property during the third march officers swarmed to arrest as many protesters as possible.
Students who were part of this group later reported being assaulted by police without warning.
Officers used tear gas and some protesters claimed to have been beaten with night sticks. The
same militarized tactics used during several 1968 protests were now brought to bear at Dudley.
The police arrested four young men, including Claude Barnes, and five young women. The
majority of protesters fled during the melee. A group of students numbering around one hundred
and fifty came outside to observe the arrests, some choosing to join the demonstration. Police
and school officials claimed that shortly thereafter some students who reentered the school
55 Jo Spivey, Webb Outlines Aims of Blacks, Greensboro Record, May 17, 1969; Ken Irons and A.D.
Hopkins, Jr., Dudley Closed; 16 Students Jailed, Greensboro Record, May 19, 1969; Dispute Brutality
Talks Not Yet Set, Greensboro Record, May 20, 1969; Ken Irons and A.D. Hopkins, Jr., 70 March Near
Dudley, Greensboro Record, May 21, 1969.
42

started to overturn desks and generally vandalize the premises. Police made eight more arrests
during this second confrontation, including three young ladies.56
The Community Forum and the Human Relations Commission (HRC) jointly hosted a meeting
of students, parents, black leaders, and other concerned citizens in the wake of this event in
which the second police raid on the Dudley demonstrators was the main topic. Black leaders
communicated their support for the aggrieved Dudley students but cautioned against rash action.
These leaders believed that as the Gate City Way had done many times before sustained protest
had created the needed pressure to engage in constructive talks. The student activists expressed
their willingness to participate in negotiations overseen by the HRC. In fact, the students and
their supporters had been trying to get Brown and other school officials to discuss their
underlying concerns from the outset. This apparent progress was countermanded the next
evening, Tuesday, May 20, when, Arthur Flynn, a Chamber board member, delivered a speech at
an area YMCA that harshly criticized the student demonstrators implying that they were merely
dupes of political extremists. Flynns speech, which was attended by Dudleys Problems in
Democracy Class, seemed to be part of an establishment campaign to frame the dispute as the
machinations of outside agitators.57
On the morning of Wednesday, May 21, the student activists continued to apply pressure to
school officials by resuming their demonstrations while HRC members implored school officials
to meet with stakeholders. The HRCs attempt to play peacemaker was short-circuited, however,
56 Ken Irons and A.D. Hopkins, Jr., Dudley Closes; 16 Students Jailed, Greensboro Record, May 19,
1969; A.D. Hopkins, Jr., Dudley Calm is Joint Goal, Greensboro Record, May 20, 1969; Dispute,
Brutality Talks Not Yet Set, Greensboro Record, May 20, 1969; Claude Barnes interview; Walls That
Bleed.
57 A.D. Hopkins, Jr., Dudley Calm Is Joint Goal, Greensboro Record, May 20, 1969; Dispute
Brutality Talks Not Yet Set, Greensboro Record, May 20, 1969; 70 March Near Dudley, Greensboro
Record, May 21, 1969; Dudley Students Hear Speech by Arthur Flynn, Greensboro Record, May 21,
1969.
43

when school officials again requested police assistance because of a vague report that one
protester had a weapon. The police, this time in full riot gear, ordered the demonstrators to
disperse, and when some responded with rock throwing, unleashed massive quantities of tear gas
from canisters and two pepper fog machines. This use of excessive force terrified those in the
neighborhood and infuriated parents of students who had been gassed. One mother of a girl who
had nothing to do with the protest movement called the police cowards and promised they
would pay for their actions.58
Concurrent with this third police assault on the Dudley demonstrators the school district
filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) to bar forty individuals, including
twenty-seven Dudley and several A&T students, from interfering with a public school. City and
school officials ramped up their outside agitator message by naming Howard Fuller and
another Durham activist in the TRO. The white establishment viewed Fuller and others at the
FCD as dangerous black militants, and law enforcement spread rumors that these men had been
seen in an around the Dudley protests. No credible evidence ever refuted Fullers alibi that put
him far away from Greensboro on the days in question. Accordingly, the citys claims were
either ignorance or subterfuge.59
Several Dudley students suffering physically and psychologically from the third and most
violence police raid immediately sought help from their A&T supporters. For the next three days
A&T became the disputes epicenter. Later that night, A&T students were accused of throwing

58 Kelso Gillenwater, Police Quell Disorder After Dudley Protests, Greensboro Daily News, May 22,
1969; Robert Stephens, Residents Describe Scene of Trouble, Greensboro Daily News, May 22, 1969;
Claude Barnes interview; Walls That Bleed.
59 Order Bans Agitators, Greensboro Record, May 22, 1969; Not in City Last Week, Fuller Says,
Carolina Peacemaker, May 31, 1969; Nathan Garrett, FCD Answers Biased Press Reports, Carolina
Peacemaker, June 7, 1969.
44

objects at passing motorists. Student body president, Vincent McCullough, indicated that
problems arose when a police cruiser passed by students while a smirking officer pointed a
weapon in their direction. Others noted that carloads of white vigilantes drove past the campus
flashing weapons, threatening students, and screaming racial epithets. Local law enforcement
dispatched to the scene arrested nine young black men and barricaded the streets around A&T.
In addition, as had become customary in North Carolina during the past two years, Mayor Elam
requested National Guard assistance. Although Elam claimed that this decision was his alone, he
made it after consulting with Governor Scott, the State Bureau of Investigation, and the North
Carolina Attorney General, Robert Morgan. These officials concurred with the speculative
allegations that A&T had become infested with Black Panthers and other alleged extremists who
posed an imminent threat to Greensboro. It is likely that this conspiracy theory drove Elams
decision, given that he claimed to have been a behind-the-scenes critic of Bins heavy handed
tactics used a year earlier to deal with disorder following Dr. Kings assassination.60
A composite force composed of the entire city police department totaling about two
hundred fifty officers, one hundred fifty guardsmen, sheriffs deputies, and highway patrolmen
focused primarily on the area near A&Ts campus. After midnight, officers started to fire onto
the campus, allegedly in response the sniper shots. Two twenty-year old A&T students,
Clarence Counts and Willie Grimes, were shot during the exchanges. Grimes died before A&T
students could get him to the hospital.61 The following morning, Mayor Elam, mimicking
60 Scott Sends Guards, Carolina Peacemaker, May 3, 1969; Nine Arrested in Incident, Greensboro
Record, May 22, 1969; Jack Elam interview; Kelso Gillenwater, Police Quell Disorder After Dudley
Protests, Greensboro Daily News, May 22, 1969.
61 Quiet After Student Killed: Curfew Ordered by Mayor, Greensboro Record, May 22, 1969; Dorothy
Benjamin, Fatal Bullet Not Police Caliber, Greensboro Record, May 22, 1969; Kelso Gillenwater,
Total of 9 Persons Shot: Wounded Toll Rises in Violence at A&T, Greensboro Daily News, May 25,
1969; Kelso Gillenwater, The 50-Hour Ordeal: Greensboros March to Three Days of Virtual Warfare,
Greensboro Daily News, May 26, 1969; Robert Stephens, Witnesses Describe Grimes Death,
45

Carson Bains decision making in April 1968, declared a state of emergency and ordered a
citywide curfew to take effect from 8 pm to 5 am. A&T administrators suspended classes and
prepared to close the campus before the next evening in order to ensure students safety. The
county jails overflowed as a result of rigid enforcement of the curfew on its initial night.
Police shot another A&T student and unarmed bystander, George Silva Lima, late that night as
they were responding to an alleged ambush. A National Guard strike force prepared to storm
the mens dormitories shortly after the Lima shooting, but aborted this plan at the last second. It
is not clear why this plan was canceled, but it is clear that Elam had become extremely
concerned about the presence and actions of the guardsmen by this time.62
Nevertheless, the National Guard, under orders from Governor Scott, initiated the siege
the following morning, May 23, without informing A&Ts president. Vincent McCullough,
A&Ts student body president, would later comment that Governor Scott was the real outside
agitator. The guardsmen moved on Scott Hall as a helicopter and plane dropped tear gas and
coverage smoke respectively. Once they gained access, the guardsmen detained students and
checked dorm rooms. They kicked in doors and seized a few weapons, only two of which were
found to have been operable. Over two hundred students were caged in the schools tennis
courts and then crowded onto prison buses. The police subsequently released the students but
not before processing them. On Saturday, May 24, Mayor Elam declared an official end to the

Greensboro Daily News, July 7, 1969.

62 Quiet After Student Killed: Curfew Ordered by Mayor, Greensboro Record, May 22, 1969; George
S. Lima Makes Statement, Carolina Peacemaker, June 7, 1969; Trouble in Greensboro, 10-14; Jack
Elam interview.
46

state of emergency and lifted the curfew. The period the local press referred to as virtual
warfare was over, but the Gate City Rising continued.63
Aftershocks
The end of the occupation of A&Ts campus marked the Risings final and most crucial
stage. A&T faced the daunting task of rebuilding both physically and psychologically after the
paramilitary assault. The Dudley demonstrators pondered whether school officials would ever
consider their concerns and if justice would be meted out for police misconduct. Several of them
faced criminal charges, and even more were suspended indefinitely pursuant to a court order.
The school officials continued their obstinate approach by ignoring findings and
recommendations provided the Community Forum, the HRC, and the Community Unity
Division. The Greensboro police chased boogeymen in the form of outsider agitators they were
certain orchestrated this entire affair. Nelson Johnson and two of his GAPP colleagues were
sentenced to six months for charges arising out of the May 9 Dudley rally. The state legislature
considered a number of bills that would have limited first amendment rights in the name of
security. More than anything else, however, this final phase featured a battle over the Risings
meaning. This contest exposed the white political establishments biases about and ignorance of
Greensboros black community. On the other hand, this contest about the Risings meaning was
another factor that further unified black activists and expanded the Gate City Way.64
63 Curfew on Tonight: 650 Troops Sweep A&T, Greensboro Record, May 23, 1969; A.D. Hopkins, Jr.,
Sounds of Battle Odd in Setting, Greensboro Record, May 23, 1969; Guard Finishes Campus Sweep,
Greensboro Record, May 23, 1969; Editorial, The Siege of Scott Hall, Carolina Peacemaker, May 31,
1969.
64 Walls That Bleed; Nelson Johnson interview, February 27, 2015; Questions Stall Campus Disruption
Suit Bill, Greensboro Daily News, May 21, 1969; Speaker Ban Bill Dies in Committee, Greensboro
Daily News, May 22, 1969; Richard Benton, School Officials Get Full Backing, Greensboro Record,
May 23, 1969; Ken Irons, Police Evaluate What Did Happen in City, Greensboro Record, May 26,
1969; Jo Spivey, Community Unity Division: Chamber Body Asks Dudley Vote, Greensboro Record,
May 28, 1969; For Protection Says FCD Head, Greensboro Record, May 30, 1969; 30 Hard-Core:
47

The smoke barely had time to dissipate at A&T before Governor Scott rushed to make the
opening salvo in the debate about the Risings meaning. Scott saw the Greensboro events as a
victory over political extremists who were trying to infiltrate North Carolinas urban high
schools to coopt impressionable young people for subversive ends. He warned that this outside
interference endangered further progress in Greensboros ongoing effort to improve race
relations, and worried aloud about whether these events would harm efforts to move forward
with school integration. Scott reasoned that integration was already a process that sometimes
produces a volatile situation and groups of militants are already organizing in these schools.
Unbelievably, the man who ordered the National Guard raid that used tanks, helicopters, planes,
and assault weapons commended law enforcement for their remarkable restraint. There is no
record that the Governor mentioned the death of Willie Grimes during his remarks.65
Greensboros African Americans were the ones who actually showed remarkable
restraint. Not only did they have to endure insults from the states chief executive, but they also
faced a sustained attack by the citys two largest newspapers. A Greensboro Daily News editorial
expressed shock that the events on A&Ts campus had started with a disputed high school
election. However, instead of discussing the impact of the school boards takeover of Dudley or
how the three police raids of Dudley escalated the controversy, the editorial ratified the
establishments argument about outside agitators. The truth is the editorial stated, that high
school students of unripened years and judgment do not embark on quasi-revolutionary behavior
without sophisticated inducement. The paper opined that even if the Dudley students had some
legitimate grievances, such concerns were eclipsed by the manipulated violence of agitators

Panthers Here: Few But Lethal, Greensboro Record, June 5, 1969.

65 People Against MilitancyScott, Greensboro Record, May 24, 1969.
48

whose sole goal was guerilla warfare. Even the papers most important statement that the
quest for racial justice must not be halted by these events was marred by a warning that not
every ludicrous shout of protest should be taken seriously; it should indeed be taken at its own
cynical valuation, which is in many cases zero. The Daily News was open to social reform as
long as those seeking equal rights did not raise their voices.66
Two weeks later, the Greensboro Record assigned five unidentified reporters to trumpet
the outside agitator argument with a special report on the presence of Black Panthers in
Greensboro. The paper cobbled together a timeline of events, starting with Stokely Carmichaels
visit to A&T in December 1968 and ending with the Rising, to show how the Panthers were
systematically destabilizing the city. Every protest movement involving student activists became
a Panther activity. Meetings of YUBS at Nelson Johnsons home were recast as indoctrination
sessions. The paper reported with an air of intrigue that a banned presidential candidate,
presumably Claude Barnes, had been seen at at least one [such] session. Barnes had been
transparent throughout the controversy about his friendship with Nelson Johnson and his ties to
GAPP. In the end, the paper concluded that the Rising had been the work of the Panthers and
warned that it portended more trouble ahead. One Greensboro police investigator commented
that at least while school was closed for the summer, they dont have their masses.67
Nelson Johnson excoriated this news coverage in the Peacemaker. He methodically
dismantled the factual underpinnings of the establishment rationale, and lamented that
responding to the Rising with new legislation, enhanced enforcement, and tougher court action

66 Editorial, Greensboros Ordeal, Greensboro Daily News, May 25, 1969.

67 30 Hard-Core: Panthers Here: Few But Lethal, Greensboro Record, June 5, 1969; Northern
Piedmont Militants Center, Greensboro Record, June 5, 1969; Weusi UmojaApply No Labels,
Greensboro Record, June 5, 1969.
49

would make one group feel more secure while further dividing the community. Johnsons
carefully constructed case had one flaw, however. He opined that it would indeed take a person
far removed from the events of the last several months to be misled by such irresponsible and
unsubstantiated material as that which appeared in the . . . Greensboro Record. On the contrary,
most of the citys white residents seemed willing to accept the outside agitation explanation
regardless of what knowledge they had of the local black liberation movement, because it
allowed them to avoid the difficult questions of racial inequality.68
While the states governor, the citys political leaders and two major newspapers worked
diligently to frame the events of May 1969 around extremism, black activists worked together to
seek justice. John Marshall Stevenson, who had originally questioned whether the Dudley
dispute warranted great concern, used his editorial column to question the citys militarized
response to the A&T. More than anything, however, he was disturbed that the local media
simply regurgitated the talking points of the establishment. His call for an unbiased and
objective investigation into the Rising was echoed by several other voices within Greensboros
black community. Black leaders such as A.S. Webb and B.J. Battle, student activists such as
Vincent McCullough and Nelson Johnson, and A&Ts administration all requested that the U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights formally investigate the Rising. Like Stevenson, Johnson attributed
much of the alleged factual distortion surrounding these events to media providing an uncritical
outlet to establishment voices committed to redirection and obfuscation.69

68 Nelson Johnson, The Panthers Are Here! Establishment Rationale, Carolina Peacemaker, June 14,
1969.
69 A.D. Hopkins, Jr., Blacks Ask Federal Disorders Probe, Greensboro Record, May 30, 1969;
Editorial, A Tempest in a Teapot, Carolina Peacemaker, May 24, 1969.
50

Consequently, the North Carolina Advisory Committee to the United States Commission
on Civil Rights (NCAC) held two days of open meetings in early October 1969. Of the
NCACs fourteen members, only one, Sarah Herbin, was a Greensboro resident at the time of the
hearing. Moreover, while the NCAC included people who had been active in some aspects of
the black liberation movement, most members were academics and professionals who had little if
any firsthand knowledge of the Gate City Way during the late 1960s. Four themes emerged from
the testimony of thirty-two witnesses: the establishments staunch self-defense, school officials
refusal to engage in a meaningful dialogue during the Dudley dispute, excessive force by law
enforcement, and the connection between the Rising and racial inequality. The establishments
self-congratulatory defense included the testimony of Superintendent W.L. House, who praised
Principal Browns unflagging leadership, and explained that he had sent Owen Lewis to Dudley
to help Brown, to handle media, and to utilize his sound knowledge of the laws pertaining to
school disruptions. For his part, Lewis admitted pushing for the arrests of student protesters but
defiantly proclaimed that if Id had it to do over again, Id have them arrested again. All of the
school officials hammered home the argument that the problems at Dudley had been the work of
outsiders. Principal Brown even compared the presence of A&T students as an invasion and
referred to Dudley activists as dissidents. Chairman of the school board, Richard Hunter,
dismissed the concerns of students, parents, and other citizens who testified by commenting that
these people mean well but they dont see the overall picture, and he opined that many Dudley
parents do not know and do not care what their children do at school. One of the clear messages
to come from the hearings was that the Greensboro school district was obstructing real change.70

70 Robert Stephens, Students: Concern Was Lacking, Greensboro Daily News, October 4, 1969;
Robert Stephens, Witnesses Swap Charges on Disorder, Greensboro Daily News, October 5, 1969;
Trouble in Greensboro, 1-21; Owen Lewis interview.
51

In hindsight, Mayor Elams statements were the hearings lowest point. He publicly
praised law enforcements handling of the difficulties. However, reflecting on these events years
later in an interview with William Chafe, Elam characterized the school district as renegade and
non-communicative throughout the Dudley dispute. He also claimed that National Guard
commanders rebuffed him when he expressed his unease about their quasi-military plans to raid
A&T. Elam told Chafe that it was like watching something unfold that once you start, its out
of everybodys control. Instead of defending the management of this entire affair, as he had
done in October 1969, Elam admitted that it was a use of force that was excessive and
concluded that feelings were generated as a result of [the use of force] thats going to be in
Greensboro for years to come. Given these subsequent revelations, Elams conduct at the
NCAC hearings smacks of political expediency if not cowardice.71
The testimony of Dudley and A&T students was consistent with the story they had told
all along. Claude Barnes and others indicated that school officials, notably Brown, doggedly
clung to draconian rules and blew off good faith attempts at reform. Adult leaders backed these
interpretations by stressing how Brown would not meet to discuss their concerns. Students and
adults rejected claims that outsiders had caused the dispute. Indeed, in one of the hearings most
powerful moments, Claude Barnes answered a NCAC panel question about whether he was an
outsider by stating that he was an insider born and raised in the Gate City.
Students, parents, and others also described excessive force used by local police. One
parent said that on May 21 it looked as if the Army decided to come to Dudley instead of
Vietnam. A neighborhood man testified that during that raid police forced him off of his own
porch at gunpoint. When his wife called the department to complain, an unidentified voice at the
71 Robert Stephens, Witnesses Swap Charges on Disorder, Greensboro Daily News, October 5, 1969;
Jack Elam interview.
52

other end shouted, They ought to kill all you niggers. President Dowdy catalogued the
extensive damage done to A&Ts campus from the siege. Faculty members and students shared
stories of National Guard excesses, such as shooting out door locks even though they had been
given access keys and removing unarmed students from rooms at gunpoint. In a decision that
spoke louder than words, the National Guard declined to send a representative to the hearings.72
A.S. Webb and Dr. George Simkins explained to the NCAC that the Rising was really
about the total experience of African Americans in Greensboro. They stressed ongoing problems
such as housing, education, and employment. Dr. Simkins accused the Greensboro police
department of discrimination and took the white establishment to task for delaying school
integration while rushing through reapportionment. Further, in an opinion that captured the
fusion between black power ideology and the traditions of the Gate City Way, he stated that we
ought to face the fact that the only thing a white man understands is violence. The testimony
offered by Webb and Simkins combined to make a profound point that it was not only the
establishments mishandling of the Dudley demonstrations that inflamed the dispute, but the
underlying atmosphere of white supremacy and exclusion that initially gave it oxygen. The
majority African American crowd that attended the hearings cheered this straight talk.73
In March 1970 the NCAC issued its report, Trouble in Greensboro. Four of the reports
findings warrant special attention here. The NCAC held that the action of the [National] Guard
was certainly not an example of professionalism in law enforcement, and insisted that the state
and city show to all, especially to black students, that the law is neutral and race plays no part in
72 Robert Stephens, Students: Concern Was Lacking, Greensboro Daily News, October 4, 1969;
Robert Stephens, Witnesses Swap Charges on Disorder, Greensboro Daily News, October 5, 1969.
73 Webbs Statement to Civil Rights Commission on Greensboro Race Relations, Carolina
Peacemaker, October 11, 1969; Robert Stephens, Major Social Evils Here Blamed for Violence,
Greensboro Daily News, October 5, 1969.
53

its enforcement. Second, the NCAC rejected the establishments outside agitator argument,
and emphasized that such labels are frequently raised to divert attention from the real problems
in the community. Third, the NCAC attributed the Rising mostly to the citys environment of
racial inequality and establishment obstacles to racial justice as exemplified by the school
districts refusal to institute genuine school integration.74 Lastly, the NCAC concluded that:
The traditional black leadership in the community completely relinquished its role to
college and high school students, during the May disturbances. Although the Committee
heard ringing statements from black leaders at its open meeting, the record does not show
that these leaders made their influence felt when it was most needed. Some members of
the black community attempted to resolve the problems at Dudley, but these efforts were
inconsequential and fruitless primarily because those who attempted to exert leadership
had no constituency. If black leaders slacken in the fight against racism, they will be
ignored and rebuked by the black community when they attempt to serve in leadership
roles during a crisis.75
The report did not define the term traditional black leadership. To be sure, certain black
leaders such as Principal Brown and Dudley PTA chief Lafayette Morgan proved to be out of
step with the majority of the black community. Likewise, there is no record that Jimmie I.
Barber who had just been elected to the city council took any action to question or try to prevent
Mayor Elams handling of the Rising. If traditional black leaders referred to these men there
was a firm basis for the conclusion. If, however, the statement was intended to apply to other
leaders it was patronizing and paternalistic and revealed a misunderstanding of the Gate City
Way. In the latter case, it would have implied that responsible adults should have controlled the
conduct of green high school and college activists. This conclusion would not have accounted
for the public roles played by men such as A.S. Webb, nor the behind-the-scenes roles played by
ministers and other leaders. Finally, it would have failed to acknowledge that the Rising

74 Trouble in Greensboro, 12-21.

75 Ibid., 14-15.
54

motivated others to stand up for justice, particularly the residents of the neighborhoods
proximate to Dudley and A&T, and thereby created new leaders.76
It was unlikely that a two-day hearing devoted to a specific event and featuring testimony from
only selected voices would have revealed the Gate City Ways depth and breadth. Nevertheless,
the NCAC process was part of a post-Rising reflection through which Greensboros African
American community unified. That is, the Rising and its aftermath fortified, reenergized, and
expanded the Gate City Way. Traditional coalitions continued, and others, such as the
Coordinating Committee, became even more influential in affecting areas such as electoral
politics. Greensboros public school system was soon integrated in fact not just in claim, and
more blacks gained positions on appointed boards and commissions than ever before. Malcolm
X University moved from Durham to Greensboro, as the Gate City had reclaimed the lofty
national status it had earned in the early 1960s. Activists who were part of the Gate City Way
defended their own against charges that they were outsiders and extremists. In fact, Dr. Simkins
and Henry Frye were instrumental in getting Johnsons jail term reduced. Nelson Johnson
described this period as a kind of democratization of the black activist. In other words, the Gate
City Ways network expanded to include African Americans from lower socio-economic strata.
Speaking in 2015, Johnson asserted that 1968 through 1970 represents the Greensboro black
liberation movements most cohesive moment in the past fifty years. The Rising was a
significant factor in achieving that unity.77
V.Conclusion

76 Ibid..; Jack Elam interview; Claude Barnes interview; Nelson Johnson interview, February 27, 2015;
Barnes, Bullet Holes in the Wall, 91-98.
77 Claude Barnes interview; Nelson Johnson interview, February 27, 2015.
55

The most common question about the Gate City Rising is how a disputed student council
election resulted in a paramilitary assault on A&Ts campus that claimed one life, and wounded
eight other people. To quote Claude Barnes, What was all the fuss about? Too often this
question is answered by trivializing the initial dispute at Dudley, or even by continuing to point
the finger at some nefarious plan to exploit high school students for extremist political ends.
Among other things, this paper is intended to dispel these interpretations.
This papers first major conclusion is that starting in the early 1960s Greensboros
African American community developed a networked approach to pursuing the objectives of the
black liberation movement, known as the Gate City Way. Local activists developed an approach
that best served their specific community. The Gate City Ways three fundamental features were
creative coalition building, a belief that racial justice was best pursued through a multiple-front
strategy that rejected authoritarianism and invited experimentation, and an openness to youth
participation and even leadership.
This paper also concludes that Greensboros black liberation movement pivoted during
the late 1960s due significantly to the emergence of black power ideology, but that the Gate City
Ways fundamental features endured. Greensboros black community was under siege during the
period of 1967 to the verge of the Rising in several respects. Politicians who touted law and
order above all else came to see public political dissent, especially by blacks, as per se disorder.
This trend was closely related to the increased use of excessive force and a commitment to
militarized policing. Finally, vigilante violence targeted Greensboro to a greater extent than
before. In addition to these external threats, Greensboros black community faced internal
questions driven largely by the emergence of black power ideology. The Gate City Ways
flexibility was uniquely geared to facilitating a negotiation about the best way to meet the
movements objectives, and black power concepts became part of this discourse. As a result of
56

this process, the Gate City Way pivoted. The concept of self-determination gained currency
within the black community. However, the Gate City Ways core elements coalition building,
multiple front battles, and reliance on youth activism continued.
The Gate City Rising was an extension of the Gate City Ways original form. In this
sense it shares a common lineage with the Greensboro sit-in of 1960 and the desegregation
demonstrations of 1962 and 1963. During the Rising, traditional activists and new voices built
coalitions, such as Community Forum led by A.S. Webb, and utilized multiple strategies to
define the issues and to fight against injustice, such as protest politics, media statements, public
meetings, and behind the scenes negotiation. Young people led the way as they had earlier in the
decade. Of course, the Greensboro Four and their A&T, Bennett College and Dudley brothers
and sisters were rightfully hailed as heroic. Similarly, those who endeavored to complete
desegregation of Greensboros downtown became part of this valiant narrative. What then are
we to make of the young people behind the Rising?
Without question, many of the Risings prominent young activists were fueled by black
power ideology. The Dudley dispute was a quest for self-determination. Therefore, the
movements late-decade pivot was an important part of the Rising. However, the tendency to
devalue the contributions made by the Dudley and A&T student activists is directly related to
interpretations that claim that Greensboros late 1960s movement was part of a radical, militant
shift that eventually ran out of steam. Rather, these young black power enthusiasts became part
of the Gate City Ways network. The Dudley demonstrators used protest politics in a similar
fashion as the activists they witnessed during the early 1960s. They worked in close connection
with their compatriots at A&T, as had happened in the past. They acted boldly to assert their
rights not because they were tools of some outsider group, but because they grew up in a
community that reinforced that young black men and women could generate real change.
57

Finally, this paper concludes that the Rising did not reflect a crisis of leadership or
disunity within Greensboros black community. While certain African Americans holding
positions of power within the school system acted in contradiction to the will of the majority
within the black community, the key individuals within the Gate City Ways network were active,
committed, and determined. The coalitions that connected young black power advocates with
more traditional figures held together despite a concerted effort by the establishment to convince
black leaders, along with everyone else, that the Rising was the product of dangerous and
unwelcomed outsiders. Even activists who recently sparred about methods, such as Nelson
Johnson and Herman Gist, publicly diffused claims of cross-purposes. Ultimately, Greensboros
black community emerged from the Gate City Rising unified and committed to racial justice.
Although this unity was later challenged by certain elements of the network becoming
increasingly involved in non-local concerns and some gravitating toward more radical
philosophies, the movement made important strides in the Risings aftermath.78
The Gate City Risings semicentennial is four years away. Whether it is publicly
acknowledged, and if it is, how it is remembered may illuminate the then-present state of
Greensboros race relations. The fact that Claude Barnes and Nelson Johnson are still in
Greensboro, and still fighting for racial justice, ensures that the Rising will be remembered.
After the Rising, Barnes graduated from Dudley, attended A&T, and subsequently earned a
doctoral degree in political science. As the 1970s progressed, Johnsons activism turned more
toward regional and national coalition building, and for some time he sought answers to societal
problems in particular political and economic systems. A decade after the Rising, despite gains
78 Nelson Johnson interview, February 27, 2015; Claude Barnes interview; Editorial, Black Blood Bath
Threatened in Greensboro, Carolina Peacemaker, February 28, 1970; Editorial, Nelson Johnson,
Bloodbath Rebuttal, Carolina Peacemaker, March 7, 1970; Editorial, Herman Gist, Carolina
Peacemaker, March 7, 1970.
58

made by Greensboros African American community, Johnson saw firsthand that hate persisted
as five of his associates were brutally murdered by members of the Klan and the American Nazi
Party. Thereafter, Johnson became an ordained minister and now pastors the Faith Community
Church in Greensboro. The Rising profoundly impacted these Gate City Way warriors, who are
now reunited at the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro. The Risings legacy, if properly
understood, has the power to impact others who seek truth and justice in an imperfect world.79

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