Along freedom road: Hyde County, North Carolina and the fate of Black schools in the South

475 Pages·1994·2.01 MB·English

by  David S. Cecelski

Along Freedom Road : Hyde County, North
title: Carolina and the Fate of Black Schools in
the South
author: Cecelski, David S.
publisher: University of North Carolina Press
isbn10 | asin: 0807821268
print isbn13: 9780807821268
ebook isbn13: 9780807860731
language: English
Segregation in education--North Carolina--
Hyde County--Case studies, School
closings--North Carolina--Hyde County--
subject
Case studies, African Americans--
Education--North Carolina--Hyde County--
Case studies.
publication date: 1994
lcc: LC212.522.N8C43 1994eb
ddc: 370.19/344/09756184
Segregation in education--North Carolina--
Hyde County--Case studies, School
closings--North Carolina--Hyde County--
subject:
Case studies, African Americans--
Education--North Carolina--Hyde County--
Case studies.
Along Freedom Road
Hyde County, North Carolina,
and the Fate of Black Schools in the South
David S. Cecelski
The University of
North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill & London
© 1994 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Historian David S. Cecelski is a research fellow at the Institute for
Southern Studies in Durham, North Carolina.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cecelski, David S.
Along freedom road: Hyde County, North
Carolina, and the fate of Black schools in the
South / by David S. Cecelski.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and
index. ISBN 0-8078-2126-8 (alk. paper).
ISBN 0-8078-4437-3 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Segregation in educationNorth
CarolinaHyde CountyCase studies.
2. School closingsNorth CarolinaHyde
CountyCase studies. 3. Afro-Americans
EducationNorth CarolinaHyde County
Case studies. I. Title.
LC212.522.N8C43 1994
370.19'344'09756184-dc20 93-32687
CIP
98 97 5 4 3 2

To Laura
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 7
Prologue, 1954-1964 17
Chapter 1 31
White Folks' Ways
Chapter 2 59
Tired of Having to Bear the Burdens
Chapter 3 83
Once in Our Lifetimes
Chapter 4 105
Another Birmingham?
Chapter 5 127
The Marches to Raleigh
Chapter 6 145
The Hour of Harvest
Epilogue 163
Notes 175
Bibliography 207
Index 225
Page ix
Illustration
Maps
Map 1. Hyde County, North Carolina 2
Map 2. Pamlico Sound Vicinity 4
Map 3. Principal Sites of Ku Klux Klan 38
Activism,First Congressional District,
Summer of 1966
Photographs
Downtown Fairfield, 1918 18
Draining Lake Mattamuskeet 20
Hyde County Training School 62
Prof. O. A. Peay Crowns May Queen 63
Hyde County Training School Faculty 66
Job's Chapel Baptist Church 90
Swan Quarter Protest 93
Police Escort Protesters to Hyde County Jail108
Protest March from Job's Corner 110
The Reverend Ralph Abernathy 117
Marchers Enter Belhaven 134
The March on Raleigh 136
SCLC Leaders in Raleigh 137
"Save Black Schools in Hyde" 140
The Student Planning Committee 160
Page xi
Acknowledgments
I have many friends and colleagues to thank for making this a better
book. During my student days at Harvard, Sara Lawrence Lightfoot,
Courtney Cazden, and Michael Fultz reviewed my first drafts and
offered crucial encouragement and criticism. Later, on my return to
North Carolina, George Noblit, Cynthia Brown, Christina Greene, and
Greg Field contributed thoughtful, informed readings. At every stage,
Maruja Garcia Padilla provided sharp insights into Hyde County
events and my relationship to them.
Beyond my gratitude for their rigorous remarks on the manuscript, I
owe an added debt to Emilie V. Siddle Walker at Emory University
and Tim Tyson at Duke University. Professor Siddle Walker
generously shared with me the early fruits of her pioneering research
on African American schools in the segregated South. Likewise, Tim
Tyson improved the book immeasurably by sharing his extensive
knowledge of civil rights history in North Carolina.
I thank Alex Charns, Wilma Dunaway, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Jim
Lee, Gerald Wilson, George Esser, Page McCullough, and Leslie
McClemore for helping me clear difficult research hurdles. My editor
at the University of North Carolina Press, David Perry, and the outside
readers of my manuscript gave both strong encouragement and useful
substantive advice, for which I am very grateful. I would also like to
acknowledge the Ford Foundation, the Lyndhurst Foundation, and the
Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies for their financial support.
In eastern North Carolina, I would like to thank several individuals
whose hospitality, friendship, and insights have been indispensable to
writing this book. Ida Murray, Henry Johnson, Jr., Thomas Whitaker,
Julia Bick, and Greg Zeph made me feel at home in Hyde County and