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The essence of freedom is understanding
Black Student Movement Official Newspaper
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Vol. XV, No. 4
December 7,1984
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Black Academic Department
Heads
P'Agt 5
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Purple Rain Concert Review
Page 7
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Sonja Stone: Close Up And
Personal
Page 8
Photo by: Sarita Mangum
Sing It Fellas!
Omega Psi Phi Brothers Jack Brown (left) and Vance Cabiness
put their hearts and souls into a few numbers at the Entertainment
Tonight program November 10 in Great Hall. Entertainment
Tonight was sponsored the Black Student Movement and the
Black Greek Council.
UNC Journalism
Graduates Produce
Award Winning
Black Newspaper
by Angela Sanders
Special to the Black Ink
The Winston-Salem Chronicle, a
small North Carolina weekly emerged
as a David among Goliaths last June
when the National Newspaper
Publishers Association awarded it the
John B. Russworm award for the best
all-around Black newspaper. More
than 150 newspapers competed for
the award.
Publisher Ernie Pitt, a 1974
UNC-CH journalism graduate,
recently described the receipt of the
award as the "crowning
achievement" in his career.
Although the Chronicle had
been named the best weekly in the
state by the North Carolina Press
Association in 1982 and 1983. Pitt
said that he valued the NNPA award
even more because the Chronicle
competed against Black daily, weekly
and semi-weekly nationwide.
Several elements account for the
success of the Chronicle. Above all,
Pitt credited the paper's staff, which
includes several other UNC-CH
graduates, for the quality of the
award-winning paper.
UNC-CH graduates at the paper
include Executive Editor Allen
Johnson, a 1977 graduate and former
(continued on page 5)
C.P. Ellis Says Klan
Days Have Been
Over for Awhile
by Kevin Washington
Staff Writer
For C.P. Ellis, the days of Klan activity are long gone.
The short, graying Ellis, at one time Exalted Cyclops (president) of the
Durham County chapter of the United Klans of America, has hung up his robe
for the casual look, short sleeve shirt and slacks.
At 57, the former Klansman has moved from the far right to the far left,
now the regional business manager for the International Union of Operating
Engineers in Durham, N.C.
But 14 years ago, he belonged to one of the most feared institutions in the
South.
He says when the Klan came into his life in the early 1960s, he was a very
unhappy, discontented man. He had seen his father die of Brown Lung at age
48, and had himself worked at a number of jobs, never quite able to make ends
meet.
After working seven days a
week for months to pay back the
loan he had borrowed to buy his
own service station, Ellis had a
heart attack.
"I really began to get bitter-
-I didn't know who to blame," he
says. "You know, I was taught
by my father at a very early age,
'You know, you're white, do
right, salute the flag, obey the
police department, go to church
and good things will happen to
you.' But, it didn't work out that
way.
"In other words, it was one bitter struggle...! was absolutely bitter at the
world. I was mad at somebody because nothing was going right.
"So, I just had to have an enemy. And I found the enemy--it was Black
people."
He says Blacks seemed to be the best targets because they were fighting
for their rights--rights which Ellis basically didn't feel he had as a low income
white person.
In fact, he describes the majority of Klansmen as low income whites,
whites who have been left out of the system only to languish in poverty along
with Blacks.
The Klan, he says, provided a feeling of belonging which he had never
experienced before. In 1964, he found himself taking the oath of the Klan.
"After I had taken my oath, there was loud applause going throughout the
building—musta been four hundred people. For this one little ol' person. It was
a thrilling moment for C.P. Ellis."
In time, he came to be a vocal Klansman.
"I became outspoken in the city of Durham, taking open positions on my
feelings before the city council, county commission and the school boards," he
recalls. "We just simply made it clear to those elected officials that we wasn't
interested in niggers having their rights."
But, in 1971, Ellis participated in a school integration program sponsored
by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. On the first day ot the
program, he and Ann Atwater, a Black civil rights leader in the area, were
elected co-chairmen.
"When I was elected to the position, I said, 'Hell, I can't work with that
gal,' " he says, but after a few days he made up his mind to try.
"And it was during those 10 days that a real social change began to take
place in my life. This was the first time in my life that I had really sat down fare
(continued on page b)