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Black Ink
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Pitt County grand jury
to probe Ayden killing
(Reprinted from The Daily Tar Heel)
A special session of the Pitt County
G’^and Jury Monday will investigate the
d'iath of William Murphey, a black farm
laborer slain by a highway patrolman in
August.
Murphey’s death has prompted several
protests resulting in more than 900
arrests, including 25 UNC students. The
students face trial today in Pitt County
for violating a parade ordinance and have
indicated they will ask for a continuation
until after exams.
The special session was ordered this
week by Superior Court Judge Robert
Rouse. Rouse called for the probe “to
determine if there is probable cause for
accusation of criminal conduct in
connection with Murphey’s death.”
Rouse’s order is part of a ruling in
which he denied a petition by the
Greenville American Civil Liberties Union
to make public the confidential State
Bureau of Investigation report into the
Murphey death.
About 62 protestors arrested in the
past week in Greenville, site of the
beginning of a proposed week-long march
to Raleigh, were sentenced to three days
in jail for failing to heed a parade
ordinance.
Murphey was slain by Highway
Patrolman Billy Day, who was cleared of
any criminal charges by the SBI'
investigation and a coroner’s report.
James Monroe
‘I’m ashamed of my passivity’
November 21, 1970 saw brother James
Cates stabbed repeatedly on the
University of North Carolina campus by a
white motorcyclist known as a Storm
Trooper. This act of overt agression was
done in the presence of hundreds of UNC
students and the campus “pigs.” Brother
(ates bled for 30 minutes outside the
Carolina Union while the campus “pigs”
looked on. Cates death was definitely
unnecessary. Cates death was without
provocation. Cates’ murderers were set
free by Orange County.
I, for one, am ashamed and hurt at my
own passive actions. It took Attica,
Wilmington and Ayden to make me
realize white people do not need a license
to murder blacks. We must wake up from
this nightmare and open our eyes black
people. We must realize that we cannot
make it by saying “well that happened to
him and not me.” We cannot close our
minds and think we are safe. We cannot
afford to drop our guard.
Black people please wake up because I
need you. James Cates needs you. William
Murphey needs you. Angela Davis needs
you. But most of all, you need yourself.
You especially need you when you ain’t
got nobody else.
* * *
We gathered in multitudes to pay
tribute to a fallen brother. Brother James
Cates was murdered last year and nothing
much was said or done.
November 19, 1971 saw the Black
Student Movement, the Afro-American
Society of Chapel Hill High School and
the general community joined together to
let the “man” know we care. We know
that Cates is not forgotten and that
racism is never going to be forgotten.
After weeks of planning, 300 blacks
gathered at the statue of Silent Sam with
colors of liberation drapped over the
“You especially need you when you
ain’t got nobody else.”
symbol. Black people had gathered to
protest the death of Cates and the racism
that exists in this country. Ron Wesson,
former chairman of the Black Student
Movement, informed the people about
the details of the march and asked; “Who
killed James Cates, William Murphey,
Martin Lutner King, and Malcolm X?”
Wesson then asked them where they were
when Cates’ death occurred.
Sandra Clark of the Chapel Hill High
School Afro-American Society spoke of
the firebombing incident following Cates’
death. She expressed concern for the
arrested borhters and questioned the
validity of the arrest period.
After the speakers, the brothers and
sisters turned and marched. The
onlookers were shocked as we chanted
“Power to the African People.” We
marched down Franklin and Cameron
Streets and then on to the Pit.
We arrived at the Pit around 12:36
p.m. and the Brother Reverend C.L.
Helton told the people, “We were not
responsible for the problem and we will
not be responsible for the solution.” The
chairman of the BSM, Jimmy McRae,
then traced the plight of black people in
America. He ended his speech by saying:
“When we look at UNC, we see an
institution which leeches off the
community, and as long as UNC is UNC
and continues to be a racist institution,
we will condem it for for it is.”
From A & T State University, former
BSM chairman Cureton Johnson told the
people to wake up and forget thinking
racism will just fade away. He said only
by fighting the “man” can we ever hope
of winning our freedom and protecting
our people.
After this series of speakers, we heard
some beautiful selections from the BSM
Gospel Choir. They enchanted the
brothers and sisters with their songs of
pain and hope. We were indeed honored
by the efforts and contributions.
The Reverend Leon White, North
Carolina Executive Director of the
Commission for Racial Justice quoted
verses from the Bible calling for
revolution and used these verses to inspire
black people to move on. Rev. White
made the brothers and sisters proud to be
black. Dealing with the idea of black
people voting. White said: “White people
tell black people to get out and vote and
use their black power but black people
know that voting for the devil ain’t black
power, but enslavement.”
Our last speaker was brother Bernard
Lee, Assistant to Rev. Ralph Abernathy,
“We were not responsible for the
problem and we will not be responsible
for the solution.”
Rev. C.L. Helton
who told black people “they are heirs to
the Kingdom of God.” He urged black
people to give up a semester of study and
to devote it to the fight for freedom.
Brother Lee, an integrationist, told Black
people to lock arms with their white
brothers and fight together for equality.
As the forum came to a close a silent
prayer was said in the name and memory
of Brother Cates. Brother Bruce Sampson
closed the program with: “You can kill a
revolutionary, but you can’t kill the
revolution.”
Pitt county movement
comes to Carolina
by Doris Stith
Managing Editor
More than two hundred persons
participated in a rally held in the UNC
Pit on Wednesday, November 10. The
rally, organized in protest of police
brutality in Pitt County and Ayden which
has gone without redress, featured such
speakers as Donovan Phillips, Golden
Frinks, and Jerry Paul.
Golden Frinks is field secretary for
SCLC and has been active in the Pitt
County Movement since the slaying of a
Black farm laborer, Williay Murphy, by
Highway Patrolman Billy Day on August
6, 1971.
“Billy Day’s a murderer and he’s
teaching self defense, right here in the
Institute of Government,” said Frinks. He
advocated that Day be fired and that all
policemen be give psychological tests
before they become police.
Frinks went on to say that they would
continue to march and demonstrate and
tell the story until justice was done.
Donovan Phillips, another speaker for
the nonviolent movement spoke out
against the injustices done to Blacks in
Pitt County. “If this keeps going on,
there won’t be a Pitt County, North
Carolina,” declared Phillips as a tear
streamed from his eye.
The rally then moved from the Pitt to
the Institute of Government where Billy
Day was thought to be, but, the Institute
did not deny of affirm the group’s
accusation.
Jerry Paul, attorney for the Pitt
County United Effort Coalition, was the
main speaker for the occasion. Paul
relayed his experiences to the attentive
group of the conditions existing in Pitt
County. He said that the American
government was racist and that the group
was “dealing with a question of survival.”
“We’ll continue the marches and
demonstrations until justice reigns in
North Carolina,” Milton Fitch told a
reporter at the end of the rally. Fitch is
state coordinatory of SCLC.
Mary Lacewell
Justice to Cates and Murphey
It was a year ago that James Cates, a
black Chapel Hill youth, was murdered
by a member of a white Durham
motorcycle gang known as the Storm
Troopers. An all night dance was being
held at the Carolina Student Union
preceding the Carolina-Duke football
game. Cates was coming out of the Union
Snack Bar, he was shoved to the side and
fatally stabbed.
Earlier that night, Cates and some
friends from Chapel Hill went to a local
tavern. The New Establishment, and
encountered the Storm Troopers. A brawl
ensued and Cates and his friends left
immediately for the Union. The Storm
Troopers weren’t satisfied with theesults
of the brawl and followed them to the
Student Union.
At the Union, the Storm Troopers
went for the first Black they saw. Their
victim was a simple and quiet young man
who had done harm to no one. Their
victim was James Cates.
A Storm Trooper was later arrested
and charged with the death of Cates. How
did justice prevail? An all white jury from
Hillsboro cleared the Storn Trooper of
the murder charge and was set free. “The
freeing of the storm trooper who
murdered Cates is a good example of the
racist nature of American justice, or to be
more exact, white justice,” said a black
marcher at memorial services for Cates.
“I’m marching to show these white
justice makers that I will no longer sit
down and forget or accept their unfair
decisions complacently. My marching’
today is only the beginning. . .
* * *
The second black murder victim
memorialized was William Murphy.
Murphey was a black farm laborer who
was shot and killed on August 6 by a
white highway patrolman, Billy Day, on a
rural road two miles South of Ayden. On
disagreed with Day’s account of the
incident. A Black witness testified that
Murphey was handcuffed when
apprehended and had limited means of
defense. They consider the trial and
decision unfair and accordingly have been
“My marching today is only the beginning . . .
—A Black marcher
September 25, a coroner’s jury ruled that
Day shot Murphey in self-defense.
Day testified before a coroner’s jury
that he arrested Murphey for public
drunkeness. Inside the car, according to
Day, a struggle began which resulted in
Day shooting Murphey in the stomach.
The Black community of Ayden
protesting in the eastern North Carolina
towns of Ayden, Farmville, and Bethel.
25 UNC students were arrested in
Ayden for violating a town ordinance for
parading. The group was arrested while
marching to Ayden to mail a letter to
Gov. Robert Scott demanding that an
investigation be held.