Benjamin Chavis - A Man Of The 60^ S (Continued from Page 1)
sixties and I was just a freshman in
high school. Since then, one thing
led to another. I began to form as
sociations and meet some of the
people involved like Floyd McKis-
sick, Stokely Carmichael, Martin
Luther King. I became personal
friends with these people and saw
some committment, not only to go
and struggle in places far from
home, but I even tried to do some
thing around Oxford which led to
me even getting beat up when I was
fifteen.
In Oxford, we tried to integrate
the local movie house, called the
Orpheum Theater. Several people,
including myself, were physically
beaten because of it. But through
all of this, this gave me determina
tion to struggle on.
Q. Do you feel that this brutality
reaffirmed your committment?
CHAVIS: I think it was a definite
factor for me to continue on the
struggle. And then we began to win
some victories. The Civil Rights
Act, the Voter Rights Act, and
other civil rights measures.
Just to have those laws on the
book wasn’t enough. We had to go
and challenge the people to make
them implement the law. Civil diso
bedience and confrontation was
necessary.
I almost quit high school, but I
didn’t. I stayed in. I felt it was just
as important getting an education
in high school as it was to learn to
give of myself in the movement.
And I took this with me -to college.
For the first couple of years 1
went to St. Augustine’s in Raleigh
and got very much involved in the
student movement in the Raleigh
area. As you know, SNCC, during
this time, was formed at Shaw (Uni
versity).
And I soon left — for personal
reasons I had to leave Raleigh —
and went to the University of
North Carolina at Charlotte. It was
probably very good for me to do
that. St. Augustine’s College was a
Black school; I learned a lot of im
portant things there. But one of the
things that I learned at UNC-Char-
lotte that I never would have
learned at St. Augustine s was the
harsh reality of racism in the educa
tional system.
Q. So you think that this type of
integration again reaffirmed the
harsh reality of racism in America?
CHAVIS: Right. It helped me a-
long. It was just like a stepping
stone to be thrown in the all-white
university. There weren’t but eleven
(Black) students there at the time.
There was no question - - if we ele
ven students hadn’t stuck together
we wouldn’t have survived. So I
took a whole lot of what I learned
in the racist, white environment at
UNC-Charlotte and began to imple
ment it in the Black community of
Charlotte and that’s when I was
first arrested.
Q. When?
CHAVIS: In 1967-68. I was
arrested in Charlotte for making a
speech against police brutality.
They had a very brutal police de
partment that inflicted many
wounds on the Black community.
I thought, not only I, but we as
Black students at the time felt that
part of our education had to take
place in the Black community.
Also, we had to make our educa
tion relevant. This was during the
time students were asking for Black
studies and a Black program. I be
came the founder of the Black Stu
dent Union at UNC-C.
And because of the demands we
put on the university, there is now
a viable Black studies program at
UNC-C.
Q. That was the next question be
cause usually Black studies were
phased out.
CHAVIS: On most college campus-
was even framed up in Asheville
one time on a firearms charge. But
some of the same things that you
all were going through in Chapel
Hill, we were facing in Charlotte.
And this was during the time the
Duke students. . .
Q. The close down and strike?
CHAVIS: Right, involving non-aca
demic employees, and which led to
the founding of Malcolm X Libera
tion University with Howard Fuller,
now Owusu Sadauki.
All this is inter-connected and I
...
Will the public pressure exemplified in the
the Wilmington 10?
es they would either expel the stu
dent leaders or claim a lack of
funds. At Charlotte we persisted
and found donors so it wasn’t a
question of money. Then they said,
“Well, who knows what Black stu
dies are, anyway?” Then we called
in Black academicians and really
drew up a fine program, academ
ically in terms of meeting university
standards and also politically in
meeting the needs of the Black
community in Charlotte. So now, I
feel, one of the best Black studies
programs is at UNC-Charlotte.
Q. Certainly not at Chapel Hill. . .
staff photo by Jimmie Parket
Hurricane Carter and Angela Davis cases free
treasure it. I think it was a very
treasurable experience. And one of
the things — you know I said we
have to deal with self-criticism —
one of the things that I feel I must
do and I’m asking others to do who
experienced it is to write about it.
We have to document our experi
ences so we can transmit them on
to the next generation. That’s
what’s so important about Roots:
after all these years, finally some
body sat down and wrote.
I’m saying that one reason why
there’s no clear carrying on of what
went on in the sixties is because we
have not properly documented
In broad daylight vigilantes would come over and start
shooting.
CHAVIS: Right. I remember the
Black Student Movement. Preston
Dobbins and Reginald Hawkins, Jr.,
all those were my friends.
Actually, I came to Chapel Hill
on several occasions when we were
trying to hook up all the Black stu
dent unions of the university sys
tem. . . the Neo-Black Society in
Greensboro and several others.
There was a lot of oppression, par
ticularly in Chapel Hill. I felt the
chancellor and the authorities there
knew that if any kind of movement
got a foothold in Chapel Hill, it
would spread all over the state. And
that’s why, to me, there was so
much oppression. Preston himself
what happened there in Durham.
Chapel Hill, Charlotte and Greens
boro and other places. Right here in
North Carolina, there was a lot of
righteous strugghng going on. Peo
ple made a lot of sacrifices but it’s
not documented. So people don’t
know what our people have been
through — so we can’t leam from
the lessons. We can’t leam from the
mistakes.
Q. So you’re saying this is very im
portant for the posterity of Black
people?
CHAVIS: This is very important.
One of the things I’ve been doing
for the last fifteen months since
I’ve been back in the NorthCarolina
prison system is trying to reflect on
some of this in writing. I just fin
ished editing a book of what I call
psalms. They’re like the psalms in
the Bible but they’re more political
and have a lot more content in
terms of describing the actual expe
rience, not only prison life but the
movement. There’s a lot of reflec
tion on the North Carolina move
ment. The title of the book is Let
My People Go. Psalms of Oppres
sion and Struggle. Hopefully, that
will be out this summer.
That’s only one piece. I really
want to do some more writing. Not
only me, but I’m encountering
others to write too. I think one of
the most important things that I
have to do is to write. One of the
things King didn’t have a chance to
do before he was assassinated was
to write more.
Q. That brings us to another ques
tion in terms of yourself. Do you
feel that you were very influenced
by Dr. King? Do you feel he was a
very tangible influence on your de
velopment as a leader?
CHAVIS: No question about it. I
think if I could look at all the Black
leaders in America who have influ
enced me, I would have to pick Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. as being the
most influential. Malcolm X is ano
ther one, along with Frederick
Douglas and W.E.B. DuBois. Stoke
ly impressed me some; I was a per
sonal friend of Stokely. But who
made me really dedicate my life
was Martin Luther King.
I remember the night he was as
sassinated in Memphis. I just caught
myself. . . I was at Charlotte (UNC)
at the time. We were planning a
tour for Martin Luther King for Dr.
Reginald Hawkins. Dr.Hawkins, in
68, was running for governor. As
soon as King finished in Memphis,
he was to come to North Carolina
next. We were planning a whole
statewide speaking tour. And, of
course, he didn’t get a chance to
make the tour.
At that time I was a western
North Carolina coordinator for
SCLC, while I was in college. I
wasn’t even a minister myself. I was
brought up in an Episcopal church
which was sort of a middle class
Black church, not too much in
volved. I was at the point of quit
ting the church. But through all the
many rallies, through all the com
munities I had to go into and organ
ize in ’68, one of the most crucial,
that was the Marie Hill issue.
Q. From Winston Salem?
CHAVIS: It was Rocky Mount. She
was sixteen years old and had been
sentenced to death by a North Ca
rolina court. And we decided, a guy
named Golden Frinks and myself,
decided that we were going to have
to turn this state upside down to
keep Marie Hill from being sent to
the gas chamber. At that point it
wasn’t clear or not if they were
going to give here a chance to
appeal the case. It was a one-day
trial, all white jury and they sen
tenced her to death. So we decided
to have a mountain top to valley
march, all the way from Asheville
to Raleigh.
But it was more than just march
ing from Asheville to Raleigh, be
cause of what we did. We stopped
in every town in North Carolina be-
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