As I
Dr. WD White
Remembering the Greensboro Four
Thirty years ago four 18-
year old black male under
graduates at A & T Univer
sity in Greensboro sat down
in a segregated Woolworth
lunch counter and refused to
move until they were served
apple pie and coffee. Almost
unknowingly, these four
brave but fearful students
announced and ushered in a
new era in American His
tory- the era of the Civil
Rights movement, and the
grand American attempt
(despite much resistance and
many setbacks) to redress the
legitimate greivances of our
"As Americans we
have been struck
wth an ideal
that refuses to yield"
Slack population. OnFebru-
irylstof this year, those four
wn returned to Greensboro,
to be served by the same
"'liites who in 1960 had re
fused to serve them. They
"'W also welcomed by a
®3ckman, now a vice-presi-
of Woolworth's.
Greensboro sit-in was
""■yoneofmanyconfronta-
tliat happened as our
took to the streets for
blit equality;
® historic water-
ri„L,•nonviolent civil
niovement that fol
lowed in its wake across the
nation. It is appropriate that
after thirty years we recog
nize the courage and signifi
cance of this sit-in and that
we celebrate its memory. But
honoring the past is not
enough. Predjudice and so
cial injustice still exist, and
more battles lie ahead in our
struggle to free ourselves
from the cancerous malady
of racism.
I will remember the heady
atmosphere of those public
struggles in the early sixties.
I was then teaching at Duke
University, in a tobacco town
with a history of intense ra
cism and considerable racial
violence. In the nearby villi-
age of Chapel-Hill, the great
Univeristy of North Carolina
(like Duke, unqualifiedly
racially segregated) was
thought to be a center of lib
eral enlightenment. Given
the urgency of the issues, and
the tenor of the times, a
small but vocal minority of
faculty persons at Duke and
at Chapel Hill actively dem
onstrated in the streets. And
like many others in these
turbulent times, some these
faculty persons paid a heavy
price for their involvement.
I vividly remember when
several of the Duke faculty
(as well as a number of the
UNC faculty) were served
with warrants in their class
rooms and charged in the
local courts v«th violations
of North Carolina law. I
remember the vigorous
prosecution of these profes
sors in Orange County Court
in old Hillsborough (where
the first North Carolina vote
on the US constitution was
held; it was rejected, because
it did not have a concrete Bill
of Rights protecting the
people from intrusive pow
ers of federal government). I
remember the finding by the
jury of these professors to be
guilty; and their being sen
tenced by the judge to active
prison sentences in the state
penitentiaries. I remember
the public embarrassment to
these professors and their
families; the anxiety and
costs associated with their
prosecution in the courts;
and their trauma at being
given active sentences. I
"Several of the
Duke faculty were
served with
warrants in their
classrooms."
rememberone professor at
Duke who, in response to all
this suffered a complete psy
chic collapse, and was unable
to teach for a year.
I recall the great relief when
Governor Terry Sanford par
doned all these professors to
keep them from going to
prison. A courageous and
politically risky decision for
him. I also remember that
one Duke professor, of pri
vate means, did not accept
the pardon, but pursued his
case in the courts. Some
years later, the Supreme
I Court of the United States
declared that his constitu
tional rights had been vio
lated, and all the charges
against him were thrown
out.
Now thirty years later, all
that story sounds like it
comes from another country.
And in a sense it does. For
nobody could imagine such
things happening today. We
can all be 'thankful that many
of the most violent human
abuses in our racist past are
in the past. But we can not
rest or become complacent
about our achievements.
For the 1990's will force us
again to look deliberately at
our unresolved racial story.
The economic plight of
Blacks tcxiay becomes daily
worse, not better, particu
larly for Black women.
Blacks have an HIV rate
more than twice that of
whites. Crime against and
amongst Blacks, drug abuse,
the collapse of fuctional
families, de facto segrega
tion and discrimination and
prejudice are escalating in
our Black population. Sig
nificantly higher child mor
tality rates and significantly
lower life expectancies both
for men and women charac-
fected overnight. We realize
that no powerful groups vol
untarily give up power. We
confess that the more things
change the more things re
main the same. We also ac
knowledge that Black
people, and their white
friends and advocates, get
tired of social struggle, and
would like simply to get on
with their private and per
sonal lives of love and work.
But the yearning for a just
and equitable society-even
for a Christian community
rooted in sisterhood and
love-does not die easily. As
"Our society took
to the streets
for Racial Equality."
Americans we have been
struck with an ideal that
refuses to yield.
I hope that as we enter this
new decade, there will be
terize the black situation, undergraduates amongst us
And millions of Black chil- with the courage and the
dren continue to attend pub- vision of the Greensboro
lie schools Four. And that our faculty
never expo ■ will continue to encourage
way to their own distii^ctive considerable
cultural traditions, htera- ^.allenge es-
tures, and history.
Looking at our racial past I tablished injustice. Only
and into the future, we recog- then can we take le^tiniate
nize that no fundamental pride in our past, and antia-
changes in society are ef- pate our fuhire with hope.