Hilliard Caldwell - Not allowing the white structure to control the Civil Rights Movement in Chapel Hill (clip)

Hilliard Caldwell (HC): And, one of the things, Yonni, that we made very clear in this whole process in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community was that, and, we felt very good about this, we were not going to allow the white structure to control it. They could be part of it-

John Kenyon “Yonni” Chapman (YC): To control the movement?

HC: -but we would be the controlling factor. We made that very clear because…

YC: Is that something that you and Harold discussed?

HC: Exactly. We felt that the first thing that would happen if it was controlled by Whites. The first that was going to happen was that the media and people were going to say it was communist controlled. And I will never forget that. And I think that you will find in all of us that we made it very clear that the White liberal could be part of it. They could be part of the Executive Committee. They could make rules and regulations but that we would always control the leadership of the organization because so many times doing things in the South, local Blacks was accused of allowing people from the North, rabble rousers from the North, coming down and stirring up trouble. They accused us of being part of the communist movement and we didn’t want that here in Chapel Hill. We didn’t want that stigma attached. We felt we could accomplish this thing if our movement was locally controlled. We welcomed their involvement but from the control standpoint, from the many negotiation meetings that we had with the White powers that be, the Mayor, the people at City Hall, the Police Department, that it was going to be done by us, local people. Herman Stone remembers Hilliard Caldwell. Sandy McClamrock [Chapel Hill Mayor] remembers Hilliard Caldwell and Harold Foster. He didn’t remember talking to any of the White people.

YC: Uh-huh. Ya’ll did [the] negotiating.

HC: They would be with us but we were identified as the people. And we suspect that the reason Chapel Hill got along as well as it did was because we maintained that local stability. We maintained that local identity. All our dealings with Police Chief Blake, at that particular time, he recognized Hilliard Caldwell and Harold Foster. He didn’t recognize any of the professors from the University. Once they got involved, then the rednecks out of Carrboro and the County attempted to say we were controlled by rabble rousers from up North and from the White liberals from the University, but that was not the case. Everything that you see and probably will read will probably… Now they were involved, heavily involved, and they participated in the discussions and negotiations, but they didn’t take a leadership role in it. They were there with us. They gave us guidance. The professor, the Constitutional Law professor-

YC: Dan Pollock?

HC: Dan Pollock, I’ll never forget, he was part of this and we relied on him for legal.