Cover Story
By: Marquise Drayton (’19), Staff Writer
Before I arrived to Carolina in the summer of 2015 for Summer Bridge, I knew of only a handful of black people who had graduated from or were associated with UNC. Among those individuals were Michael Jordan (obviously), Vince Carter, Marcus Paige, Brice Johnson and the late Stuart Scott. With the exception of Scott, these were star student-athletes who are respected for their athletic ability more than their academic and social contributions. What about the great Black men and women of this university who aren’t on SportsCenter? In this Black History Month edition of Black Ink, I wanted to highlight some of the people who aren’t covered. Whether it be on campus tours or hardwood floors, these prominent figures were—and still are— an integral part in shaping the Black community of UNC.
Beginning with the university’s construction, enslaved people and college servants tended to presidents, professors, and students. Those included Eli Merritt, James Atwater, November Caldwell and his son Wilson, Tom Kirby, Easter Snipes, Ben Boothe and Rebecca Clark. One of the most renowned of these was George Moses Horton from Chatham County, North Carolina. Often permitted to visit UNC by his master and sell love poems to the students, he was the first African American to have his work published in the South and the first to protest his enslavement through poetry.
From the bottom of the workforce, we’ve reached the top of administration. Hayden B. Renwick, a former associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, founded the Office for Student Counseling. Carl Smith was the first Black administrator appointed to the provost’s office and Harold G. Wallace of Durham, who came to UNC in 1973 and retired as special assistant to the chancellor for minority affairs in 1999, was UNC’s first Black vice chancellor. Following him, Edith Wiggins was the first Black female vice chancellor. Today, Black administration includes Winston Crisp, Felicia Washington and Rumay Alexander.
Carolina’s Black faculty prides itself on its long history and commitment to fostering knowledge. The first Black faculty member, Hortense McClinton, taught in the School of Social Work for 18 years beginning in 1966. In 1969, Blyden Jackson joined the English department to become the university’s first tenured Black professor. His wife, Roberta Jackson, joined the faculty in 1974. As an associate professor in the School of Education, she became the first tenured Black woman in the Division of Academic Affairs. Trudier Harris of the English department lectured and published extensively on African American literature and folklore. Without a doubt, the most impactful Black faculty member is Dr. Sonja Haynes Stone. In 1974, she came to UNC as an assistant professor. Later rising to the role of an associate professor a decade later, she was the director of the Curriculum in the AAAD department until 1979. In addition, she served as the adviser to the Black Student Movement from 1974 to 1980. After she passed away, Margo Crawford served as the first director of the Black Cultural Center when it opened in 1988, fighting for the center to be named in Stone’s honor. Current students are well aware of the professional work done by black professors such as Dr. Deborah Stroman, Charles Daye, Dr. Charlene Regester and Dr. Ronald Williams III.
Along the way, numerous celebrities and public figures have come to campus to lend a hand in the fight for equal rights and justice. Director Spike Lee contacted the BSM after seeing a story in The New York Times about the fight for a freestanding Black cultural center. In 1992, he came to speak at a rally in the Dean Dome, bringing along with him Khalid Abdul Muhammad of the Nation of Islam. Letters poured into University President Frank Porter Graham’s office when Langston Hughes was invited to speak at campus in 1931 due to his support of the Communist Party. Even more controversial was BSM inviting Stokely Carmichael to speak at Carmichael Auditorium in 1968. Carmichael’s invitation by the BSM adversely influenced the administration and public’s later opinions about the organization’s subsequent activities.
Black novelist Richard Wright worked with dramatist Paul Green–namesake of UNC’s Paul Green Theatre–on adapting his novel Native Son for the stage. When the play opened on Broadway, it gained critical and commercial success. However, this wasn’t the only person of color Green would collaborate with. Zora Neale Hurston would work with Paul Green despite the difficulty of segregation laws.
The most important pieces of this narrative, though, are the former and current students that have helped shape Carolina’s history. When the federal court ruled in 1951 that UNC must admit black students, four black men attended law classes in Chapel Hill that summer. The first black students at UNC-Chapel Hill were Harvey Beech, Kenneth Lee, Floyd McKissick Sr. and Floyd Lassiter. Later that year, Oscar Diggs and James Slade enrolled as the first African-Americans in the medical school. Four years later, the court ordered Chapel Hill to register its first African American undergraduates. Among those were Leroy and Ralph Frasier & John Lewis Brandon. However, due to the racial tension and climate on campus at the time, the three were forced out of Carolina. They would later graduate from North Carolina Central University. David Dansby would become the first Black undergraduate to earn a degree from Carolina in 1960.
When it comes to student leadership, Richard Epps was elected the first Black Student Body President at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1972. As for scholarship, Karen Stevenson was the first black woman granted a Morehead Scholarship in 1975. She went on to become a Rhodes scholar in 1979. This marked her as the first woman from the university and the first black woman in the nation to receive the honor. Athletic excellence includes Edwin Okorama, who integrated the soccer team in 1963 to be the first black student-athlete at UNC. Charlie Scott and Ricky Lanier followed Okorama soon after as the first black scholarship student-athletes in their respective sports, basketball and football.
Preston Dobbins and Reggie Hawkins culminated the innovation and creativity that has become paramount to Black UNC students with the creation of the Black Student Movement along with the founding of Black Ink Magazine by Cureton Johnson. Black Students continued to flourish in Homecoming and BSM courts as well. Laura Anderson earned Miss BSM and Miss UNC in 1991 with eight more Miss BSMs obtaining the latter distinction. Today, we look to recent alumni Donovan Livingston, Camile Jones, Rwenshaun Miller, Mykia Johnson, Summer Holmes and others making a difference on a large scale and in their own communities than Carolina.
Overall, the Black influence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill moves far past the courts of the Dean Smith Center and the pines of Kenan Football Stadium. It’s a living history felt by the current community, reminiscent of past alumni, faculty and staff, and hopeful for future Tar Heels. The legacy left by past Tar Heels ensures that future generations will acknowledge the “University of the People” as encompassing theirs…Ours.
