By: Amber Goodwin (’19), Staff Writer
Protesting to make our voices heard is nothing new to minorities at this university. When going against powerful institutions like UNC, we find strength in numbers through collaborations of time and resources amongst organizations. As the month-long boycott ended just a few weeks back, students must look toward previous minority protests at the university in order to create an effective plan in bringing down Silent Sam.
The Food Worker’s Strikes of 1969 are a prime example of the importance of distinctive groups coming together in order to create change. During the 1968-69 school year, black students were only 1.5% of the student population and approximately 100% of non-academic workers were black. Non-academic workers include: groundskeepers, CDS servers, and custodial staff. Workers at the Lenoir dining hall began to express disapproval with their pay, relationship with the supervisors, and incorrect job classifications. Employees were kept on a 90-day probation, which caused them to be labeled as temporary employees and receive lower wages. When the employees went to express their concerns, their supervisors refused to meet and address these problems.
As an attempt to improve the relations with their employer, several employees drafted a memorandum that offered ways to improve the work environment. In addition, the dining workers paired up with the newly formed Black Student Movement. Together they addressed the then-Chancellor Carlyle Sitterson with a list of demands. As a result from the lukewarm response given by the Chancellor, BSM and the dining workers decided to lead a protest. On February 23, 1969, the workers prepared the food and once the hall opened for students, they left their stations and sat in the chairs. That following Monday, 100 workers did not come in to work.
The University’s administration saw the strike as a student uprising and paid more attention to the disruption rather than the reasons and demands from the workers. They encouraged employees to meet privately with their employers in efforts to resolve the issues swiftly and peacefully. This created more outrage with the opposing side and on March 4, 1969, BSM entered Lenoir and began to flip the tables and shout, “get out or come with us.” After the incident, many students and faculty across racial backgrounds got involved and demanded the university listen and act accordingly to the demands of the non-academic workers and BSM. Governor Robert W. Scott decided to intervene and ordered the members of BSM arrested and finally met with the workers on March 21, 1969. By the end of the meeting, he settled on an increase in minimum wage for non-academic workers along with other improvements.
Similar to the Lenoir Strike of 1969, Boycott UNC addresses the underlying racial injustices still present today. The infamous monument of the Confederate soldier, known as Silent Sam, has been the topic of conversation for decades. After the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, student groups across campus began to take more interest in the tearing down of Silent Sam. A total of 16 organizations came together and created a boycott from September 18 until October 18 that encouraged the campus to stop purchasing products from the university and take their money elsewhere. A few of the banned locations included the Student Stores, Bottom of Lenoir, and the Rams Head Market. The organizations generated a list of restaurants along Franklin Street that were in support of the protests and alternative lunches were distributed to protestors at the Campus Y.
As Silent Sam remains protected by the university today, boycotters can look toward the Lenoir Food Workers’ Strike in ways to get the attention and most importantly action from the university. Without the two groups coming together, the Lenoir workers would have fought a much longer battle. The tearing down of Silent Sam has gone on for much longer time, but sometimes change is gradual. Today black students must continue to encourage our allies to join us in protest and continue to evoke the discomfort we feel on a daily basis in order to create real change.
Campus Y Member serving alternative lunches to Boycott participants
BSM members collecting donations to assist those who were arrested after flipping tables in Lenoir
