“How One City in Dixie Doused Race-Hate Fires” found in The New York Herald Tribune by Stuart H. Loory, May 11 1960.
Published on May 11, 1960, the New York Herald Tribune covered a monumental and interracial hotdog fete in Chapel Hill, NC. The author, Stuart H. Loory, expounds on how Chapel Hill’s two-and-a-half month sit-in campaign against segregated eating facilities has finally ended with an interracial hot dog celebration.[2] The article assumes that the reader is familiar with the racial politics involving segregation of that time period. This article is reflective of the tense racial controversy during the 1960’s in the South, and more specifically Chapel Hill, NC.
The article is broken up into three subsections called: “Different Viewpoints”, “Seeds of Trouble”, and “Little Room to Negotiate”.[2] The title of the subsections paint a broad picture of the difficulties and social unrest facing Chapel Hill at this time. A group of African-American high schoolers “gathered in the West Franklin St. business district…their purpose was to agitate for equal service at segregated lunch counters”.[2] This action then sparked the two-and-a-half month long campaign against segregated eating facilities, and eventually led to an interracial hot dog fete. More importantly, the movement ended with a distribution of handbills from the Chapel Hill Council on Racial Equality urging the public to take action towards ending segregation in movie theatres to every household in Chapel Hill.[2]
At the time, racial segregation was still rampant despite the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee for equal protection of the laws, ratified in 1868. On this basis, many states, businesses, and organizations took advantage of the idea “separate but equal”.[1] It was not until when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that segregation was legally banned altogether.[1] This article is quintessential for understanding Chapel Hill, NC, at this moment. From this article alone, it is clear that slavery no longer existed, but racism through segregation remained a prevalent problem.
[1] “Desegregation and Busing: The Fourteenth Amendment.” Discrimination at School: 1. Accessed November 6, 2018. https://education.findlaw.com/discrimination-harassment-at-school/desegregation-and-busing-the-fourteenth-amendment.html.
[2] Loory, Stuart H. “How One City in Dixie Doused Race-Hate Fires.” New York Herald Tribune (1926-1962), May 11, 1960. http://libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/docview/1325232507?accountid=14244.
Sammi Ti