What do you do when something doesn't work? Will you try again? Do you change tactics? Do you give up altogether?
This was the question that Durhamites who want to see change in our community have had to ask themselves over and over. Often, they chose to be persistent.
Whether it was getting a seat at the Durham Bulls games or protecting farmworkers working for the pickle company Mt. Olive, persistence was an important reason change happened. Businesses like the Carolina Theatre did not want to integrate and allow equal seating to people of color. It was only after sustained, consistent pressure that the theater changed.
Sometimes persistence looked like activists staying dedicated over many years. Other times, they persisted by changing their plan when something didn't work. Through it all, they stayed dedicated to a vision of a better world.
As you read, think about:
Why is persistence necessary?
Desegregation of Durham High School
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation of schools by race was unconstitutional. But in Durham and across the South, the ruling was not enforced. White students continued to attend Durham High School, and Black students attended Hillside High School.
African Americans persistently advocated for school desegregation. In 1957, the parents of Jocelyn McKissick and Elaine Richardson filed a lawsuit asking that their daughters be reassigned to Durham High School. Their claims were rejected, but they built a movement to integrate. In the 1959-1960 school year alone, there were about 225 reassignment requests for Black students to transfer to formerly all white schools. The school system denied almost all of them; only eight requests were granted. The eight granted requests began the integration of Brogden, Carr, and East Durham Junior High Schools as well as Durham Senior High School.
Image: A Carolina Times article from September 1959 shows the images of the five children integrating schools in Durham - Claudette Brame, Sylvester Williams, Anita Brame, Amos Williams, and Andree McKissick.
In 1960, Jocelyn McKissick became the first African American female to graduate from Durham High School. Members of Durham’s Black community, joined by the NAACP, continued to push for school desegregation across the system. The NAACP sued the Durham County School System in 1968. In 1970 a federal court finally ordered complete integration, after decades of persistent activism.
Image: Floyd and Evelyn McKissick escort their daughter Andree and friend Henry Vickers as they integrate Carr Junior High in 1959.
The first Black students to attend Durham High School were resilient despite waves of harassment. Their parents called on school leadership to protect the children during the school day. Today, parents in Durham Public Schools continue to advocate for fair and equitable treatment for all students, and battle against white supremacy that continues to impact our community institutions.
Image: Hillside High School after integration in the 1970s.
The fight to integrate schools took decades. During the same time period, Black Durhamites were also pressing for integrated spaces downtown.
Integrating the Carolina Theatre and Durham Athletic Park
The Carolina Theatre and the Durham Bulls Athletic Park were important places in Durham to enjoy sports and performances. Black people performed and played in these spaces, but all aspects of their experience were segregated by race. At the Carolina Theatre, Black people were forced to enter through a different door, pay at a separate ticket booth, and use seats that required walking up three extremely steep, unsafe flights of stairs. There were also segregated ticket booths, entrances, and seats at the Athletic Park.
Black artists such as Marian Anderson had been performing at the Carolina Theatre since 1927. In early 1961, desegregation advocates began to protest the theater's segregation policies. Protesters included North Carolina College students and local Black high school students. In March 1962, protesters began a "round robin" style protest. They lined up to purchase their tickets at the white ticket booth and when the box office refused, they moved to the back of the line to repeat the process. The Carolina Theatre refused to integrate. The protests lasted for months, drawing coverage in the media and creating long lines for white patrons to purchase tickets. The protest was ordered to end by the court, but activists shifted tactics by filing a lawsuit.
Image: Black protestors attempting to purchase tickets at the white ticket booth of the Carolina Theatre.
In 1957, Bubba Morton and Ted Richardson became the first Black players on the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team. On April 18th, the night of the opening game of the season, demonstrators organized to integrate seating at the Durham Athletic Park. Approximately 150 Black people flooded the white-only entrance to get admission and sit in the section of their choosing. The stadium continued to deny protestors general admission and offered segregated seating. Eventually, the demonstrators were escorted off the premises of the ballpark entirely, but activists kept planning other actions, like public protests and lawsuits.
Image: Bubba Morton in his Minor League Baseball card.
Despite these actions, integration took a long time. The Carolina Theatre integrated in the summer of 1963, 2 years after activists first demonstrated. It would be 7 years after the protest at the Durham Athletic Park before it was integrated in 1964. In 1963 following more mass demonstrations, newly elected mayor Wense Grabarek allied with the local NAACP to push for city-wide desegregation. Due to the efforts and collaboration of community members and leaders, many public facilities were desegregated.
Image: Lines of demonstrators at the Carolina Theatre.
Protestors and activists faced resistance by powerful people who opposed change. When met with this resistance, activists did not give up, but adjusted the way they protested. Just as protestors at the Carolina Theatre sued after their demonstration ended, protestors at the Pickle Boycott used several different strategies to be effective.
The Pickle Boycott: Farmworker Rights Action
The yellow and green jars of Mt. Olive pickles are a familiar site in most grocery stores. But in 1999, activists began a five year nationwide boycott against Mt. Olive Pickle Company for better rights and protections for migrant farmworkers, who came to North Carolina from other countries to work. The pickle boycott was launched by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) after Mt. Olive would not allow the farmworkers to form a union (a group of workers organized to fight for better working conditions).
Migrant farm workers in eastern North Carolina were facing terrible working conditions, including not being paid minimum wage, no overtime pay, lack of access to healthcare and education, and dangerous living conditions. The cucumber pickers could not join together in a union to fight for their rights.
Image: Protest pamphlet featuring terrible living conditions for farmworkers.
In Durham, Joan Priess, clad in her “pickle tiara” led this effort at the Kroger Grocery on Hillsborough Road, with chants like:
“Don’t spend a nickel on a Mount Olive pickle!” “Justice for farmworkers!” “Hasta la Victoria!” “Just because the label says ‘k’ doesn’t mean they’re kosher.”
She and others convinced more than five hundred customers to fill out comment cards urging Kroger to stop selling the boycotted pickles.
Images: Joan Priess in the pickle tiara (left) and protestors with picket signs (right).
Over time, the boycott evolved into a diverse and united effort including neighborhood activists, Duke students, and members of the Latino community. They used a variety of strategies such as speaking engagements, human billboarding, fiesta dinners, and street theater performances to raise awareness about the boycott.
Mt. Olive finally responded in September of 2004 and raised worker's wages. The cucumber pickers won improved working conditions and governmental protections. After five years of pickets and protests, migrant farm worker activism was successful and for the first time in the United States, guest visa agricultural workers had successfully unionized.
Image: hand drawn Yellow/Green pickle boycott sign reading "Don't Spend a Nickle on Mt. Olive Pickle."
Activists were persistent in demanding change in their local communities, which shifted the landscape of Durham. Due to their refusal to give up, schools like Durham High School, and public venues like the Carolina Theater and Durham Athletic Park, became spaces for everyone.
Individuals repeatedly came together to make their voices heard to large and powerful companies, resulting in farmworkers organizing for better living and working conditions.
In 2003, Faye Bryant Mayo, who participated in the Carolina Theater integration movement, remembered the protest:
You just sort of grew strong as you marched—you were angry, and I guess that was where you were really getting your strength from, your inner anger as you walked around the Carolina Theatre in the rain … as you listened to people calling you names and spitting at you and everything. But, it was like a drive once you got involved. It was like something just kept pushing, pushing.
Persistence is a key part of activism because drive and dedication to keep pushing for change is essential when progress is slow. How we create change is a complex process. These stories show us persistence is strength and hope that even if we don't always see the immediate effects of our activism, it can have a powerful impact on generations to come.
After learning this story and reflecting on your own experiences, how would you answer this question:
Why is persistence necessary?
