Korstad: Terry Sanford opens door to civil rights activism in North Carolina

Southern Pines– The late North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford was one of the first to identify the link between poverty and racism in the state and create programs to address these issues at the grass roots level. His North Carolina Fund later became a model for humanitarian movements such as AmeriCorps. Dr. Robert Korstad, associate professor of public policy studies and history at Duke University, discussed Sanford’s civil rights legacy at Campbell University’s annual Kenelm Lecture symposium in Southern Pines on Monday, Sept. 24. Born in 1917, Terry Sanford admitted to growing up unaware of the inequality of African Americans in his state. “‘I thought that was just the way things were,'” Korstad quoted him as saying. “‘You were born to a position in life and you had to make the best of it.'”But the Great Depression and combat in World War II changed Sanford’s perspective on race relations. He came back from the war an activist, determined to improve the condition of African Americans in the South. Despite his intentions, Sanford’s tactics differed from the grandstanding, crisis-driven methods of other civil rights leaders. While sit-ins and protests were the mode of operation for them, Sanford preferred quiet, behind-the-scenes negotiation.When lawmakers in North Carolina opposed Sanford’s call for change, he by-passed the state Legislature and turned to private philanthropies like the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to raise millions for the North Carolina Fund. The Fund was a nonprofit organization that, in addition to other forms of activism, used volunteers to go into low income communities to work with education and employment initiatives. While it made inroads into narrowing economic and educational divisions between whites and blacks in North Carolina, the Fund was no match for the racist behavior bred into southerners for generations, Korstad said. To illustrate, he referred to a diary entry written by one of the volunteers revealing her discomfort at having to eat dinner in an all black school. “Sanford was one of the first to see that there was something called cultural poverty holding people to deprivation and misery,” said Korstad. “It holds that the poor are different from us. They don’t share a sense of aspiration or concern for their health, education and the future of their children, and this is something that gets passed on from generation to generation.” Korstad’s research on Terry Sanford’s struggle against racism and poverty in North Carolina is contained in a book, yet untitled, to be published by the University of North Carolina Press. Other published works by Korstad include, “Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth South;” “Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World;” and “Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Talk about Life in the Jim Crow South.” Korstad, who directs the B.N. Duke Scholars program at Duke University, received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.The Kenelm Foundation Campbell University Seminar Series was established in the early 1980s in coordination with the late Robert Drummond, director of the Kenelm Foundation of Collingswood, NJ. The annual seminar is a forum on social and political issues. For more information, contact the Campbell University Department of Government and History, and Justice at 910.893.1480 or 800 334-4111, ext. 1480.Photo Copy: Dr. Robert Korstad, associate professor of public policy studies and history at Duke University, delivered Campbell University’s annual Kenelm lecture on Monday, Sept. 24. (Photo by Bennett Scarborough)

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