"A Statement of Support"

As the school year progressed, the group became increasingly outspoken against NC State’s administration and what it perceived as unfair policies toward non-academic staff members. After janitor Eddie Davis, a black employee, was demoted due to his attempts to unionize his fellow Physical Plant employees, the SAAC stood with white student protestors in calling for his reinstatement. SAAC president Eric Moore was one of the leaders of a February 28, 1969, protest outside the Morris Building.

In early March, the Physical Plant workers, all black, demanded that the administration address forty-two points of contention that they felt hindered their ability to work at the school. Demands included that the minimum wage be raised to $125 a week, that Eddie Davis be reinstated, and that "no women be assigned to men's dormitories." The SAAC supported their demands and issued their own "A Statement of Support of the Non-Academic Workers by the Society of Afro-American Culture." This statement encouraged the administration to accept the workers’ demands: “Too long have Black workers been teaching their supervisors to do the jobs which the Black workers should have had. Too long have our Black Brothers and Sisters at this university had to work for insufficient wages.”

In keeping with the demands, four black female maids refused to work in men's dormitories. When it was clear they would not clean the rooms, Physical Plant official George Lynch declared, "I'm tired of the whole damn mess anyway," and fired them. Davis was also arrested when he and fifteen other Physical Plant employees refused to leave the Chancellor’s office until their demands were met. Angered by this response, on April 15, 1969, the SAAC and students from Shaw University and St. Augustine College marched with torches from the student union to Chancellor John T. Caldwell’s home. An estimated seventy-five students took part in the march, many growing so incensed they began to shout that the Chancellor was "a racist and a pig." During the protest, some violence broke out between the students and bystanders, including one black student who was assaulted with a chain and left with a gaping neck wound.

Ultimately, the school dismissed six Physical Plant workers, including Eddie Davis. On May 12, ten of the employees were convicted of trespassing in the Chancellor’s office. As tensions heightend even further, on May 14, North Carolina civil rights activists Jim Lee and Howard Fuller spoke at a rally in defense of the workers. It is unknown if the workers were reinstated; however, due to the discontinue of coverage in the Technician, it is likely that they were not. This is in sharp contrast to a similar protest at UNC-Chapel Hill during this period, in which the Black Student Movement supported striking campus food workers. Unlike NC State, the Chapel Hill food workers eventually received some of their demands from the UNC administration.

Visit other Exhibits in Crossing the Color Line.