"Gays Go Home" -- The Strong Hall Protest of 1979

The LGBTQ community of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has contributed to the reputation for diversity and inclusivity earned by this university. Historically, this reputation was fought for and earned by very brave students, staff, and faculty.  

About a month after the first official meeting of the Gay Student Union (now the Queer Student Union), which occurred September 25, 1979, the first major anti-LGBTQ incident took place on the campus of UNCG. An educational seminar focusing on homosexuality was organized for the residents of Strong Dormitory. The organizer, graduate counselor Richard Stilley, was concerned about repeated reports of homophobic harassment in the dormitory, and he hoped that a guided conversation between students and faculty would defuse the tension in the halls. The speakers at the presentation, called “Homosexuality and Society,” were Rev. Joseph Flora (faculty advisor for the Gay Student Union and pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro) and Dr. Thomas K. Fitzgerald (professor of Anthropology at UNCG). The event was to be held at 10:00 pm on November 15, 1979. 

Moore-Strong Residence Hall, 1973

 
At the approximate time the seminar was scheduled to begin, a group of anti-LGBTQ protesters congregated on Gray Drive, recruiting additional students from nearby dormitories to join in the protest. Around a hundred student demonstrators gathered in the courtyard in front of Strong Dormitory in protest of the seminar, many wearing brown paper bags as masks and setting off fireworks. Waving their protest posters, they shouted slogans such as, “Queers, Fags Go Home,” “We Are Men, We Are Men, We Are Men,” and “Dames Not Flakes.” UNCG Campus Security, which had been notified of the potential for such an event that afternoon, arrived on the scene of the protest, ordering students to take off the masks and stop setting off fireworks, but permitting them the opportunity to congregate peacefully until 11:30 pm.

Upon hearing the sounds of the protest from within the residence hall, Rev. Flora left Dr. Fitzgerald to continue the seminar, while he went out to reason with the protesters. Rev. Flora and a student participant in the seminar tried to discuss the purpose of the workshop and invited them in to join the discussion, which only increased the chanting and verbal assault of the demonstrators. As campus security herded the crowd back from the windows, Rev. Flora attempted to pacify the dissenters. He succeeded in opening a halted dialogue with protesters, who asked him such questions as, “Isn’t gay immoral?” and “Why is everyone turning gay?.” Rev. Flora remained with the demonstrators discussing such topics until the protest was ended by Campus Security.

A dominant theme in the dialogue of the protesters before and after the event was that they felt that their dormitory was singled out for the seminar and that this designation would lead to Strong Dormitory being known as a gay residence hall. Rick Darnell, the first known "out" student on UNCG’s campus and resident in Strong dormitory, said that the protest did not make him feel afraid. He stated it did make him feel uncomfortable, and homophobic verbal harassment increased in the residence hall after the event.   

This post is in honor of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2015.

Also See:

Chronicling the Founding of the LGBT Student Organization (1971-1975)

State Normal and the Woman's Betterment Association

In the late 1800s, the state of education in North Carolina was bleak. The illiteracy rate was 36% (compared to 14% nationwide). Per pupil spending on education was one of the lowest in the nation, and the average teacher's salary was less than $24 per month - about half the national average. The school year was only 60 days (compared to an average of 135.7 across the United State). In an 1883 report, North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction John C. Scarborough placed much of the blame on the lack of proper teaching (also known as "normal") training. Scarborough wrote, "The larger number of teachers of the public schools [are] non-progressive, knowing nothing of any studies except such as they had imperfectly learned at the ordinary schools and nothing of the improved methods of teaching ... They were simply school keepers, nothing more."

First graduating class of State Normal and Industrial School, 1893

With the chartering of the State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG) by the General Assembly in 1891, North Carolina politicians and educators created an institution specifically aimed at training female teachers for public schools in the state. When the doors to the school opened on October 5, 1892, 176 students enrolled to learn how to teach and improve the state's educational opportunities. In fact, of the 717 women who graduated from the school during its first 22 years, all but 33 went on to teach for some period of time in North Carolina public schools.

While the students were learning how to improve their teaching, the graduates were still being forced to teach in sub-par facilities - often one-room wooden school houses which educational leader James Y. Joyner deemed to be "a lion in the path of rapid progress." A 1902 address to the student body by the institution's founding president Charles Duncan McIver particularly struck the students. He stridently urged them to "labor as mothers and teachers to provide education" in the state. As a result, they formed an organization known as the Woman's Betterment Association, a group which sought specifically to improve North Carolina school buildings.

No. 2 Williamsburg schoolhouse (Rockingham County, NC), late 1800s

The motives which led the students of State Normal to organize the Woman's Betterment Association are best expressed in one of their early informational bulletins: "Realizing that under present condition, and with the present surroundings of the average school-house, it is impossible to train the youth of the state properly, and realizing further, that unless the women of the state take hold of this very important matter it will remain neglected, the students of the college have organized themselves and call upon the other women of the state to join them in making attractive and habitable the houses in which our children spend five days of each school week."

With the Woman's Betterment Association leading the charge, educational leaders across the state were charged with examining existing schoolhouses and making recommendations for improvements (or replacements). Viola Boddie, a charter faculty member at State Normal and head of the department of Latin, was one of the professionals sent to survey the educational landscape. She recalled "traveling around the state in an open buggy, pulled by a mule, observing rustic schools with spaces between the logs wide enough to 'throw a cat through if not a dog.'"

New No. 2 Williamsburg schoolhouse (Rockingham County, NC), 1906

Only four years after the creation of the Woman's Betterment Association, 1,133 new school buildings were constructed in rural areas across North Carolina at a cost of $490,272. The total value of the entirety of public school property across the state almost doubled in that short four-year period. According to a 1906 state report, these improvements were a direct result of the work of the members of the Woman's Betterment Association, who "became effective lobbyists for every educational case."

Campus May Queens

Each year that a May Day celebration was held on campus, a May Queen was elected. From the biggest festivals of 1912 and 1916 to the final year of 1954, a May Queen was present. She was typically a senior elected by her classmates who served as the mascot of the event and in the later years, as the main attraction.

May Day Court, 1938

During the massive fetes of 1912 and 1916, the May Queen rode in the procession on a float beside her king. She and the King of May presided over the festivities of the day, such as plays and dances. After 1916, there was an inevitable break in the celebrations due to the eminent war. When the May Day festivities returned in the 1920s, they were never as elaborate as those prior to the war. The May Queen and her court became the focus of these later festivals.

May Queen, 1950

After 1916, May Day occasionally featured plays, parades, and dances, with the Queen and her court as the constants. The Queen would be crowned while her court looked on. In some years, the court sat on an outside stage in Peabody Park while dancers or even plays were performed in front of them.

Virginia Ambrose, May Day Queen of 1940

The May Day celebrations officially ended in 1954 after being abolished by the senior class. May Day was considered too close to commencement and was a time consuming and expensive endeavor. The seniors had other responsibilities as graduation loomed near. The only thing to survive the May Day tradition was indeed the May Queen (name changed to Beauty Queen), who would be elected with her court in the spring.

This blog was created by Jennifer Brooks, volunteer at the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, April, 2015.

Early May Day Parades

For the first fifty years, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) celebrated May Day.  May Day revels were based on ideas of Renaissance England, where the first day of May signified the end of winter. Traditional May Day fetes were filled with activities such as decorating a May Pole, crowning a queen, and playing games. The campus festivals of the State Normal and Industrial College (now UNCG) were similar, especially in the early years when elaborate May Day events were held every four years.

May Day Court of 1916

The school’s May Day fetes of 1912 and 1916 were more extravagant than their successors. Tickets were sold, and there were announcements and advertisements in newspapers across the state. The entire campus was decorated, from the athletic field (now Petty Science Building) to Peabody Park. Special programs were created, detailing the five continuous hours of entertainment as well as the parade route. Students performed shows such as “Hue and Cry after Cupid,” “Robin Hood,” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in different parts of campus.

“Hue and Cry after Cupid” Float, 1912

The beginning procession introduced onlookers to the festivals and kicked off the largest May Day celebrations of 1912 and 1916. It featured decorated floats and included most of the costumed participants. The parade route started in downtown Greensboro and continued down College Avenue to the athletic field. In the 1916 festival, the parade traveled from the north end of College Avenue and continued south, moving past the Students’ Building, the Main Building (now Foust Building), and the McIver Memorial Building. Heralds began the parade, appearing before the actors and dancers. Shepherds and shepherdesses, milkmaids, and other costumed students walked beside the floats, which were ornately decorated and exemplified the Renaissance theme. The May Queen, elected by fellow students and the “mascot” of the event, arrived on her own float with her king by her side.  Players from the different tableaux rode and walked in the procession, and the May Queen had her own float. Spectators from all over the state stood along College Avenue to watch the decorative floats and costumed performers.

Chimney Sweeps, 1912

Processions also occurred at May Day fetes in the following years, though never as large as those of 1912 and 1916. There were parades in the 1920s and 1930s, but they had shorter routes through campus and less extravagant floats. Perhaps, World War I contributed to the fact that the later festivals were not as elaborate.  Eventually, the parades came to an end; perhaps because the celebrations were smaller or were too expensive to continue.

This blog was created by Jennifer Brooks, volunteer at the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, April, 2015.

Ringing "Glad Tidings": A History of the University Bell

On October 5, 1892, when the doors of the State Normal and Industrial School officially opened for instruction, the women enrolled were called to classes by the chiming of the University Bell. Originally, the bell stood near the location of the current Alumni House. It was used wake students in the morning, call them to breakfast and other meals, and alert them to the start of the school day. Ezekiel Robinson was typically the person tasked with ringing the bell during the earliest years of the school.

Ezekiel Robinson with the campus bell, 1910

Standing near the site of the current Alumni House, the bell also was used in cases of emergencies or special announcements. In 1897 when the State Normal students learned that the school was receiving increased appropriations from the state legislature (twice the amount received the previous year!), "a hundred or more young ladies started for the Normal bell to ring out the glad tidings." Students kept the bell ringing for nearly half an hour.

When the Brick Dormitory caught fire in the middle of the night in 1904, the bell rang to wake sleeping students and get them to safety. Josephine Scott, a student from Alamance County, ran to ring the bell and hasten the evacuation. After ringing the bell a few times, the rope used broke. According to a classmates' recollection, Scott then climbed the wooden frame of the bell tower to ring the bell with her hands until all of the students had safely left the building.

After the destruction of Brick Dormitory and the construction of Spencer, the bell was moved to a site closer to the new residence hall (across College Avenue from where Jackson Library sits today). When electric bells were installed in the campus buildings, the use of the bell on a daily basis was discontinued. But students still used it as a meeting place for groups and celebrations. On student government election nights, the winning group would meet at the bell to begin their festivities. 

Then, on a Saturday night in January 1938, the bell was taken down and tucked away in a storage room on campus. There it sat until members of the Class of 1923 decided it needed a more prominent location and a more prominent role in ongoing campus life and traditions.

The bell hanging in Students Anniversary Plaza, 1968

When the Class of 1923 held their 30th reunion in 1953, the class president implored that something be done to preserve "a certain bell dear to the memory of the alumnae." Small paper bells were distributed at the class luncheon, and alumnae were encouraged to contribute funds to the "bell fund." Shortly after that reunion, the bell was removed from storage and placed in a more prominent location at the college entrance from Spring Garden Street.  One small change was made to the bell, however. The clapper was removed because administrators "felt that placing the bell intact, so close to Curry School [the teaching school on campus], might be too great a temptation to the Curry children."

In 1967, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the university's opening, the student body of 1967 donated $15,000 to build Students’ Anniversary Plaza at the corner of Spring Garden and College Avenue (the site of founding president Charles Duncan McIver's home). A brick "modernistic arch" was designed by Charles Bell, superintendent of ground at UNCG. The bell was bronzed and mounted under the arch in 1968.

The bell remained in that location until 1987 when it was removed for restoration. It is currently stored in the Alumni House, but the bell is brought out for every commencement. At the end of the ceremony, the bell is rung to honor the new graduates. As it first rang to welcome students to the new State Normal and Industrial School, it now rings to honor our newest alumni.

The Tradition of the Daisy Chain: A Link to the Past

Daisy Chain, 1901

The tradition of the Daisy Chain is not unique to the State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG), although it was one of the campus’ earliest customs. Other American women’s colleges, such as Vassar, had decorated their halls with daisy chains for their graduation festivities, and State Normal followed suit. The college created its first Daisy Chain in 1900, when the students fashioned two fifty foot long ropes of daisies procured from fields located outside of town. Several early years saw the shortage of daisies and students were obliged to replace the flowers with ivy and other greenery. Soon the college began to contract local farmers to grow daisies for the purpose of making the chains.

Daisy Chain, 1946

In addition to being a festive accessory to the graduation ceremonies, the Daisy Chain represented a sister class project between the sophomores and the seniors. The sophomore class was responsible for gathering the flowers and crafting the Chain, which was used for the Class Day exercises and again the next morning during the graduation ceremony. The seniors were honored by walking between the floral ropes. The Daisy Chain ceased during the late 1960s after the university became co-educational, along with other traditions such as sister classes, class jackets, the Junior Show, and Rat Day.

Gathering Daisies for the Daisy Chain, 1965

Dorothy "Dot" Casey (class of 1948): Champion for Women's Athletics

For much of her time at the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina, Dudley, NC native Dorothy "Dot" Casey spent her time involved in athletics, both in the classroom and in club sports (she was involved in more than a dozen club sports in her Junior and Senior years). Casey graduated in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education.

Her love of athletics and physical education led her next to UNC Chapel Hill where she worked as a graduate assistant while completing her Master’s degree. Even before she received that degree in 1951, she joined the faculty of the Physical Education Department at Wake Forest University.

Casey participated in many club sports at WCUNC

When Casey arrived at Wake Forest in 1949, women’s athletics were strictly intramural only. Part of her job was to encourage the female students to play sports. In the late 60s, Casey organized and coached a tennis team. In 1970, fellow Physical Education faculty member Marge Crisp asked WFU President James R. Scales for a budget for women’s athletics. He gave her $500. During this pre-Title IX era, female students and coaches often had to provide everything for themselves or make do with what little they had. Female student athletes were responsible for their own transportation, food, and often, uniforms and equipment. Important organizations for female athletes like the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) in which Casey served, helped to bring women’s sports up to par with their male counterparts.

Dot Casey with Dr. Jack Sawyer, 1988

While Title IX, passed in 1972, required equal opportunities for both sexes at all institutions receiving any federal funds, it took many years to implement fully. Still, at institutions like Wake Forest University where Casey became Director of Women’s Athletics in 1974, the passage of the law meant that women’s athletics would be rapidly expanding. The change from intramural sports to intercollegiate competition had arrived. Casey was a large part of that transition as she headed the women’s athletics program at WFU for 14 years, ending with her retirement in 1988.

Casey served in various capacities as teacher, coach, and Director of Women’s Athletics over her distinguished career of 39 years at Wake Forest University.  Casey won an Honor Award from the North Carolina Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance in 1984. In 1993, she was one of the first two women inducted into the Wake Forest University Sports Hall of Fame. Dorothy “Dot” Casey passed away July 16, 2013, having devoted a majority of her 87 years of life to the cause of Women’s Athletics.