PuddlePirate
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RE: ECU/UNCC/FAU Carnegie re-classification news
(04-22-2024 12:06 AM)mikeinoki Wrote: This is one example of the uphill battle East Carolina has faced with Chapel Hill, this particular account about gaining university status. I say Chapel Hill because the main characters here opposing East Carolina were Gov. Dan Moore, future State Supreme Court Justice, Jim Exum, Watts Hill, Jr.-chairman of the Board of Higher Education and Bill Friday-first president of the UNC system, all UNC alumni.
From a 2007 interview with Sen. Robert Morgan...
Quote:Morgan soon found out there were some powerful interests plotting against the bill’s ultimate passage.
“I came home from Raleigh one night,” he recalled. “We all stayed in the old Sir Walter Hotel and when I got back about midnight, there was a car sitting in front of the Sir Walter Hotel. There was a black lady, Dr. Helen Edmonds, who was a professor at North Carolina Central and really a renowned expert in international affairs.
“I can’t remember the black gentleman’s name, but they were two of the three people who were running North Carolina Central in the absence of a president, while they were searching for a president.”
Morgan was about to learn how devious, intense and nasty the efforts had become to suppress East Carolina’s bid to become a university.
“Dr. Edmonds said to me, she said, ‘I promised myself last night that I wouldn’t put my head on a pillow again until I told you what they’re trying to do to you. They had a meeting in the Governor’s office with Governor Moore, with Watts Hill, Jr., and the President of the university, Dr. Friday’ – (aside) we’re good friends (Morgan and Friday) now after all these years.”
“She said they had a meeting on how to defeat East Carolina’s efforts to be a university. They said to the Governor that they should send out a message to all of the black colleges – the Governor and Watts Hill, Jr., as chairman of the board of higher education to all of the black colleges – North Carolina Central, Elizabeth City State, A&T in Greensboro, etc., directing them to ask that they put the black colleges in it, too.
“See, we’d already passed it in the Senate. She went on to say, ‘At North Carolina Central, we refuse to do it because we knew they were not interested in us in improving our education. They were just interested in using us to kill East Carolina’s efforts,’ because – you know – black feeling was still pretty strong in ‘67.
“The premise was Senator Morgan will never agree to accept black institutions as part of the regional university concept and that will kill East Carolina’s efforts to be a university and it will get rid of Morgan as a politician, too.”
Morgan shared what he had been told of the plan with Jenkins.
“We decided the best thing to do was do nothing right then because we’d already passed it in the Senate,” Morgan said. “Well, the next day when it was in the House on the second reading, Jim Exum, who was the representative from Greensboro who was later Chief Justice of the (state) Supreme Court, and Mr. Phillips, who was a representative there, introduced an amendment to add A&T – the other black colleges wouldn’t do it – to the regional university concept.
“It was a big debate and the House adjourned about 3 o’clock.”
Morgan was waiting outside to talk with Exum.
“I said, ‘Now Jim, before we go out here to this meeting, let’s count our votes now. Let’s make sure we’ve got enough votes to pass this on the third reading tomorrow.’ He said, ‘I’m not going to vote for it tomorrow. I’m going to vote against it tomorrow.’ I said, ‘Jim.’ He said, ‘I added that because I knew you wouldn’t accept it and that’s the way to kill the bill.’
“I said, ‘Jim, you are a racist SOB.’ I don’t usually use that phrase – that’s the only time I used it that I know of. I said, ‘I knew what you were doing all the time.’ I said, ‘I had that information. You did it thinking you were going to destroy East Carolina’s bill.’ But I said, ‘Let me tell you something. A&T is going to be a university tomorrow – whether you want it or not – because we’ve got the votes to pass it.’ “
Morgan said the House passed the amended bill the following day and sent it back to the Senate to approve the addition of A&T. Morgan said the bill received final approval on July 1, 1967. Morgan said he made the only speech of his legislative career from the Senate podium, welcoming A&T to university status, along with East Carolina, because both institutions knew what it was like to deal with bias.
https://bonesvillemedia.com/the-battle-f...tells-all/
It's been the same fight for everything ECU had to build including the medical school, dental school, nursing school, etc.
1967, kind of blows up the well before ECU bullshite don’t it….
Morgan is every bit the legend Jenkins is and deserves more credit in the ECU “mythology”. Thanks for sharing, I hadn’t seen that particular accounting of the events before. Good stuff.
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ECU/UNCC/FAU Carnegie re-classification news
