New exhibit at UNC's Wilson Library chronicles the experience of African Americans in the South

WHAT: "We Shall Not Be Moved: African Americans in the South, 18th Century to the Present"

WHEN: Exhibit opens today and continues through Feb. 5

WHERE: Wilson Library, UNC, Melba Remig Saltarelli Exhibit Room, third floor

HOURS: The gallery is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays.

ADMISSION: Free

By Cliff Bellamy

cbellamy@heraldsun.com; 419-6744

CHAPEL HILL -- "An intellectual journey" is how L. Teresa Church, an archival consultant, describes a new exhibit opening today at Wilson Library at UNC. The exhibit, "We Shall Not Be Moved: African Americans in the South, 18th Century to the Present," examines a time of great struggle for African-Americans, but a time also marked by great resourcefulness and community-building.

This contrast is perhaps best demonstrated by two items that were placed near each other in a display case during an exhibit preview earlier this week. A sign dated February 1942 (from the Lonestar Restaurants Association of Dallas, Texas) boldly commands: "NO Dogs Negroes Mexicans." Nearby, a button from 1968 boldly proclaims, "Black is Beautiful."

That contrast is intentional, Church said. The saying "Black is Beautiful" "became a rallying cry that you should appreciate yourself even if other people don't," she said. Holly Smith, the Overholser Archival Fellow in African American Studies, pointed out that other items in the exhibit illustrate how blacks forged a sense of community -- through churches, athletic groups, civic organizations and neighborhood groups -- even during times of rigid legal segregation and oppression.

The sign and button are just two of more than 100 photographs, papers, documents and artifacts, drawn from the Southern Historical Collection in Wilson Library. Other items on view will be a set of 19th century shackles believed use for slaves, an original brochure from the 1963 March on Washington, and a photograph of Coretta Scott King at a fashion show at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

The exhibit takes its name and inspiration from the song "We Shall Not Be Moved," which was frequently used during sit-ins. This exhibit has a reproduction of those lyrics, taken from a pamphlet of sit-in songs used by the civil rights organization Congress of Racial Equality, said Smith. The lyrics read in part, "CORE shall not be silenced,/We Shall Not Be Moved," and express the persistence of the African-American community in the face of difficult challenges, Smith said.

A team of four -- Church; Smith; Biff Hollingsworth, collecting and public programming archivist for the collection; and Laura Clark Brown, senior research instruction librarian at Wilson Library -- have organized the exhibit into broad themes. They include enslavement, education, politics, Civil War and reconstruction, labor, business and industry, military, civil rights, and community and culture. Each display case will focus on one, or in some cases several, of those themes.

Durham is well represented in this exhibit. The Southern Historical Collection maintains five collections in cooperation with North Carolina Central University, Hollingsworth said. Among those collections are papers from William J. Kennedy Jr. (1889-1985), the fifth president of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co., White Rock Baptist Church, and Floyd McKissick Sr. (1922-1991). Items from those and other collections are on view.

A black and white photo, for example, shows Kennedy with a basketball team from the John Avery Boys Club. While the photo has no date, it probably is from the 1950s or 1960s. The photo reflects the "strength and cohesiveness" that blacks found in their communities through civic organizations, Smith said.

Church praised Kennedy's collection for its completeness. "He would have made a wonderful archivist," she said. So thorough were his collections of papers that journalists often would contact him seeking information. Because of their thoroughness, his collections also are a good source of historical information about Durham, Church added.

No less massive are the papers of McKissick, which take up more than 7,000 document folders. From McKissick's collection, visitors will see a photo taken in 1965, in a Durham church, of a meeting of CORE, which McKissick led at the time. In that photo are civil rights leaders James Farmer and Fannie Lou Hamer. They and other leaders are seated, listening to an address by John W. Wheeler of N.C. Mutual.

Exhibit organizers want visitors to come away not just with a better understanding of African-American achievement, but a greater awareness of what is available in the Southern Historical Collection. Those collections are open to the public, and Smith hopes the exhibit will stimulate more people "to come in and find these hidden treasures."

"We have treasures you would not believe," Church added.