A Ku Klux Klan leader and a civil rights activist becoming best friends? Who would have thought? Certainly not CP Ellis and Ann Atwater, but this is exactly what happened after a meeting was organized to discuss the status of Durham public schools.
CP Ellis was the president of the KKK in Durham and Ann Atwater was a black civil rights…
On February 8th, 1968, the police shot and killed three unarmed Black student protesters and injured dozens of others at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg. In the aftermath of this massacre, civil rights leaders organized coordinated demonstrations in cities across the South. However, the Durham…
Recorded music was an important tool for Durham's African American community and their fight for civil rights. Snoopy's Discount records, open in the 1960s and 1970s provided access to a studio and an outlet for record sales. Led by Jimmy Liggins, this effort was an economic generator and a gathering place for local black musicians.
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In August 1962, four students protesting racial segregation at the Howard Johnson Restaurant and Ice Cream Parlor were arrested and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Later that same month, more than 1,000 people staged a follow-up demonstration and the following spring, in May 1963, the crowd grew to more than 4,…
The black community began protesting to integrate this signature athletic park, home to the Durham Bulls Baseball Club in 1957 when the first two black players, Bubba Norton and Ted Richardson, were added to the roster.
1957 in Durham was a year that hosted both the preservation of segregation as well as the onset of integration. At…