Full Text of the Excerpt

I'm off the subject now, but anyhow, these are all connected with the general matter of improvement of relations. We tried for years to get at least Negro graduates into this University. We tried for years to get the motion picture houses to allow all the citizens to attend. Finally, Porgy and Bess arrives here and I go to Carrington Smith and I say

JACQUELYN HALL:

When did this happen?

PAUL GREEN:

Oh, a few years ago, not too long ago. We had already had the Supreme Court decision and so on to back us up. I went to Carrington and said, "Carrington, Porgy and Bess is coming here and that is a Negro movie and this would be a great time to invite our Negro people to come and see their movie." "Oh," he said, "We can't do that." So now, you go up there and the Negroes are coming in and it is wonderful. We've finally done it, but without the backing of Uncle Sam and the Supreme Court, we would still be in the darkness.

JACQUELYN HALL:

It is very surprising to me how slow the University of North Carolina was to take any kind of position ….

PAUL GREEN:

We are a terribly provincial state and there are many reasons for it. One is because of men like Billy Graham. When you already have all the truth that you need, you see, a fellow that is lost and wandering and hunting for salvation, he is always more sympathetic, but a guy that has already got it has got it all made. So, the University has been controlled by Baptists, and our battle to eradicate capital punishment in the state has always found its greatest opponents in good church people. The Roman Catholics first of all are adamant as a rule, the Episcopalians next and the Baptists and Methodists down the line, but you find a free thinker, nearly everytime, he is on our side. There is something funny there.