Most black Charlotte residents supported consolidation
Most black Charlotte residents supported consolidation, Lowe says, but like voters of any race, uninformed black residents were unmotivated and did not go to the polls. Those that voted did so because they saw consolidation as a chance to increase their stake in city government.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Charles M. Lowe, March 20, 1975. Interview B-0069. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- MOYE:
-
I don't want to take too much time. What was the position in
the black community? I know that there was a major force for, and the
black precincts seemed to vote…Those who voted, in other
words, voted for consolidation. Maybe there were a lot of folks who just
didn't vote. There were blacks who were for, and there were
blacks who were opposed. What was the…
- LOWE:
-
Most blacks were for it. There was some indifference, of course. But, the
blacks who voted were predominantly for it. The blacks are no different
than the whites. If they feel they've got a stake in
something, they're for it. If they don't see where
it's going to be much good for them or much change in their
benefit, then they don't care. The informed blacks came out.
The informed blacks voted quite heavily for it. The blacks who were not
informed or didn't care, why, they didn't come
out. The blacks supported it better than the
whites did. No question about that.
- MOYE:
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Why?
- LOWE:
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The blacks saw a chance for them to get something that they
didn't have. More of their people on representative
government bodies where they could and should have been. When they saw
this, then, they said, "Fine. This is to our advantage.
Let's be for it."
