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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Mildred Price Coy, April 26, 1976. Interview G-0020. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Coy remembers Franklin Graham before he became a liberal

Coy has fond memories of the class she took with Franklin Porter Graham, but she knew him before he became a liberal.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Mildred Price Coy, April 26, 1976. Interview G-0020. 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

MARY FREDERICKSON What about your studying? You were majoring in history?
MILDRED PRICE COY:
Yes, Frank Graham was my professor. MARY FREDERICKSON Did he influence you very much?
MILDRED PRICE COY:
No, he didn't. He should have, though. He was so sweet. But the only thing he ever did [laughter], one day I saw him out on the campus; he says, "Now, Miss Mildred, I want you to get plenty of sleep at night. That's very important, to get plenty of sleep." But, you know, he was all for the South. He taught American history and what a great man Robert E. Lee was. MARY FREDERICKSON Oh, really?
MILDRED PRICE COY:
Yes. And he never really taught us the facts of American history. MARY FREDERICKSON He never raised any questions about race or of class?
MILDRED PRICE COY:
Oh, Lord, nobody raised any questions about race. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a question about a race in Chapel Hill. MARY FREDERICKSON Were you surprised later when you heard about what Frank Graham was doing?
MILDRED PRICE COY:
No, I wasn't surprised. It was sort of gradual, you know. Frank Graham I was so mad when they defeated him for Senator, because he was such a sweet man. But he was a southerner and had the traditional ideas of the South. He was talking about what a great man Lee was one day in class, and he said the funniest thing and everybody laughed. He said, "Lee could hit Grant in the tail" [laughter], and oh, we thought that was the funniest thing. See, he didn't try to hit him ; he tried to hit him in the tail." [Laughter] MARY FREDERICKSON Was he a good sport? Was he a fun teacher?
MILDRED PRICE COY:
No, he wasn't a fun teacher, but he was nice; he was good. He was so much better than the other people. I had to take education classes, and terrible, terrible classes.