Cusick evaluates the changes to Chapel Hill and the effectiveness of his activism
Cusick assesses the physical changes to Chapel Hill and the failures of his civil rights efforts.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Pat Cusick, June 19, 1989. Interview L-0043. 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
- PAT CUSICK:
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And Franklin Street, Lord, it looked almost the same, you know. And some
of the same institutions, like this guy at the Colonial Drugstore.
That's the South, you know. There was the University Motel
and the Tarheel Sandwich Shop and all. But the institutions pretty well
stay. I'm sure Chapel Hill has changed but that stretch of
Franklin Street, which was the battleground… I noticed some
of the streets in the black community are now paved that
weren't paved then. We knew this was happening anyway,
Lincoln High School was done away with, I guess the next year.
- PAMELA DEAN:
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High school's way out on the northwest side of town.
- PAT CUSICK:
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And this was in Ehle's book too, the splitting of the town,
which everyone blamed us for polarizing the town. I guess the next year,
the one black alderman got defeated. That's true but then it
was, the very day that I got the release from
probation up here after five years was the day that Lee was elected as
the black mayor of Chapel Hill. So I think we did screw things up short
term, but I have no regrets except that we didn't attack the
University and we did do some stupid things like the either/or and stuff
like that, you know. But I think the major strategic mistake was letting
the University off the hook.
- PAMELA DEAN:
-
Was that mainly because you had started out with this seemingly possible
goal of getting the accomodations ordinance? You guys got trapped in
that.
- PAT CUSICK:
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Well, we were one vote short, and we kept thinking that we'd
get that vote. And like I said, we in Atlanta, the rest of the South in
terms of the city councils and different governing bodies were not that
close. But it seemed so close that we'd be able to do it. So
we focused everything there.
- PAMELA DEAN:
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Who was the fellow who was on the board of aldermen who was also the
Orange County…
- PAT CUSICK:
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Roland Giduz.
- PAMELA DEAN:
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Yes.