Anne Queen's leadership qualities
Here, Friday explains why Anne Queen was such an effective leader on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Queen presided over the campus YWCA and merged YMCA-YWCA from the late 1950s into the 1970s. Friday recalls that students were especially receptive to Queen during this particularly tumultuous era because she was a good listener, they trusted her to put their interests first, and because she led by example.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with William C. Friday, December 18, 1990. Interview L-0049. 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
- CINDY CHEATHAM:
-
Can you comment a little bit on some specific incidents during the period
of upheaval when you were President? Were you President during the
sit-ins in the early 1960's? How did you see her role during
desegregation, Speaker Ban, food worker's strike and Viet
Nam?
- WILLIAM C. FRIDAY:
-
On all those issues you knew where Anne Queen stood philosophically. You
knew where she stood intellectually and most of all, where she stood
spiritually. It was never a question there. All you were doing in
working with Anne Queen was deciding how to get there, whether you had
to work in the context of ninety days or twelve months or two years. And
she learned and was wise in dealing with the very hard fact that a
public university has so many forces it has to deal with, you see,
unlike a private institution. The legislature, for example. Public
opinion en masse. Political rights, political lefts, male/female
arguments, abortion cases, all these kinds of things. You live in this
cauldron of controversy. So, when I said she is a person of inner peace,
you knew where she was going to be. You didn't have to debate
that part of it at all. You just said,
"Now, Anne, how can we move from A to B in your opinion as we
go down the road together?" She was a marvelous person. One of
her great skills was that she listens. You know, so many people want to
spend all their time talking. Anne is a listener and you get along a lot
faster when you develop that capacity, especially when you're
dealing with human beings in a sensitive situation such as a
university.
- CINDY CHEATHAM:
-
Can you comment specifically on what you can remember about her role with
the Chapel Hill human relations committee during the food
worker's strike negotiations? Can you recall?
- WILLIAM C. FRIDAY:
-
That's not something I know much about. I'd mislead
you. But I know she was a force. There's no doubt about
that.
- CINDY CHEATHAM:
-
Why do you think Anne was so effective with the students, in particular,
and also with the administration and in the community?
- WILLIAM C. FRIDAY:
-
Everybody trusted her. You know, that's the key ingredient.
Trust. And they knew that she loved them. These were her children. Anne
played that role; not mother, but the listening post, confidante,
counselor. All these words fit her and that's what she
was.
- CINDY CHEATHAM:
-
How do you believe that her unique background from the mountains
contributed to the way that she dealt with young people and also, the
administrators?
- WILLIAM C. FRIDAY:
-
Have you ever known a mountain person that was impulsive? Never in your
life. Most of them are deliberate people. They are careful people and
they are people who know what adversity means. They use adversity to
grow. That's an important point because a
lot of people look for an excuse to quit trying and to quit doing. And
as one old friend of mine around here said one day, he said,
"You know, some people given a circumstance will grow in it.
Others will swell up." You know, when they are given a chance
to really lead. I don't think she ever entertained for a
moment any thought of selfish gain in anything. Anne Queen never set out
to be president. For anyone to even intimate that she would use a
situation for personal aggrandizement is about as foreign as it can be.
It's that sense that you had when you were in her presence.
She was not manipulating things. She was not wheeling and dealing with
another person's life. She was rock honest. Or as Chancellor
House used to say about another person here, she was plain distressingly
honest. [Laughter] I've always
thought that was a great phrase.
- CINDY CHEATHAM:
-
You talk about her inner peace. How is that translated and how did she
show that inner peace and that spiritual side of her to her
students?
- WILLIAM C. FRIDAY:
-
Well, it was not a matter of wearing her religion on her sleeve. It was
just that you knew that here was somebody who you could sit down with
who would be as honest as they knew how to be, who would be as helpful
as they knew how to be, who would be as encouraging, stimulating, and
truthful. She'd tell you when you were wrong, but not in any
mean way. That's my point. You don't find many
people like this lady. But when you do, the tendency is to overwork them
because you want to do so much. I don't know what
Anne's stress points were, but my guess is that
she had a tendency to do just that; to push herself to the
extreme limit at times, wearing herself out in service. We all have our
faults, we all have our ways of doing things that irritate some people.
I hope not many. But that's just who we are. This is coming
around to the other point about her. She accepted you as you are. She
didn't try to remake you overnight. She didn't
lecture you about anything that you were doing that she knew to be
questionable. She would show you by example.