Fracturing of black-Native American alliance
Locklear notes that the historic alliance between blacks and Native Americans is breaking now that whites have noticed Native Americans' increasing power and are attempting to take advantage of it.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Carnell Locklear, February 24, 2004. Interview U-0007. 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
- MALINDA MAYNOR:
-
Do you want to talk a little bit more about Golden Frinks' and Howard
Brooks' association with one another? Because one of the things I
haven't heard too much about so far is the connections between Indians
and blacks during that time period. I know some
people say, well, they're two separate movements, and other people say,
well, they're working together.
- CARNELL LOCKLEAR:
-
I didn't work too much- I believe the reason, Golden Frinks,
well- Howard had no education. And Golden Frinks had been in
the civil rights movement for quite a while. He knew some ropes to pull,
and that type thing. And he wanted to build his reputation again. So he
was the brains behind that thing. But I didn't know, I didn't get all
that involved with him. I did get involved with Dr. Joy Johnson, who was
in the House at that time. And we worked on the issues here, and then
what had Ben Franklin come down, who was with the-what
organization? He was from Wilmington, he was with the Wilmington 10. We
worked on the issues-cause anything that would benefit the
black would benefit the Indian, cause we was about in the same boat. And
we learned that from there, to go to voting together. And it happened
today, that Indian people and blacks vote primarily together. But I
think now the whites have begun to see that the Indian people control
the political arena and now, I think the whites and Indians is working
more closely together than the blacks. The blacks are kind of mad, you
know. They've got nobody like the clerk of the court, or the register of
deeds or the sheriff's department. They've had two or three run, you
know, but they've had nobody to really combat Glenn Maynor and Jo Ann
[Locklear] and Vicki [Locklear]. Now you know, you've got several on the
board that are blacks and Indians, and of course that board of education
has been a mockery. They can't stand to get
together and pull together for the benefit of the people. Everybody
wants their little old pie, and everybody wants to be the head. That's
like this last move they made down there, I don't get involved in it all
that much, but they brought this guy in from Canada, who's the
superintendent, but I think he's just a figurehead, and won't do all
that much. I talked with a lot of the board members, they're not
satisfied with him at all. So you're stuck with it. And we had qualified
people. In other words, I think you take care of your home folks first
and then move out. You know what I'm saying? So I didn't have all that
much to do with Howard after-the movement after I left. I
believe in unity, I believe in pulling one force. Because if you've got
that one over yonder fighting and that one over yonder fighting, in the
end you won't accomplish nothing. All those movements didn't accomplish
another thing after I left. I couldn't see a thing they'd done. Nothing.
They wrote grants and that type thing, got a little money. But as far as
making any dramatic change, I didn't see it.