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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Carnell Locklear, February 24, 2004. Interview U-0007. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

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.