|
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
This Oral History is copyrighted by the Interviewee
and the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program on
behalf of the Board of Trustees of the University of
Florida.
Copyright, 2005, University of Florida.
All rights, reserved.
This oral history may be used for research,
instruction, and private study under the provisions
of Fair Use. Fair Use is a provision of United States
Copyright Law (United States Code, Title 17, section
107) which allows limited use of copyrighted
materials under certain conditions.
Fair use limts the amount of material that may be
used.
For all other permissions and requests, contact the
SAMUEL PROCTOR ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM at
the University of Florida
3 -c>2a 6
LIW 221A T H de^
MONOLOGUE: Adolph Dial, "Prospect School Incident" pwh
DATE: August 31, 1971
D: Today is August 31, 1971. Yesterday, Monday, August 30, a strange
incident happened in the Prospect Community. A group, who were very
much dissatisfied with assignments of their students-to the Maxton
district, and other districts too, appeared at Prospect School
yesterday. Some called themselves the Tuscaroras. There is a move
among some of the Lumbee Indians for the Tuscarora name, but it is
a very, very small group, and there is not muck leadership. But this
group did appear at Prospect School yesterday, with hatchets and
bearing concealed weapons too. And some of the buses didn't unload
and some who were there, all of them had to disperse, and they said
they to run the black and white away from the school yesterday.
So the school closed, and I went out tb the school last night, and the
law, the local police force, that is, the county deputies were patrolling
the campus, and this morning there was no school,___
and uh, the law wouldn't allow anyone except the
teachers to enter the grounds. I did talk with one of the group, uh, one
of the protesters. I talked with a lady whom I have known for many years,
and I put it this way, "I know you are dissatisfied about something, now
just what is it?" She pointed out that her child went over to the Maxton
school last year, and was beaten up by blacks and so forth, and she was
unhappy over that. She also pointed out that she was unhappy with some
of the leadership in the law case, who hadn't produced. She mentioned
Mr. Ward Clark's name as one, and they felt that their law case should
have come off before now in court. The court did nake what I would call,
2 pwh
a temporary decision, but this was not to their satisfaction and
their feeling was very much concerned about their children getting
into the Prospect Schools. And it looks like they are very determined
now. I guess what will happen tomorrow is a rather difficult thing
to say. It's a strange paradox but, yesterday morning when I should
have been at Prospect School seeing what was going on, I was eight
miles east of Lumberton, at the home of Mr. Daniel Lowry, a grandson
of Henry Barry Lowry, and protest it too. But anyway,
in the Prospect Community there is a, there is a problem, and lots
of people are concerned. What you might call the immediate, in the
immediate area in the leadership, they are not going along with the
schools they impose, and aren't satisfied with what has happened, and
many of the leadership members among leadership, I know one for myself,
if I may call myself somewhat of a leader among the Lumbees, I am
very much concerned what this will do to black and Indian relations.
This might be just what the power structure would uh-, like to see,
like to see something bad happen, maybe. It tends to, so often so often
the power structure, the white power structure play Indians against
blacks, or Indian against Indian, or black against black. The old theory
of divide and conquer. One of the problems apparently, in the Prospect
School district and the Maxton district, some of the children aren't
going to the, I have evidence, that some of the children are not
going to the district to which they are assigned. And others are going
to the district to which they are assigned and some aren't. In other
words, some seem to be getting by with it, and this is the problem too
of course. Now last year they did allow some Indian students to come
to Prospect the entire year, and of course they were what they call
sit-ins, and I understand they didn't receive a grade and in some
3 pwh
cases they didn't receive a diploma, and I also understand that this
morning, that one of the parents demanded that the child get her a
diploma,..or maybe it was an elementary graduation certificate, but
anyway, I understand that the principal did give this to them, and
I guess some of them their grades too. The sit-ins. There is a rumor
that the principal has resigned, uh, we'll know more about this later,
but uh, he was not on campus I understand this morning, and there's
a rumor that he has resigned. Just what will happen as a result of
this I do not know. Maybe he will pick up his resignation, or maybe
they will get someone else. Only time will tell. The other Indian
schools yesterday seemed to be rather, _, seemed to be,
you know, real incidents in the county, except in the Prospect
Community, and this is my community, there,
I was born and reared in this community, I taught at Prospect School,
I was principal of the school, I uh, was born and reared a half-a-mile
from this school,iy mother taught at the school, my father taught at
the school, my grandfather taught at the school, my uncle taught at the
school, so I am very much concerned about the Prospect situation.Out
at the station last night, the corner station joining the Prospect
School campus, some seemed to think that leaders were not leading, that
it was, that they weren't really dealing with the situation, and of course
some felt that they were really at the wrong place, but they ought to
just bedoing was to be down consulting with the county superintendent,
and the county Board of Education, because it was their problem, and
really, a principal was not in the position to deal with this situation.
And, I don't know, maybe out of this I think scathing will come. I think
one thing, they will, the will be forced to, to see the
children go to school in their district. That is, they'll have to let
4 pwh
one do it, or let one get by with it, or let all of them get by with
it. One of the real problems that has the district line so messed up,
is the fact that for years the Indian students, none of them attended
city schools, then in the country all of their schools, and of course,
the city units, it was taking in white and blacks, extended into the
countryside, so when they began our desegregation, the desegregation
of schools, here in the county, we did encounter this problem. Of
course, perhaps, a bigger problem was the gerrymandering of the lines.
Take the case of Oxendine School where the Red Springs District School
comes right up to the school campus. The Red Springs District line
comes right up to the Oxendine School campus Oxendine, of course,
being a school in the county unit, and Red Springs, of course, being
a (- r district, having her own unit. Some seem to think that the
only real hope for the entire situation is, a one county system with-
the single superintendent and equal all schools as much as possible,
in the way of supplies and equipment, and facilities, and try to have
good teachers or at least have a balanced faculty, as far as teaching
ability goes, have a balanced faculty among.......... the various
schools, where one wouldn't feel that he was getting an inferior
education if he attended "X" school, or he wouldn't feel that Johnny
was getting a better education than he was getting just because he
was over in "Y" school. Some people did talk to the group yesterday
and had to make, reason with them. talk, Herman
Dial, the county commissioner, he talked with the group, and Herbert
Moore talked with the group also. I also understand that somewhere,
dissatisfied with myself, they said that I had received some Indian
money, referring to the Ford Foundation Grant, and what it all amounts
to is they just don't understand. They hear of people getting money
5 pwh
and they think more of it ought to come their way. Perhaps there will
be something done in LIDA to please these people and get them some
kind of little project going among themselves, and they don't want
you to call them Lumbees, they want to be called Tuscaroras. So,
once again, after many, many name-changes in the history of our
people, now someone comes up with a different idea, ready to change
the name again, as for myself I like the name Lumbee, and think
that is the name we ought to have. We are on the Lumbee River; and
we are an amalgamation of many tribes, therefore, we don't need
the name of Tuscarora, Cherokee, or Hatteras, or Navaho, or what
have you. I think the name situation is good now, as it stands,
and I don't think it will be changed any time soon, if ever, because
most of the people, the people who are in leadership positions, seem
to be very well satisfied with this name, and it will probably be
around a long, long time. Well, what is in a name? That's a very
good question.
|
RSS
HIDE
