April 6, 1968 at Pres. Knight's house

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-	'Bout half an hour ago.	0:02
-	First, the President of the United States to push	0:05
	for Congressional action to implement the the recommendation	0:06
	to the present commission on civil disorder,	0:09
	urge our senators and congressmen to pass	0:11
	open housing legislation and call in city officials,	0:13
	insisting that they show greater concern	0:16
	for the grievances and problems of the black community.	0:17
	That's the first demand, to sign this statement.	0:20
	The second is that Doctor Knight use the powers	0:23
	of his office to push for the establishment	0:26
	of the $1.60 minimum for all Duke employees	0:28
	as the first priority in Duke financial planning.	0:31
	This is not saying that Doctor Knight get $1.60,	0:34
	you know, before we leave it, merely that he use	0:37
	the power of his office to make this the first priority	0:39
	in all financial arrangements.	0:42
	(chattering)	0:44
	The third is that Doctor Knight resign from	0:47
	the Hope Valley Country Club which practices segregation.	0:49
	The fourth is that President Knight appoint	0:53
	a commission of students, faculty, and workers	0:54
	to study and make recommendations concerning	0:57
	collective bargaining and union recognition at Duke.	0:59
	So basically, sign this petition that goes	1:02
	in the Durham Morning Herald, push for the establishment	1:04
	of the $1.60 minimum wage, resign from ...	1:07
	(cheering and laughing)	1:10
	Resign from the Hope Valley Country Club, and appoint	1:27
	the student-faculty worker group to make recommendations	1:32
	about setting up a union collective bargaining at Duke.	1:35
	Now, really, we've said a lot	1:38
	about the Hope Valley Country Club thing.	1:41
	I guess our logic there has been primarily that	1:44
	Doctor Knight, as the President of Duke University,	1:47
	really isn't as morally committed to discourage segregation	1:51
	in any form in this community and to actively work	1:55
	for racial harmony and the symbol, it seems to many of us,	1:58
	of segregation in Durham is the Hope Valley Country Club.	2:02
-	Who?	2:05
-	Jack.
	Uh, but this, and actually,	2:08
	placing the signature on the advertisement we placed	2:14
	in the Durham Morning Herald are considerably the two lesser	2:17
	important actions that Doctor Knight could take.	2:20
	And resigning from Hope Valley's really important	2:23
	as a symbolic act, but the actual raising	2:24
	of the minimum wage to $1.60 and the beginning	2:27
	of establishing collective bargaining	2:31
	in a union at Duke, I think are far more important	2:33
	in their alternate benefit to blacks in this community.	2:35
	And I think these are the things that we're really	2:38
	most concerned about as we press our demands.	2:40
-	Jack, I hate to interrupt but there's somebody important	2:45
	that has to see Sue Newbold right away at the front door.	2:47
-	Is Sue Newbold out here?	2:50
-	Yes!	2:51
-	Okay.
	(chattering)	2:52
	A question has arisen with people outspoken with?	2:59
	This morning we made certain commitments and we decided	3:02
	to involve certain people outside ourselves, for instance,	3:06
	Local 77 and as Pete Brandon told us that may mean	3:10
	some people, if this isn't successful, may get fired	3:14
	and find it very difficult to get work in Durham.	3:18
	We have also been involving the black community in Durham	3:20
	and, by involving the black community,	3:25
	we're giving them expectations, and if we fail them,	3:29
	and if we fail these expectations that we've raised ...	3:33
	What?	3:39
	(chattering)	3:40
	With them this morning, and when we involved other people,	3:47
	I think the commitment solidified our priorities.	3:51
	Now, we just had word just now that our asking	3:54
	the other people in this community to support us	4:00
	and to work with us, is starting to begin	4:03
	Local 77's strike committee is planning and mobilizing	4:06
	right now for a strike with state money.	4:09
	(applause)	4:11
	The plannings for the strike tomorrow night,	4:25
	and this planning will be going this evening	4:27
	as this situation develops to see exactly how we can,	4:29
	how Local 77 and we can best work together	4:33
	to achieve the ends we want.	4:36
	Now, I think, when we think in terms of Local 77	4:37
	and the Durham community, and perhaps even national	4:42
	press coverage, the important issues are not	4:44
	the two symbolic ones: either signing the statement	4:48
	or resigning from Hope Valley, but there rather	4:50
	the more substantive ones: first, the minimum wage of $1.60,	4:52
	in which we're asking President Knight to declare that	4:57
	as top priority in this university,	4:59
	above anything else including faculty-staff salaries.	5:01
	Because this is something we can say to the people	5:05
	in Durham and to the workers and to anybody else	5:07
	who is concerned with what we're doing.	5:09
	Here we are getting actual improvement	5:11
	in people's lives, by what we're doing.	5:13
	It's not a symbolic act, it's something that is actually	5:16
	moving to give them a better life,	5:19
	to afford more of the opportunities to them	5:24
	that America should offer to everyone.	5:26
	The second issue is setting up a committee made up	5:28
	of students, faculty, and workers, to set up a way	5:33
	of setting up an election so that the workers at Duke	5:38
	can have a bargaining agent if they want it.	5:41
	Now, this is important in a number of ways, first we are	5:44
	demanding that workers be included on this committee.	5:47
	President Knight said in Chapel today that workers	5:50
	would be included on some such committee.	5:53
	The second thing is that this issue is important	5:56
	because the idea of a bargaining agent	6:00
	means that employees at Duke University	6:03
	will have some control over their own lives.	6:05
	That's exactly why we're here today, to see how much control	6:08
	we have over our lives, and if we are successful here,	6:10
	I think we'll be giving them,	6:14
	the people who Martin Luther King was working for	6:16
	in Memphis on the same issue, but we'll be giving	6:19
	Durham people some control over their lives,	6:22
	over their relation to the people who are hiring them	6:25
	or firing them or trying to deal with the other issues	6:27
	like seniority and work conditions	6:33
	and grievances that are connected with their jobs.	6:36
	And these too I think are really important things	6:40
	because if we don't get these two and we get the other two,	6:44
	we've let down the people who are counting on us.	6:46
	We'll go out of here feeling good, perhaps, but they won't,	6:48
	and those are the people who we all, we're in a position	6:51
	that we're hads, we're all at Duke,	6:55
	and we all have a good education in front of us.	6:57
	Society's gonna open up for us.	7:03
	What we're trying to do here is to open up society	7:05
	in some small way for other people, and we have to get	7:07
	these small openings, and this is our start.	7:09
	The $1.60 minimum and the committee to set up	7:12
	some sort of process of recognizing	7:16
	an official bargaining agent for the employees at Duke.	7:19
-	Are there any questions for our demands?	7:30
	Yeah?	7:34
-	How can you guys save this is Doctor Knight grants	7:35
	some of the demands regarding (inaudible) to his office?	7:38
-	No, this is not been our commitment, our commitment	7:42
	has been to ask for all four demands.	7:45
	That we've held open the option at all times of talking	7:47
	with our leaders with our negotiators and seeing what	7:51
	they say about what is a conceivable settlement,	7:55
	but we have said we will stay here	7:58
	until these four demands are met.	7:59
	(applause)	8:01
	(inaudible)	8:09
	Of interest to you, kind of is news and about	8:21
	if things go well with us, it may be	8:24
	of interest to you as far as action goes.	8:25
	Let me just read this statement.	8:27
	North Carolina State University is planning a white folks	8:29
	march on the governor's mansion tomorrow, Sunday.	8:32
	They leave, whatever the name of their student union is,	8:35
	on State's campus at 12:30 pm and march to the mansion.	8:38
	The demonstration will be illegal in that	8:42
	the mayor has banned all demonstrations.	8:44
	Bail has been arranged for, and they expect some arrests,	8:46
	but not plan to march with less than 150 to 200 people.	8:49
	The demands include that the governor reconvene	8:52
	the state legislature to deal with open housing,	8:55
	raising the minimum wage of the state,	8:57
	repealing the right to work law, invoke the clan charter,	9:00
	implement the Kerner report,	9:04
	(cheering)	9:05
	deal with (inaudible)
	(clapping and whooping)	9:12
-	And don't hire him as our press people!	9:19
-	What about backing Senator McCarran?	9:21
	(laughing)	9:23
-	Hey wait a minute, Bob, wait five seconds.	9:29
	What's the hang up?	9:41
	What's the hang up?	9:50
	What's the hang up?	9:55
-	In his integrity, the mind is bloated and is ...	9:57
-	Sorry about that.	10:02
-	Which would ultimately lead to his death.	10:03
	And he struggled with every ounce of his ...	10:08
-	Do we want this up, we don't want this up.	10:11
-	... save that society from itself.	10:12
-	(inaudible) The statements are minor.	10:18
-	You got the statements from (inaudible) to be sent?	10:23
-	Okay, how long's it gonna take?	10:27
-	Just pull it off, Scott, flip it over on its back	10:30
	like this so you'll know it has been requeued.	10:32
	Push the thing, that's a boy, take it easy Scott, that's it.	10:36
	Okay, I'll feed it to you in five seconds.	10:40
	Starting now.	10:45
-	Uh, now it is my understanding that the employees	10:52
	of the dining halls are being called out on strike	10:58
	by Peter Brandon at midnight Sunday night.	11:01
	I think this is most unfortunate, I think that	11:09
	this is a very, very bad time	11:13
	to call this kind of a strike.	11:21
	I think that if there are grievances to be worked out,	11:23
	they should be worked out in the coolness	11:28
	of the days following these	11:33
	few emotional days that are going on.	11:37
	Now, the Duke University dining halls have	11:42
	the responsibility of feeding	11:46
	their students of Duke University's.	11:50
	We're going to carry out these responsibilities	11:55
	to the best of our ability.	11:58
	Now, we're concerned about the health	12:01
	and safety of our women students.	12:05
	In view of the situation in the cities throughout	12:09
	the country where there are now riots going on,	12:12
	and the threat of a riot in the city of Durham,	12:17
	I feel very strongly that we must be concerned about	12:24
	the health and safety of our women students first of all.	12:29
-	Feed us in whatever you got now.	12:40
-	Okay, stand by, next one, and what's this one, Scott?	12:42
	Oh this is more of Ted Minah, and, uh.	12:46
-	Could you stand by for about five seconds,	12:50
	I wanna tell some people?	12:51
-	Okay, hold on.
	Five seconds from now.	12:56
-	Now in view of that fact, the dining halls	13:03
	will be open to serve all women students.	13:08
	We will first of all open the east campus union	13:14
	for women students, whether or not	13:20
	they're on the board basis.	13:23
	The east campus students will not be open for any men	13:25
	students unless we have enough employees to justify it.	13:29
	We will, if we have enough employees,	13:35
	open Gilbert-Addoms dining hall second,	13:39
	and we will also open the graduate center dining halls	13:44
	only for the women and residents in the graduate center	13:50
	and in Hanes house,	13:54
	whether or not they're on the board basis.	13:56
	We will open the west campus dining hall,	14:01
	in the blue and white room, and possibly	14:04
	the Cambridge Inn if we have enough employees remaining.	14:06
	We know that we have enough supervisory employees to	14:18
	supply food for the girls.	14:26
	We hope that we will be able	14:31
	to open in the blue and white room to serve students	14:34
	if necessary on a restricted choice of food,	14:41
	however we will make every effort to provide food	14:47
	for the men on the Duke campus.	14:52
-	Okay Evan, we are getting our second feature lined up,	14:58
	could you use the time track?	15:03
-	Uh, yeah, it's 17 and a half minutes before nine o'clock,	15:05
	I've got something here from Ben DeWaldi, want that?	15:11
-	Yes, yes we're picked up, give me up two for readiness.	15:13
-	Okay, five seconds from now.	15:19
-	Jackson mentioned that he wanted to record it,	15:26
	would you like to do the same?	15:31
-	Yes, sir, I had that going now.	15:33
-	Alright, the information that he gave me, Scott, was that,	15:36
	though he didn't identify the source, there seemed to be	15:42
	considerable evidence that there might	15:47
	be a strike, and he wondered what	15:50
	the decision of the university might be.	15:53
	We would certainly hope that there would not be a strike,	15:59
	but should there be one, we of course,	16:03
	have our responsibilities to students, patients, and others	16:07
	in the university community to continue services	16:11
	and we would make every effort to do so.	16:15
	As I say, we hope that, excuse me, that there would not be	16:19
	a strike and that if there is, our employees would continue	16:23
	to come to work as scheduled to carry out their share	16:28
	of these responsibilities to students, patients, and others.	16:31
	We much prefer to continue the sort of thing that we've	16:38
	been doing for the past three years, that is,	16:44
	we feel that there's been much progress made	16:48
	through meetings and discussions.	16:51
	Members of the administration have met with Local 77 people,	16:55
	some nine or ten times over the past three years.	17:01
	As a matter of fact, we had the most recent one	17:07
	of those meetings only yesterday.	17:13
	The, I think the tenth meeting,	17:16
	and there's every reason to believe that	17:20
	many more improvements will continue	17:25
	to result from these continuing discussions.	17:27
	At this meeting yesterday,	17:32
	we and administration agreed to convey several items	17:36
	to the personnel policy committee for consideration.	17:40
	Three of the major items were, number one,	17:45
	the $1.60 minimum and 45 cent per hour increased;	17:50
	number two, written university-wide procedures	17:56
	regarding warnings and dismissals;	18:01
	and number three, recognition of Local 77.	18:04
	We informed Mister Edward McNeill, their president,	18:10
	that he would receive a written reply on these items	18:14
	immediately after the action taken	18:18
	by the personnel policy committee is completed.	18:20
	We do very sincerely hope that employees and students	18:27
	and others will calmly and unemotionally	18:32
	weigh and evaluate all information,	18:37
	and all emotional appeals made to them to take	18:41
	or to support any rash or disruptive course of action.	18:44
-	Are you there?	18:52
-	Uh, (inaudible).	18:54
-	It's good enough, Bob.	18:58
	Uh, Bob, you were telling me?	19:02
-	Okay, feed is Minah now, are you ready?	19:04
-	Minah in three seconds.	19:07
	Two, one ...	19:10
-	University dining halls	19:12
	have a about 103 students employees.	19:15
	These student employees have always	19:22
	contributed a great amount to the	19:28
	service of the dining halls.	19:34
	I hope that these students will continue	19:36
	to come to work and to help out.	19:43
	I realize and I certainly can understand the position	19:48
	they're in, but I do hope that there are enough	19:52
	concerned student employees who feel that we do have	19:57
	a responsibility to the students to help us out,	20:03
	and I appeal to all students who are	20:08
	so willing to come and help.	20:12
-	This is all students and not just students	20:14
	that have been previously employed by the dining hall?	20:17
-	That's right, all students.	20:19
-	That's it.	20:23
-	Word tonight, and this will take a few minutes,	20:45
	be patient with me.	20:47
	The negotiations are not completed, so tonight	20:58
	we will stand fast here, stand fast here.	21:02
	Let me say about the negotiations and about the negotiators:	21:09
	I have very strong faith that (inaudible).	21:14
-	As soon as you want, I'll turn it off.	21:23
	You might be able to (inaudible).	21:24
	Just let me know when you get there, okay?	21:38
-	Let me say this, when we started this march,	21:40
	I had strong faith in your three negotiators,	21:44
	and my faith from what I've heard in there has overwhelming.	21:48
	We are going to get, I sincerely believe,	21:51
	every one of these four points.	21:54
	(cheering and applause)	21:56
	As I say, the negotiating is going exceedingly well,	22:26
	and I'm quite confident; however, as Doctor Strange	22:32
	indicated earlier tonight, we ran into a serious problem,	22:37
	a problem that made me say these negotiations	22:41
	are not completed tonight.	22:44
	The man whom we came here to ask for this leadership	22:47
	to bring Duke University into the individual tomorrow.	22:52
	We'll have men along the main quads, standing,	22:57
	solidly for Martin Luther King.	23:01
	We'll have signs, we shall not be moved,	23:04
	we will try to witness as best we know how	23:07
	to the university's community, the union people,	23:10
	and to the world at large.	23:15
	This will be an act that will keep us not, as I say indoors,	23:17
	it will keep us out, with rain we'll shine	23:20
	until our four points are satisfied.	23:23
	Yes?	23:27
-	I have a suggestion that this new sort of spirit	23:28
	that's entered in the whole business be communicated	23:32
	as soon as possible to the campus at large and possibly	23:35
	over DBS tonight, and particularly the sort of role	23:38
	that Doctor Knight plays in all this, having, you know,	23:43
	worn himself to the post, and now assuming a role	23:46
	of almost leader, our leader, that instead of ...	23:49
-	Please sit back down again.	23:54
-	Expressed here by your determination to stand fast	23:58
	and support us so that we can achieve these four points,	24:01
	has given me great help and great support.	24:06
	We must all move to this quad tomorrow and stay there	24:11
	through all day tomorrow and all tomorrow night	24:17
	and into Monday, until our negotiations	24:21
	are resumed and completed.	24:25
	We will expect both the men students and the women students	24:28
	to stay and spend the night with us.	24:34
	East campus will sign you out to the main quadrangle	24:36
	(shouting and clapping)	24:41
-	Jack Boger?	24:54
-	Yeah.	24:55
-	Would you come and give an announcement to the rest	24:56
	of the campus about what's happening, please?	24:58
-	Shhhh!	25:23
-	Speaking candidly, we almost have a resolution	25:27
	to this before that would be an alternative.	25:29
	We'll discuss strategies as to what we do from that point on	25:33
	when the point arises; I don't think there's any necessity	25:39
	to do it, to discuss it right now.	25:42
	We've handled the strategy of where we go from here	25:44
	as the negotiations have developed	25:48
	and I think that's what we need to do.	25:51
	We're not ruling out any type of action except	25:53
	the next action which we will take, is on the quadrangle	25:56
	in a massive demonstration night and day,	26:00
	and that's where we go from here until we decide otherwise.	26:03
	And the effect is we're getting to multiply,	26:09
	the effect now has started a strike.	26:11
	Call for Sunday night on the quad,	26:14
	we're seeing a snowballing.	26:16
	Our effect now will be a double effect on the quad,	26:18
	it'll support the union, the union is out on strike.	26:21
	The union is what we want to see succeed at Duke	26:24
	and this effort I think is intensifies	26:27
	our efforts in that respect.	26:31
	But I really hope that you just listened	26:34
	because I just finished talking to somebody who's just	26:37
	came down from New York 'cause she was interested	26:42
	in what was happening here, and she just told me,	26:44
	I just called it, she talks about something tonight	26:48
	when we were out to dinner.	26:51
	And I have predicted that something like this could happen,	26:53
	where the help of one of the participants would be as it is,	26:58
	and she said that this had happened at various	27:07
	other colleges, and that this was one of the,	27:09
	when they really got down, this was the only way out.	27:13
	Now I'm not, the problem is, the problem is,	27:15
	is that a lot of people don't wanna be as cynical as that.	27:19
	That's obvious, and I don't like	27:23
	to be cynic and I'm nervous as hell.	27:25
	The thing is, is that I think that right now,	27:29
	more than ever, let me just give you	27:34
	three different experiences that happened tonight.	27:35
	I had helped organize a conference, I wasn't able to be here	27:39
	most of the day, but I had talked to a lot of people	27:43
	on campus in the dining hall, people I never known before,	27:46
	never been in any kind of movement or anything like this.	27:50
	They were not only curious, they were	27:53
	very interested and very supportive.	27:55
	Another thing is, is that I was at a bar tonight	27:58
	with some of the speakers who had come to the conference,	28:02
	and one of them was betting me that we wouldn't stay here	28:04
	until all four demands were settled,	28:09
	and I was saying, I was just kidding around, and saying,	28:13
	damn right they're gonna stay here.	28:16
	I say kidding around partially.	28:18

Item Info

Title:

April 6, 1968 at Pres. Knight's house

Date:

April 6, 1968

Description:

Huck Gutman on Local 77 strike. Questions on the 4 demands. WDBS: Ted Minah and Bindewald statements on strike, Ted Minah appeal for workers. Jack Boger, John Strange, Dave Hunt statements.

Subject:

Format:

Extent:

0:28:21

Digital Collection:

Silent Vigil (1968) and Allen Building Takeover (1969) Audio Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke Vigil collection, 1968 - 1988

Series:

WDBS Tapes of the Duke Vigil

Rights:

Rights Note:

Duke has not determined the copyright status of this item. Regardless of its status, we have made a good faith determination that online access through the Duke Digital Repository is an acceptable fair use and otherwise permitted under U.S. copyright law. For more information, see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

Identifier:

UA01100001-RR-0010
ref78_ntu
uavigil
duke:372804
silau001010
ark:/87924/r4p26r75w
fce5d1f5-73a3-4556-ab4e-ca768ff673a1

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April 6, 1968 at Pres. Knight's house

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