Allard K. Lowenstein and the Raleigh Civil Rights Movement
demonstrating in front of the Sir Walter filled with legislators from rural North Carolina.
-A North Carolina legislator, referring to the 1963 Speaker Ban Law 1
Introduction
When Allard Kenneth Lowenstein arrived in Raleigh in 1962 to teach social studies at North Carolina State University (NCSU)2, he was no stranger to controversy. The 33-year-old New Jersey3 native had previously worked for race liberal Frank Porter Graham, and had encouraged civil rights protests while working as the dean of men at Stanford University. Lowenstein's return to North Carolina did not change his ways. Instead, Lowenstein helped change North Carolina.
Historian William H. Chafe appropriately titled his account of Lowenstein's life Never Stop Running. Throughout his life, Lowenstein constantly kept himself busy. His activism throughout the country, from California to North Carolina to Mississippi to New York, ensured that he stayed in the headlines. Unfortunately, historians who have written about Lowenstein have pushed his time in Raleigh to the side. This paper will examine Lowenstein's role in the Raleigh civil rights movement in more detail.
Erased from History: The Raleigh Civil Rights Movement
An undergraduate student studying Lowenstein would hardly know he was in Raleigh at all. Chafe devotes one and a half pages of Never Stop Running to the Raleigh movement. David Harris briefly mentions Lowenstein's role in Raleigh in Dreams Die Hard.4 In The Pied Piper, Richard Cummings devotes more space to Raleigh than do Chafe and Harris, but spends most of his time trying to prove that Lowenstein worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).5 He therefore deemphasizes Lowenstein's importance to the Raleigh movement, instead questioning Lowenstein's motives for going to Mississippi, Puerto Rico, and Spain. A compilation of essays written by and about Lowenstein entitled Lowenstein: Acts of Courage and Belief only incidentally mentions Raleigh and NCSU.
William J. Billingsley does a good job of detailing Lowenstein's actions in Communists on Campus: Race, Politics and the Public University in Sixties North Carolina. Chapter 3, "The Streets of Raleigh," details some of Lowenstein's actions and emphasizes his role in ending Jim Crow. Billingsley could only write so much in one chapter, however, and misses much of the impact Lowenstein had on individuals.
Any historian who chooses to write about Lowenstein faces an enormous task. Born January 16, 1929, his first encounter with North Carolina was in 1945, when he began his undergraduate career at the University of North Carolina (UNC). After graduation, Lowenstein worked for Senator Frank Porter Graham from 1949 to 1950, served as president of the National Student Association (NSA) from 1950 to 1951, and attended Yale Law School from 1951 to 1954. He served in the U.S. Army in Germany from 1954 to 1956. After returning to the United States, he served as a field secretary for the Collegiate Council for the United Nations from 1956 to 1957. He then traveled to the Soviet Union, worked for Adlai Stevenson, and traveled to South West Africa in 1959. In 1961, he became the dean of men at Stanford.
Lowenstein participated in the Mississippi civil rights movement during his tenure at NCSU, sparking controversy throughout North Carolina. After leaving Raleigh, Lowenstein traveled to the Dominican Republic and South Vietnam, taught at City College of New York, lead the "Dump Johnson" campaign, and worked for Eugene McCarthy. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1971, and later organized the "Dump Nixon" campaign. When Lowenstein died in 1980, he was campaigning for Ted Kennedy's presidential run.
This incomplete list of Lowenstein's activities partially explains why historians have brushed over his role in the Raleigh civil rights movement.6 Lowenstein did many things, he did not teach at NCSU very long, and he spent part of his tenure there on leave. The letters written to Lowenstein serve as evidence of his busy life--people complained that they never knew what part of the country he was in. Many people simply sent letters to his New York address instead of trying to find him elsewhere.7 William Buckley, the founder and publisher of the National Review, remembered Lowenstein as "the original activist."8
Another reason for almost non-existent treatment of Lowenstein's actions in Raleigh is that information is scarce. The Southern Historical Collection at UNC houses the Allard K. Lowenstein Papers, a thorough collection consisting of 327 linear feet. Yet, the materials from Raleigh add up to less than one box. Of the hundreds of photographs in the collection, none of them appears to be from Raleigh.9 This lack of information may stem from Lowenstein's disillusionment with his job and the locale.
Looking at Lowenstein's life in toto, perhaps the Raleigh movement is only a blip on the radar screen. Chafe, however, correctly asserts that whereas Lowenstein did not start the Raleigh civil rights movement, he "was given credit by many observers for what happened."10 By glazing over Raleigh, historians have neglected a major part of that city's history.
