The Angie Brooks Incident and the Mississippi Freedom Vote
On April 30, 1963, Liberian Ambassador to the United Nations Angie Brooks delivered a speech at NCSU. A Shaw University graduate, Brooks met Lowenstein during his trip to Africa. After her address, Lowenstein took Brooks to the S&W Cafeteria, one of the targets of the 1960 sit-in movement. Not surprisingly, the management refused to serve Brooks. Lowenstein then took her to the Sir Walter Coffee Shop. Once again, the management refused to serve Brooks, even after she introduced herself as a diplomat.35
Immediately, people complained that Lowenstein, knowing that the restaurants would not serve Brooks, had staged the incident in order to receive press coverage. The manager at the Sir Walter complained that Brooks and Lowenstein left only "after the issue was resolved to the satisfaction of the reporters."36 Residents became outraged at Lowenstein's manipulation. Columns in the News & Observer defended the managements' behavior. Noting that Brooks had lived in Raleigh and knew about Jim Crow laws, one article stated that she "asked for what she got."37
The federal government considered the incident an embarrassment. The Liberian Ambassador to the United States protested the incident. The State Department issued Brooks an apology the next day, and offered to have a dinner in her honor.38 Governor Terry Sanford's office issued a statement saying that North Carolina officials "have worked for three years to see that all visiting diplomats are treated with proper courtesy."39 Brooks said she enjoyed her visit to Raleigh "as a whole," and claimed she received apology letters from across the country.40
North Carolinians did not have to wait long to find more reasons to dislike Lowenstein. In early 1963, Lowenstein applied for leave in order to work for the Peace Corps in Puerto Rico, effective in July.41 When Lowenstein's Peace Corps plans fell apart due to "political turmoil," he notified the administration at NCSU. The university had already hired a temporary replacement, and Lowenstein went to Mississippi to work for SNCC.42
Hoping to prove that discrimination, not voter apathy, caused low African-American voter turnout in Mississippi, SNCC held a mock gubernatorial election in the fall of 1963. Known as the "Freedom Vote," voters cast their ballots for activist Aaron Henry. Lowenstein brought white students from Yale and Stanford with him.43 By inviting white students to Mississippi, Lowenstein wanted to "force a showdown between local and federal governments in an election year."44 This tactic was similar to the "staged" Angie Brooks incident in Raleigh.
Mississippi officials did their best to halt Freedom Summer. They arrested white students for misdemeanors such as trespassing and breaking curfew. In late October, police arrested Lowenstein in Clarksdale, Mississippi for violating curfew. He forfeited his bond when he failed to appear in court.45 His arrest caused uproar in North Carolina.
Dissent in North Carolina
Although Lowenstein had reported that he was not going to Puerto Rico, he never specified that he was going to Mississippi. His arrest caused "a flurry of excitement and consternation at high levels in the University."46 The outrage did not stop in central North Carolina. An article in the Statesville Record called "Who's keeping store?" questioned NCSU's administration for allowing such an incident to occur.47"The fact that you had originally applied for a leave of absence to take a job in the Peace Corps and then turned up in a jail in Miss. at first promised to prove a source of embarrassment--a handle for your enemies!" wrote Lowenstein's colleague Bill Edwards.48
Lowenstein's enemies included the North Carolina legislators who had passed the Speaker Ban Law in June 1963. Although lawmakers insisted the law was designed to prevent communists from speaking at public universities, one legislator admitted, "The Speaker Ban Law was originally passed more to curb civil rights demonstrations than to stop Communist speakers." Another legislator claimed, "If you have to single out one issue to say what triggered it, it was Al Lowenstein demonstrating in front of the Sir Walter filled with legislators from North Carolina."49
North Carolina Senate President Charles Stone continued to speak against Lowenstein, asking why NCSU administrators allowed him to return to campus. "We pay the fellow $7,500 for nine months work," Stone said, "and I don't approve of it."50 When WRAL reporters asked Agriculture Commissioner L. Y. Ballentine about a talk Lowenstein gave at a Young Democrats luncheon, he chuckled, "the press didn't bother to report it, and I guess I shouldn't either."51
Other dissenting voices included WRAL-TV Viewpoint editorialist Jesse Helms. In December 1963, Helms complained about Lowenstein's actions and called for "a purge of the faculty."52 He later claimed that "elders" influenced young people to "intimidate the law or take it into their own hands" when it displeased them, and reminded his audience of Lowenstein's civil rights activity in North Carolina and Mississippi. Helms further stated that, "this sort of activity" was "the road to anarchy, for too many of our leaders in public office are crowd-pleasers. And we keep remembering that Pontius Pilate was a crowd pleaser."53
Lowenstein continued to have strong student support behind him. In early 1964, the student legislature decided that the General Assembly had unfairly pressured professors who participated in the civil rights movement. In April, he received the Blue Key Award. In May, students circulated a petition defending Lowenstein against outside forces calling for his dismissal.54
The outside forces calling for Lowenstein's dismissal came from throughout the state. In March 1964, The Jones County Journal published an editorial entitled "Should Be Fired," calling for the General Assembly to take action against "such freaks as this Lowenstein." This editorial was a response to Lowenstein's defense in the student legislature. The editorial referred to the students' decision as a "pettifogging resolution of immature children," further stating that there needed to be more pressure on "the irresponsible leadership of our colleges and universities."55 The author of a hate letter claimed that Lowenstein "and all the Negro trouble makers should be behind bars."56
Despite the controversy, Lowenstein continued to crusade for civil rights upon his return to Raleigh. In March 1964, he spoke to NCSU students and faculty members about the problems he encountered in Mississippi.57 After former Mississippi governor Ross Barnett spoke against civil rights legislation to an audience at UNC, Lowenstein gave his own speech as a rebuttal.58
After the Mississippi Freedom Vote, SNCC activist Bob Moses wrote to Lowenstein and asked him to help with Mississippi Freedom Summer.59 Initially, Lowenstein said he would not participate, and stayed in Raleigh to find out if Chancellor Caldwell would reappoint him for the 1964-1965 school year. Caldwell delayed his decision several times, finally deciding to reappoint Lowenstein in mid-May. After careful consideration, Lowenstein decided that staying in Raleigh was a "dead end," and promised to remain on the faculty only until the Social Studies Department could find a replacement.60
Although Lowenstein had already told Bob Moses he would not go back to Mississippi, events there caused him to change his mind. Upon learning about the civil rights murders, Lowenstein decided he would go back to Mississippi after all.61 In late July, the Social Studies Department found a replacement, and Lowenstein's obligations to Raleigh ended.62 He then began a new chapter of his life as one of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's most influential and controversial white members.63 By the end of 1964, people outside North Carolina would remember Lowenstein for recruiting white students to go to Mississippi, as well as his participation at the Democratic National Convention. People outside North Carolina forgot about Lowenstein's activities in Raleigh.
