Immediately following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the Silent Vigil (also shortened to the Vigil) was a social protest at Duke University that not only demanded collective bargaining rights for AFSCME Local 77, the labor union for nonacademic employees, but also advocated against racial discrimination on campus and in the surrounding community of Durham, North Carolina. Occurring from April 4, 1968, to April 12, 1968, members of the University Christian Movement began planning a campus-wide vigil in memoriam of Dr. King. Another group of undergraduate students called for a protest march to address prevalent issues concerning the primarily African-American nonacademic employees at Duke in Local 77. Together, both student groups, along with the support of Local 77, most of the teaching faculty, and civilians not affiliated with the university, sparked a non-violent demonstration that involved over 2,000 participants, making it the largest in Duke's history.William E. King, If Gargoyles Could Talk: Sketches of Duke University (Durham: Carolina Academy Press, 1997). The Silent Vigil stands out from other contemporary college movements due to the collaboration between primarily white students and faculty, and mainly African-American workers. Furthermore, unlike rowdier protests at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University, Duke's Silent Vigil received considerable praise for its peaceful approach, especially considering its surrounding Southern backdrop. Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, the Silent Vigil not only aimed to externally change Duke's white, privileged, and apathetic image in the eyes of the Durham community, but also internally set a powerful precedent on Duke's campus for student activism in the future.
Background and motivation On November 13, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech about the Civil Rights Movement at Duke University, declaring that "[Human progress] comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be coworkers with God...The time is always right to do what is right."'"Audio of King's 1964 Speech at Duke," http://mlk.duke.edu/audio.html. So many white and black students, faculty, workers, and administrators showed up that campus organizers had to put the speech on loudspeakers so that the overflow audience could listen outside on the Main Quad. Inviting the leader of the Civil Rights Movement to speak marked the university's progress in terms of race relations. Until 1961, Duke had been a university solely for white students; the only black people on campus were the nonacademic workers who served students and faculty. King came during a time when Duke was starting to take part in the activism that had already taken place at many of its contemporary institutions in the North and West. In 1961, three years prior to the Reverend's speech at Duke University, the university's graduate schools had finally desegregated according to a vote by the board of trustees; one year later, five African-American undergraduates matriculated at Duke."Celebrating the Past, Charting the Future: Commemorating 50 Years of Black Students at Duke University," http://spotlight.duke.edu/50years/#black-history. In 1966, Samuel DuBois Cook became the first tenured black faculty member,"African-American Firsts at Duke University," http://spotlight.duke.edu/50years/african-american-firsts-at-duke-university/. while an undergraduate group called the Afro-American Society was unofficially established to advocate for the rights of black students.Harry R. Jackson, "Coverage in University Publications of Events on Campus from February 13 to March 19", May 27, 1969, Box 1, Folder 18, Allen Building Takeover Collection, 1969-2002, Rubenstein Library, Duke University, http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/uaallenbldg/#abtms01018 Around that same time, African-American nonacademic workers had begun to come together through AFSCME Local 77, an unrecognized union, to picket for better working conditions.
Still, despite making racial progress in terms of bringing African-American students and faculty to Duke, several problems remained: namely, the university's relationship with its African-American nonacademic workers, and a prevalent sense of racist attitudes among Duke's administration. For example, workers were required to address white undergraduates as 'Mister' and 'Miss', clean the bedrooms of the male students (because female students supposedly did not need domestic help), and eat their meals in the kitchen rather than the dining hall.Tony Dunbar, "The Old South Triumphs at Duke," Southern Changes (1979): 5-8. However, the most grievous issues the university administration neglected to address were the lack of a formally recognized union for workers as well as the meager wage the school was paying its nonacademic staff. In the 1960s, colleges and universities were exempt from the federal minimum wage of $1.60. This gave Duke leeway to pay its employees well under the recommended, $1.60 minimum salary; in fact, some Duke workers reported to earning less than a $1.15 minimum salary. In 1965, Oliver Harvey, a black janitor at Duke, organized the Duke Employees Benevolent Society (DEBS) to advocate for higher pay, improved conditions, and nicer benefits. DEBS became Local 77 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, affiliated with AFL-CIO. However, the university administration still chose not to recognize Local 77 as a union or grant collective bargaining rights to its workers."Duke Employees' Organizing Efforts", The Herald-Sun (2013). While past Duke students ignored these problems, they were not to be overlooked by the students in the 1960s, many of whom grew up alongside the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King inspired many students Adam Eaglin, "Black and White: A History," The Chronicle (2005). when he spoke of the national shift towards racial equality, proclaiming, "And so I can still sing as we sing in our movement, all over the South and all over the nation, 'We Shall Overcome!'""Audio of King's 1964 Speech at Duke," http://mlk.duke.edu/audio.html. Later, during the Silent Vigil, participants would join hands to sing "We Shall Overcome" as a tribute to the Reverend and his legacy in the Civil Rights Movement.
The vigil On Friday, April 5, 1968, the vigil began in front of the Duke Chapel on West Campus at noon. Three hours later, around 450 students and faculty marched through the rain to Duke President Douglas Knight's official residence.Sympathy March Flyer, Box 1, Duke Vigil Collection, 1968-1988, Rubenstein Library, Duke University. Those protestors would remain in Knight's house for the next several days. Saturday afternoon, they were joined by another group of about 350 faculty, workers, and students from Duke and North Carolina College, a black university. Later that evening, after multiple discussions with the students that lasted several hours, an exhausted President Knight was removed from all negotiations by his doctor due to fears of stress-related medical complications from his previous case of hepatitis. Acknowledging Knight's illness, the protestors moved back to West Campus' main quad on Sunday morning. Later that night, dining hall and custodial workers at Duke declared an official strike for the upcoming days. Protestors supported the strike and continued the Vigil on the main quad, camping out day and night, while boycotting classes and the dining hall. As more and more students joined the Vigil, professors helped them (and their grades) by holding their own classes on the quad. Several days into the process of participants finding spaces and sitting with their resolve to support changes in the school's policies, folk singers Joan Baez and her friend Pete Seeger appeared and stayed several days leading the group with their inventory of civil rights and union organizing songs.
The protestors Vigil leadership and support The Silent Vigil was led by a committee of ten. (All names are listed alphabetically.) The original negotiating team comprised Dave Birkhead (editor of the Duke Chronicle student newspaper), Huck Guttman, Jon Kinney (president of the student body), Margaret (Bunny) Small, and Asst. Prof. John Strange (Duke political science department), negotiating with Dean of Students William Griffiths. Once the Vigil began in earnest at the Douglas M. and Grace Knight House, the home of Duke University President Douglas Knight, Kinney, Small, and Strange were joined by six undergraduates and one faculty member: Dave Birkhead rejoined, and Jack Boger, David Henderson, Reid Kramer, Alan Ray, Prof. Tom Rainey, and James (Jeff) van Pelt were added, a total of eight undergraduates and two faculty members. Bertie Howard, an African American student advisor to the leadership, challenged the leaders to conduct an orderly vigil, leading to the idea of the Silent Vigil. Members of the University Christian Movement instrumental in planning the accompanying protest march, included the Rev. Helen G. Crotwell, Chris Dame, Jim Davis, Tom Garrison, the Rev. Elmer Hall, Tami Hultman, John Kernodle, the Rev. Nancy Richardson, and George Vlasits. Other principal faculty supporters of the Vigil included Prof. Jim Garrison (History), Prof. Jim Hart (political science), and Prof. Fred Krantz (history). Over the time of the Silent Vigil nearly the entire Duke student body and a significant portion of the faculty participated, as well as students from neighboring universities. The majority of the Duke students who participated were white, as was the student body.Sam DuBois Cook, Remembering the Vigil: A University Milestone, comp. Bridget Booher (Durham: Duke Magazine, 1998). More than three-quarters of the protesters had never participated in any demonstration before. The Associated Students of Duke University (ASDU), Duke's student government, showed its support by postponing elections so students could focus on the demonstration.ASDU Election Postponed Flyer, Box 1, Duke Vigil Collection, 1968-1988, Rubenstein Library, Duke University. Also, Duke's Interfraternity Council (IFC), the Duke Law School, and the Duke Divinity School formerly endorsed the Silent Vigil.Duke Law School Statement, Box 1, Duke Vigil Collection, 1968-1988, Rubenstein Library, Duke University.
Local 77 AFSCME Local 77, the union for Duke's nonacademic employees, stemmed from its unsuccessful predecessor, the Duke Employees Benevolent Society (created in 1965), which was formed for a number of Duke service employees to protect workers from unfair conditions and obtain wage increases. The majority of the members were African-American and were not only angered by the blatant racial discrimination they faced, but also their salary, which was significantly lower than the national $1.60/hour federal minimum wage.
Due to Duke's unilateral policy making, the voices of the nonacademic employees were not considered. Thus, collective bargaining, a set of procedures that aims to increase equitability between labor and management, was the only remaining option for university workers to receive fair treatment. After realizing the need for collective bargaining in order to improve conditions, Local 77 affiliated with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and AFL-CIO. However, in the fall of 1967, Local 77, AFSCME, and AFL-CIO disbanded. Duke employees reorganized as the United Public and Service Employees Local 77, which was independent and non-affiliated.Statement by Local 77 Concerning Collective Bargaining at Duke, Box 1, Duke Vigil Collection, 1968-1988, Rubenstein Library, Duke University. Local 77 was committed to nonviolence, advocating its demands through peaceful rallies, strikes, and picket lines. It demonstrated such a mindset when its employees went on a strike that ran parallel to the Vigil.