Activism aided dining hall strike

Fistfights, overturned tables and food throwing marked the scene at Lenoir Dining Hall on March 5, 1969.

But Buck Goldstein, a UNC junior at the time, said his most memorable moment was when armed state troopers took over campus, following the orders of Gov. Robert Scott to keep guard.

The outbreak stemmed from a strike in February of 140 food service workers who claimed that previous efforts to bring attention to their problems with racism and exploitation were ignored by University officials.

The strike ended in late March, when Scott announced that all of the lowest-paid state workers would receive raises.

But it took a month of strife to reach this conclusion.

"It was quite a time," said Virginia Carson, a sophomore at UNC during the strike and now director of the Campus Y. "For workers to assert their rights, it came threatening to folks who had been in charge of things for a very long time. They weren't too keen on that."

Workers -- who were mostly black women -- demanded better working conditions and a pay raise from $1.60 to $1.80.

Grievances also included a request for courtesy titles of Mr. or Miss for each worker, a lack of black supervisors and a dislike of UNC Food Service Director George Prillaman.

The workers teamed up with leaders of the Black Student Movement, urging them and other students to boycott the dining halls until their needs were met.

Elizabeth Brooks, one of the striking workers who worked in the Pine Room cafeteria, told The (Raleigh) News & Observer in March 1969 that she and her co-workers would not return to work until the food service director was fired.

She said she had a check stub showing that she worked 105 hours in two weeks and received no overtime compensation. "We just can't go back on a lot of promises," Brooks said in the interview.

With hardly any staff, University officials were forced to shut down the four campus dining halls -- Chase Cafeteria, Lenoir Dining Hall, Pine Room and the Monogram Club.

This angered many students, who had to find alternate places to eat. Fearing more outbreaks of violence, Scott ordered that Lenoir be reopened. He also called about 350 National Guard members to stay on call in Durham in case riots escalated.

Although University officials hired about 60 students and several cafeteria supervisors to man the cafeteria lines and help cook at Lenoir for $1.60 an hour, it was still hard to get a meal on campus, Carson said.

Student groups such as BSM and the YMCA on campus started a "slowdown" in the cafeteria's serving lines where students walked through lines slowly so fewer could be served -- a successful attempt to reduce the number of students who ate at Lenoir.

Workers and BSM members also set up a "Freedom Kitchen" in Manning Hall, where they served lunch and dinner to students supporting their cause.

Norman Gustaveson, who was a YMCA director at the Campus Y at the time, said he's sure workers at UNC today are still not getting a fair shake.

"(The strike) illustrated a deeper problem that is still persistent today," he said. "Often, service workers at the University have talents and possibilities that call for far more opportunity than what they are engaged in."

Goldstein said the success of the strike was due to the remarkable leadership of the workers and students. "It was on the one hand, a very empowering time where I think students had the sense of responsibility to do things right."

"Students had, for the same reason, a sense of what you said and what you did could make a difference," he said. "People were watching, the press was watching, the state and even the nation was watching -- the stakes were high."

Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.