Location: W. Cumberland St at N. Orange St. in Dunn
County: Harnett
Original Date Cast: 2024
The Indians of the Harnett and Sampson County region have been recognized by the state of North Carolina as Coharie Indians since 1971. Beginning in 1911, the state identified the tribe as Croatan Indians when legislation was passed authorizing separate schools for their children. By 1917, the Maple Grove Indian community that had formed near Dunn was large enough to begin petitioning for a school of its own.
By 1924, the community had Maple Grove School, a school which, according to the elders, was a small frame structure heated by a pot belly stove in the winter. The older boys would chop wood for the winter, there was no running water and no electricity. Sometimes as many as 60 children attended, often taught by one teacher for grades 1-7. After grade 7, students had no school to attend until 1942 when East Carolina Indian School was constructed in the New Bethel Indian community a few miles north of Clinton. This is where Indian children in 7 counties of Eastern North Carolina would receive their education for many years.
When the East Carolina Indian School opened, Indian students who lived in Person, Bladen, Columbus, and Scotland, who lay at some distance from the campus would board with families near the new school. Indian families living in Dunn, however, were expected to ride a bus to and from school, leaving before sunrise each morning and often not returning until sunset. The bus picked up children in Harnett and Sampson counties on the way. The 35-mile trip on unpaved country roads could take upwards of 2 hours to travel one way.
By the mid-1950s, parents of students in the area became unhappy with the arrangement and the Indian people began holding informal meetings at Maple Grove School. By June 1956, a member of the committee went before the Harnett County School Board to request a high school-level teacher be assigned to the local school to avoid making the long daily trip to the East Carolina Indian School. The matter was referred to the State Board of Education and Finance Committee which declined to allocate the teacher to the Maple Grove school. The reasons stated were that the school lacked adequate classroom facilities and would hurt the enrollment of the East Carolina Indian School. Enrollment had been in decline as Person, Bladen, Cumberland, and Columbus Counties had already begun high school classes in their Indian communities.
Between 1956 and 1960, parents of Indian children requested through formal means to have their children reassigned to Dunn High School. Each time, these applications were denied by the school board who determined there was no valid reason to make a change to the school assignment. On August 30, 1960, the Indian parents took matters into their own hands by arriving at Dunn High School to register their children for classes and were turned away. The next day, students and parents returned. The students quietly entered the classrooms and took seats. Two adult students (though one was only 17) were charged with trespassing. These sit-ins lasted for several days and ended when a judge issued a restraining order against Indian parents and students from setting foot on Dunn High School property.
The Indian community retained the services of Fayetteville attorney Nelson Taylor and on October 17, 1960, they filed a suit against the Harnett County Board of Education. A temporary order was signed the same day by Federal Judge Albert Reeves directing that the Indian children be admitted to the Dunn High School while the matter of eligibility was being adjudicated. Discussions on the case continued and by June of 1961, the Harnett County School Board received 40 applications for student reassignment. On June 20, 1961, 20 students were approved for reassignment to Dunn High School, leaving 26 Indian children who were denied reassignment to the city’s elementary school.
The addition of the children to Dunn High School went reasonably well and the parents turned to Federal court once again the same year to request that their elementary school kids be admitted to the White Dunn schools. The county resisted but by January 1964, a federal judge ordered that the elementary schools admit 27 elementary students to the elementary schools in Dunn. The county did not appeal the ruling and the long story of Indian school segregation ended in Harnett County, opening the door for the county’s Black residents to file suit in October 1963. By August 1964 they received a favorable ruling in federal court ending school segregation for all Harnett County residents.
The struggle for equal educational opportunities in Harnett County was one of very few in North Carolina that involved American Indians. The significance of the struggle of the Coharie people to gain the right for their children to attend well-equipped, quality public schools is something many North Carolinians are not aware of. For a short time, the attention of the country was drawn to this community, watching the efforts of a small group of rural, dedicated, and impassioned Indian citizens to gain a better opportunity for their children, opening the door for others after them.
References
Adams, Hoover. “Indians to Continue Integration Attempt.” The News and Observer, September 5, 1960.
Chance-Morrison, Sheila. Juanita, Emma Jean, and Sometimes Hughie The Struggle for Integration in the 1960’s. La Vergne: Page Publishing, Inc., 2020.
Daily Press. “Dunn Indians Win Round in School Fight.” September 3, 1960.
Greensboro Daily News. “Harnett Ordered to Allow Integration.” Auf 1964.
Greensboro News and Record. “Board Is Studying Indians’ Requests.” June 25, 1960.
Greensboro Record. “Dunn School Doors Open for Indians.” June 21, 1961.
News and Observer. “Dunn Croatans Petition for a Separate School.” August 23, 1917.
“North Carolina Harnett County Deed Book,” 1920s-50s.
OURNATIVECAROLINA. “Civil Rights in Carolina: A Native American’s Story.” Our Native Carolina (blog), November 10, 2019. https://ournativecarolina.com/2019/11/10/civil-rights-in-carolina-a-nat….
Pasadena Independent. “Indian Children Protest Segregation with Sit-In.” September 1, 1960.
The Charlotte Observer. “Judge Hears Indian Case.” September 23, 1960.
The Herald Sun. “Indians Take School Battle to U.S. Court.” October 18, 1960.
The Index Journal. “Seven Indians Blocked in Try to Enter All-White N.C. School.” September 1, 1960.
The Virginian Pilot. “School Must Admit Indians.” October 19, 1960.
Yancey, Noel. “Indian Children Are Arrested for Sitting on School Ground.” Rocky Mount Telegram, September 1, 1960.
“Indians Invade School.” The Durham Sun, August 31, 1960.