This February marks the 39^th annual Black History month for a country once torn by race relations and inequality, however in a university dominated by the majority, I question the extent of its celebration. Our school, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, is 80% white. Out of the reported 14,000 undergraduate and graduate students at UNCW, 10,000 of them are white, bringing me to my next question. On a campus filled by a predominately white population, do people care about black history at all? 

The Racial History of Wilmington 

But before you understand the significance of black history month to African-Americans, we have to understand the struggle of minorities in our own backyard. Since its official naming in 1739, Wilmington, N.C. began with a reputation of being North Carolina’s premier port city. Located between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean, the city imported and exported everything from cotton to industrial materials. What the history books fail to shine light on is what capital Wilmington’s port is originally recognized for transporting—slaves. Arguments have been made slavery created the modern definition of trade, and Wilmington was a shining example of such. Due to its location and easy accessibility to incoming ships, Wilmington became a leader in the output and input of slavery in the Americas. By the 1800s, blacks outnumbered whites 2 to 1 in North Carolina largely due to Wilmington, N.C. 

Fast forward a century and a half, and racial tensions still remained high in good ol’ Wilmington. Wilmington College, the university later dubbed the University of North Carolina Wilmington refused admission to people of color until September 1962. Marshall Collins and Ernest Fullwood were the first African Americans to attend Wilmington College. Until then, African-Americans attended college at Williston College, an unequal affiliate of Wilmington College, due to segregation laws that would stay in place at most U.S. universities until the mid-1970s . Williston College opened for African American students on September 4^th, 1947 at Williston Industrial High School with six part-time instructors and 26 students on the same day Wilmington College began operating.   

Oberlin College, a liberal arts college in outskirts of Ohio took the initial risk of admitting African-American students in the mid-1800s. Though the institution paved the way for African-American and other minorities to attend institutions of higher education, the admission of any student of color at predominately white university was still frowned upon. 

Despite the slight progress African-Americans gained in the 1960s and 1970s, the black community of Wilmington believed the changes didn’t suffice their struggles. The pent up anger of minorities across the city began to rear its ugly head. Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968 only heightened the negative state of race relations throughout the nation, especially in southern states. In response, Wilmington implemented integration of all of its public schools in 1969, providing little time or consideration for the tensions between the races to settle. Williston High School, the black high school, shut down, and black teachers, principals and administrators began being laid off. White students and black students clashed consistently and students, both black and white, were expelled. After local Ku Klux Klan members hung an efficacy of the white superintendent, black students decided to boycott the schools in January 1971. Like various cities in America at the time, it reached its breaking point.

In February 1971, Reverend Benjamin Chavis Jr. visited Wilmington, preaching nonviolence, in an effort to stop ferocity within the city and organize the boycott. However within days of his arrival, Mike’s Grocery, a white-owned business was firebombed in front of a church Chavis and boycotters regularly met. As firefighters arrived, black snipers atop Gregory Congregational Church shot at them, deterring the firefighters from completing their duty. The daring move by the snipers resulted in a full day or rioting and the death of two people. Within a day of the event, the National Guard was called down and the Wilmington Ten, as they would be referred throughout history books, were detained. Eight high school students, Reverend Chavis, and a white woman named Ann Shepard were all sentenced to prison terms between 15 and 34 years at a combined sentence of 282 years. Before you write them off as criminals, only a handful of students shot at firefighters and responding officers, yet all of the blacks were charged with two crimes—conspiracy to assault emergency personnel, police officers, and firemen with deadly weapons as well as burning the building housing Mike’s Grocery. Authorities charged Mrs. Shepard as an accessory before the fact to the burning of the building, sentencing her to the shortest sentence of 15 years. In addition, there have been allegations the biracial jury assigned to the case was stacked with Ku Klux Klan members.

While the actions of those involved shouldn’t have went without punishment, shouldn’t the sentences fit the crime? Second degree arson, or aggravated arson, runs a sentence of 5 to 10 years. The nine African-Americans charged in the case received sentences of 29 to 34 years in prison; some defendants sentenced were 18 years old at the time. In a world where opportunities are never offered and inequality is the standard, what would you do to fight against a systematic oppression?  

Closet Racism?

Will you do me a favor? In your next class look around and count the amount of minorities sitting next to you, then count the amount of white students you see next to you. Do the same for your professors. What you should approximately see is an 8:2 ratio of majority to minority students. According to the latest demographic data from the 2013, 9,968 of the 12,428 undergraduate students at our institution are white. 603 of those 12,428 students are black. I guess that explains why we’ve been called UNC White by neighboring schools. I’m not trying to preach about inequality or equal opportunity because that is no longer an issue at UNCW. Besides the racial obscenities yelled at former UNCW track captain Brent Campbell, there has not been any obvious issues.

My freshman year, I wrote an article for The Seahawk titled “Affirmative Action: the minority option”. In it I explained closet racism in terms of assuming the reason some minority students attend universities is solely based on race as opposed to academic achievement. Since then, my views changed—somewhat. I don’t believe students encompassing the majority believe minority students solely attend the schools they joined due to race or ethnicity, however I do believe there is closet racism within some aspects of a majority-based school. For example, whatever happened to that track team of ours?

The track team 

Now don’t get me wrong, I understand our athletic department is struggling as much as the next guy, but the repercussions of cutting the track team reach farther than the bank. According to the UNCW Intercollegiate Athletic Review Committee Report released in May 2013, we ranked last in everything from athletic expenses to total revenue in the Colonial Athletic Association, so cutting both the Men and Women Indoor and Outdoor track programs bails the university from a $2 million renovation of a track causing injuries for years and adds a women’s beach volleyball team to reach Title IX athletic requirements.

Gender equality holds high importance to the same degree racial equality does in my mind. So why doesn’t the school abide by the same convictions? According to data given to The Seahawk, there are a total of 355 student-athletes attending UNCW. Of that 355, 53 students are African-American. Once the track team is disbanded next year that 53 is reduced to 24. This means our 15 percent of black athletes diminishes to a measly 6 percent. Last year, the men’s program earned its 11^th Colonial Athletic Association championship and Head Coach Jim Sprecher earned his eighth Coach-of-the-Year award. 

Despite the track team raising more than $150,000 in a span of months, a feat in itself, to aid with the fiscal needs of the program, it’s still being shut down. So is it fair to disband four of our most successful teams for the means of gender equality at the expense of racial equality?

Where do we need to go from here?

UNCW has hired its first Chief Diversity Officer. Dr. W. Kent Guion. His primary tasks include promoting and increasing diversity at the university as well as engaging in the diversity of Wilmington. Increasing racial variety at any institution is a more daunting task than most would assume, but it seems like UNCW is trying, despite its financial cuts in the past couple of months. Athletics has always been regarded as a way to integrate minority, international, and low income students into a university.

The quota system of the Civil Rights Act was nullified in the 1960s, so there is no binding law that our university has to abide by. No law says, “We must keep this amount of minorities within our school or athletic programs.” It’s based on what the university deems is a proper representation of its demographics or ideals. All we can do now is wait.