N.C. A&T Alumni Times

Math study sessions, a religious talent show, two senior music recitals and the Miss A&T Coronation were just a few of the many activities scheduled at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University for the week of May 21, 1969. This is known from examining the May 17, 1969 edition of the “A&T Register”, dated just two days before the student protests from James B. Dudley High School that spilled onto Aggieland resulting in the controversial intervention of the National Guard, the wounding of police officers and one student, and the death of sophomore Willie Ernest Grimes. The A&T Registers tell only part of the story.

The mission of the F. D. Bluford Library University Archives is to procure, organize, collect, describe, maintain, and preserve records of historical and administrative value to the university and that have significantly impacted upon the African American experience in the Piedmont Triad region.” To preserve the history of the May 1969 riots, the archives maintains several items in the special collections. The “Willie Grimes/Scott Hall/National Guard May 19, 1969” collections consist of two archival boxes containing scores of clippings, interviews, reports, and other documents. Researchers can also use vertical files on Prof. Claude Barnes, Rev. Nelson Johnson, the Willie Grimes Plaza, and the Scott Hall dormitory. A copy of the June 1969 commencement program is also available.

We receive several visits a year from alumni, students, faculty, and researchers who want to read interviews, view photos and see other primary documents of the time. We were honored and pleased with the efforts of A&T Register student reporters in 2017 to document those events with new interviews with the Grimes family and Dr. Barnes, after extensive research in the Willie Grimes collection. Their finished interviews were added to the Grimes collections.

The stories of the class of 1969 go way beyond the May campus incidents. The archives keep and frequently update many vertical files and collections boxes on notable alumni and faculty. From the class of 1969, we have a Sandra Hughes Collection on Greensboro’s most famous news anchor. It can also help to view collections on alumni who attended A&T at the time, like Dr. Ronald McNair ‘1971 or faculty members like President Lewis C. Dowdy and Dr. Albert W. Spruill. Four copies of the 1969 Ayantee yearbook are available in archives as well as online. Images of the campus riots and a memorial for Willie Grimes are found in the 1970 edition.

Back issues of the “Future Outlook” and the “Carolina Peacemaker” are also available from the archives. From these historic African-American Greensboro periodicals, it is possible to read quotes from the 1969 commencement speaker Judge Elreta Melton Alexander-Ralston A&T ‘37, and reactions from the community. The efforts of the University Archives to document A&T’s history are ongoing. More history is to be made and preserved as we reflect on the 50th anniversary of the May 1969 campus riots and honor our Golden Aggies, the class of 1969.

For more about the life and legacy of Willie Grimes visit our page about him on the F.D. Bluford Library page. To learn more about the Class of 1969, the May 1969 riots and other topics from A&T History, please contact the F. D. Bluford Library Archives at libraryarchives@ncat.edu.