The Power of Grassroots Organizing
- In the 1960s, a wave of grassroots community organizing for fair housing swept across Durham.
- Poor people led ground-up organizing efforts. Through the coordinated work of neighborhood councils, they confronted the white power structure and won key victories. Their work paved the way for future generations of Durham organizers.
The neighborhood council was the basic building block of the organizing model used by grassroots organizations such as Operation Breakthrough, UOCI, and ACT. The idea, explained here in a 1960s Operation Breakthrough newsletter, was simple but powerful: residents in each poor Black and white Durham neighborhood should have a say over the decisions that affect their lives.
Courtesy North Carolina Fund Records, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“I didn’t come to beg, and didn’t come with my hat in my hand … We’re tired of you white folks turning down everything that will benefit Negroes… You all better wake up to what’s happening, and you better listen.”
– Howard Fuller, long-time tenant organizer
In 1967, the City decided to build a new public housing project on Bacon Street in majority-Black southeast Durham. The decision sparked an outcry and the beginning of a massive demonstration of Black power. Residents demanded that the City also construct public housing in white areas of town. The City soon canceled the Bacon Street project. Howard Fuller is pictured here speaking at a City Council meeting alongside many other committed organizers, 1967.
Courtesy Durham Herald Co. Newspaper, North Carolina Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- In the 1960s, a wave of grassroots community organizing for fair housing swept across Durham.
- Poor people led ground-up organizing efforts. Through the coordinated work of neighborhood councils, they confronted the white power structure and won key victories. Their work paved the way for future generations of Durham organizers.
The neighborhood council was the basic building block of the organizing model used by grassroots organizations such as Operation Breakthrough, UOCI, and ACT. The idea, explained here in a 1960s Operation Breakthrough newsletter, was simple but powerful: residents in each poor Black and white Durham neighborhood should have a say over the decisions that affect their lives.
Courtesy North Carolina Fund Records, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“I didn’t come to beg, and didn’t come with my hat in my hand … We’re tired of you white folks turning down everything that will benefit Negroes… You all better wake up to what’s happening, and you better listen.”
– Howard Fuller, long-time tenant organizer
