WENTWORTH — The Museum and Archives of Rockingham County recently hosted more than 200 guests for the unveiling ceremony of a North Carolina Civil Rights Trail marker that commemorates Black workers’ struggle with Duke Power for fair wages during the 1970s.
The placard explains the historic significance of the landmark 1971 U.S. Supreme Court civil rights case Griggs v. Duke Power, Co., which resulted in a landmark decision for fair employment and work conditions.
At issue in the case were Duke Power policies of the 1950s. In that decade, the company’s Dan River Steam Station restricted Black workers to a so-called “Labor” department. The highest wages paid to such labor department employees was less than the lowest paying jobs in four other departments of the utility giant.
By 1955, Duke Power, now Duke Energy, added the requirement that workers have a high school diploma to work in the higher-paying departments.
People are also reading…
Then, on July 2, 1965, the day the Civil Rights Act of 1964 took effect, Duke began requiring workers take two employment tests, which would allow employees without high-school diplomas to transfer to higher-paying departments.
The Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test was a test of mechanical aptitude, and the Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test was an IQ test measuring general intelligence that the company used.
But whites were roughly 10 times more likely than Blacks to meet the new transfer criteria. The 1960 U.S. Census showed that while 34% of white males in North Carolina had high-school diplomas, only 18% of blacks did.
Aptitude tests showed sharp disparities between workers with a 58% pass rate for whites, but a 6% pass rate for Blacks.
Duke employee Willie Griggs filed a class-action suit on behalf of himself and several fellow African American employees against Duke on Dec. 14, 1970.
The Griggs ruling held that the employer had the burden of producing and proving the business necessity of a test.
The Supreme Court deemed that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, if such tests disparately impact ethnic minority groups, businesses must prove the tests are “reasonably related” to jobs for which tests are required.
“I am overwhelmed by the support and attendance at the event. Rediscovering important historical events is one of the most exciting things a historian can do, and to be a part of the process at the MARC has been extremely rewarding. I look forward to continuing to delve into Griggs v. Duke Power,” said Valencia Abbott, a historian and lead organizer of the project who teaches social studies at Rockingham Early College High School.
Sandra J. Hairston, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina and a Stokes County native was keynote speaker at the Aug. 1 event.
She emphasized how the court decision has become the bedrock on which much civil rights legislation is based. Griggs protects all people from being treated differently, given opportunity differently, or serviced differently based on their color, race, national origin, religion, age, gender or disability, Hairston noted.
She called the lawsuit an “act of extreme bravery’’ exhibited by Rockingham County African American plaintiffs, who, in addition to Griggs, included: Junior Blackstock, Willie Boyd, Eddie Broadnax, Eddie Galloway, Lewis Hairston, Jr., John Hatchett, Clarence Jackson, Robert Jumper, Herman Martin, Clarence Purcell, William Purcell, James Tucker and Jesse Martin.
During the dedication program, Dr. Brooksie Sturdivant of Walnut Cove, a professor at N.C. A&T University, presented an original poem reflecting on the experiences and courage of the plaintiffs. She is currently researching and writing a children’s book about the Griggs case.
Val Adams and Steve Jumper, descendants of plaintiff Robert Jumper, spoke to the crowd about the risks the men and their families accepted by confronting their employer and questioning the South’s status quo during the Civil Rights Era.
Many other members of the plaintiffs’ families attended the dedication and spoke of the pride their families felt about having a link to the case.
In an effort to educate the community about the significance of the Griggs case, MARC has conducted a series of educational discussions and projects led by Abbott, a MARC Programs Committee member/volunteer.
Abbott has provided ongoing leadership of the marker project in coordination with MARC Executive Director C.J. Idol and MARC Associate Director Matthew Titchiner, County Tourism Manager Lindsay Pegg, Joyce Anderson, Dr. Deborah Russell, and other MARC directors and volunteers.
The group created the Griggs v. Duke Power exhibit in the museum and a summer intern program through which high school and college students researched the plaintiffs through interviews with their families.
“As I am proud of the climax in the story with the Civil Rights Trail Marker, there is still so much more to come,’’ Abbott said during the ceremony. The case will also be highlighted by a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker to be placed in October.
And there are more intricate stories about eight of the plaintiffs who served in WWII, which will be the focus for study in 2024, Abbott said.
The North Carolina Civil Rights Trail Marker program:
The North Carolina African American Heritage Commission, in partnership with the North Carolina Office of Archives and History and Visit NC, administer the NC Civil Rights Trail Marker program. The program is supported by the William G. Pomeroy Foundation. Its purpose is to designate places, events, or persons of statewide or regional historical significance connected to civil rights activities in North Carolina or the United States between 1941 and 1976. Between 2021 and 2023, 50 markers will be placed in counties across the state, highlighting and acknowledging tireless civil rights efforts that are well known and, in some cases, unsung.