Duke University - Chanticleer Yearbook (Durham, NC)

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DURHAM Orange block signs in Belk’s and Roses' Ten Cent Store — WELCOME STU- DENTS — and in the window next door — WELCOME NORTH CARO- LINA CALLERS AND SQUARE DANCERS. Mayor Grabarek speaks to the newly arrived freshmen and hands out business maps of Durham. Newcom- ers discover the University Grill and the eighteen year old drinking age. At noon- time a throng of students crowds A.B. Morris’ Cafe, perhaps a symbol of the relationship between university and city. Durham is full of drawls, tobacco men, furniture stores, and loan companies. Lig- gett and Myers, American Tobacco, North Carolina Leaf Warehouses, Lucky Strike —the names attest to the industry of the city. A pungent odor permeates the downtown area, forcing recognition that in this part of the South, tobacco is king.

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Within sight of factories and smell of tobacco lies Duke, strangely amalgamat- ing intellect and athletics, tradition and progress, North and South. Seeking great- ness in scholarship, finding prestige in athletics, the University calls attention to its surroundings, and especially to Dur- ham. The indirect result of the tobacco industry, Duke finds its position difficult. Its quest to establish a role in national affairs is felt in some circles to be ham- pered by lack of an influential metropoli- tan center. Duke is affiliated with a pro- vincial and distinctly Southern city; but to deny the city would be to deny the power that spawned the University’s life. The University, then, has a symbiotic relationship with Durham. Although Dur- ham exists in and of itself, the University qualifies that existence. For Duke, as an expanding university, must necessarily draw the city along in its wake. Duke on the other hand, is obliged to aid Dur- ham in solving its urban problems. To many of its citizens, Durham is a progressive city now. Its economy is ex- panding, unemployment is low, integra- tion has come rapidly and without no- table distress. Durham is, in their words, making a bid to become part of the New South.” But in the opinion of others, Durham is making no real bid at all, giving token regard to integration, almost totally dis- regarding the miserable conditions that prevail in predominantly Negro sections. 27