Ground-Up Organizing
- In the 1960s, organizations funded by a new statewide antipoverty effort called the North Carolina Fund formed in Durham to organize poor people across race.
- United Organizations for Community Improvement (UOCI), Operation Breakthrough, and ACT were three organizations on the frontlines of the fight for better housing.
Organizer Ann Atwater, a UOCI leader, gathers signatures on the street, circa 1965. Mostly through 1-on-1 conversations, UOCI organizers built strong relationships with their neighbors and got them involved in UOCI’s fair housing work. By 1967, UOCI had over 700 dues-paying members–most of them women–and was a powerful Black-led political force in Durham.
Courtesy Billy E. Barnes Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Action was the newsletter of ACT, which organized in poor white neighborhoods in Durham. ACT drew inspiration from UOCI’s model of neighborhood councils. The two organizations worked together for improved housing, 1970.
Courtesy Isabelle Budd Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
“They taught me that although you’re poor and although you’re in the projects, take what you have learned during your struggles in life, and united together, we can live honest lives as poor people.”
– Pat Rogers, public housing organizer and cofounder, Durham Tenants Steering Committee, on UOCI community organizing
March against Urban Renewal near downtown Durham, circa 1960
Courtesy Durham Historic Photographic Archives, North Carolina Collection, Durham County Library
- In the 1960s, organizations funded by a new statewide antipoverty effort called the North Carolina Fund formed in Durham to organize poor people across race.
- United Organizations for Community Improvement (UOCI), Operation Breakthrough, and ACT were three organizations on the frontlines of the fight for better housing.
Organizer Ann Atwater, a UOCI leader, gathers signatures on the street, circa 1965. Mostly through 1-on-1 conversations, UOCI organizers built strong relationships with their neighbors and got them involved in UOCI’s fair housing work. By 1967, UOCI had over 700 dues-paying members–most of them women–and was a powerful Black-led political force in Durham.
Courtesy Billy E. Barnes Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“They taught me that although you’re poor and although you’re in the projects, take what you have learned during your struggles in life, and united together, we can live honest lives as poor people.”
– Pat Rogers, public housing organizer and cofounder, Durham Tenants Steering Committee, on UOCI community organizing
The Action was the newsletter of ACT, which organized in poor white neighborhoods in Durham. ACT drew inspiration from UOCI’s model of neighborhood councils. The two organizations worked together for improved housing, 1970.
Courtesy Isabelle Budd Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
