[Notes on interview with George Roach by William H. Chafe]

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Interview with George Roacft, July 17, 1972
Names mentioned to be followed ups Joe Spivey of the Record and John
Foster^Greenway (?), chairman of school board after Hudgins.
In 1955, Roach, a realtor who seems to be of average education and middle
class status, was elected to the City Council — from 1957 to 1961 he was
Mayor, which In GB is largely a figure head post — no veto power and
the city mgr is the administrator — council is a policy-making body, elected
on a non-partisan basis — chooses school board members — city and county
school lines are not coterminous so county board names one school board
member.
Res the Benjamin Smith Resolution — Roach says there was lots of opposition —
says Hodges could have been a great governor and a great man, but instead"
"let the GB school board bleed and die" — says if Hodges had not played
a hands 01i game, things would have been different ~ dharlotte, Winston,
Raleigh and G3 all got together and acted, but Hodges let them die —
he could have done a lot of good for the school board — Roach calls
Hudgins and Smith "outstanding ¥orth Carolinians."
Says there was "right much" local opposition — KKK got active and got
j impetus — but says of the upper class groups, most supported the Brown
[ decision
Sa%s the Coyncil did come under pressure to nam<=> an-H -Brown pg^plo to
the ^chool board — "I had a tremendous amount of pressure put on me to
keep~~Hampton jut,  Wm — a black) off the school board"- but" Hampton did
a "tremendous" job and-was re-appuiiiLetl by a 4-3 vote — a frequent vote
those days due to tensions (check lineup).
fiThe pressure did have its effect though, as more pre-segregation people
[/were named.
Res Waldo Falkener — not a focus of controversy — in contrast to Hampton
who Roack describes wwith admiration and respect as "very smart" — did
a trgmgnriong   jnh  -ho  pave   thf way  —  Falkener   on  t.hf>  other   hantl   "Bas  not
(smart or brainy" — was well-liked though — WF pretty much followed
Ed Zane in his votes — looked to Zane for direction — Roach notes that
WF was criticized by blacks for not carrying the cause.
On communications between races from 50-60s "fairly good" — then says
though that there was not a whole lot of telling each other what was happening •
tin other words when you get to specifics, there seems to have been little
communication — "communication not particularly good" — really g dwj«-snw —
people of both races didn't understand the other — due to both — sort of
equal responsibility for this — not a spirit of mistrust, particularly, but
each race went its own way.