Sixty years ago this month, a local Klavern of the Ku Klux Klan threatened violence to stop an integrated crew of volunteers and church members from painting Elm City’s First Presbyterian Church’s old wooden building. Governor Terry Sanford’s promise of police protection restored order.
The following month, however, when volunteers returned, state police thwarted two attempted arsonists who splashed gasoline around the church’s steps under cover of night. Recently, I learned that State Archives of North Carolina holds a collection of 32 images captured by a News and Observer photographer sent to Elm City as painting began. An unnamed freelance reporter covering the story for the New York Times seems to have been on site the same day as the photographer, mentioning the coat of white paint applied to one side of the church, the troopers guarding the site, and a small crowd of white onlookers.
