Dating, Dancing, and Riding in Cars
A Scrapbook Archive of Teen Culture in the 1930s
exhibit j.
student strike
All of the artifacts featured in this exhibit are related to a mass student strike that occurred in February of Jane's second year at Appalachian State Teachers College. Although Jane was not involved in inciting the strike, she later joined the movement, boycotting athletic games and classes. The first facsimile directly below shows the full scrapbook page that contains all of the artifacts (the newspaper clippling and scrapbook note) in this exhibit.
1 Student Strike Settlement Is Offered
2 COMPROMISE IS
3 SUGGESTED BY
4 DR. DOUGHERTY
5
6 Student Leaders Would Con-
7 fer With Faculty.
8
9 TO DECIDE SOCIAL RULES
10
11 Proposal at Appalachian State
12 Teachers' College Likely to
13 Be Accepted.
14
j.1.4 Dr. Dougherty: Dr. Blanford B. Dougherty was President of Appalachian State Teachers College (ASTC), and the same school under previous names, from 1899 to 1955. B.B. Dougherty, along with his brother Dauphin D. Dougherty, founded Watauga Academy in 1899 and turned the school into a four-year institution, the ASTC, in 1929 ("Resources for University Archives and Records").
1 BOONE, Feb. 13.—(AP)—
2 Negotiations looking to a
3 settlement of the 48-hour
4 strike of Appalachian State
5 Teachers' College students,
6 called in protest against so-
7 cial restrictions at the insti-
8 tution, were started here
9 tonight.
10 Dr. B.B. Dougherty, president of
11 the college, presented a plan of set-
12 tlement to the entire student body,
13 assembled in the college audito-
14 rium. His plan would allow the
15 student body to select two mem-
16 bers from each class to meet at
17 regular intervals with members of
18 the faculty and decide policies con-
19 cerning student activities.
20 Leaders of the student strike said
21 conferences would be held among
22 the students tonight, and their de-
23 cision whether to accept or reject
24 Dr. Dougherty's proposal would be
25 announced tomorrow. Harold Gray-
26 beal, one of the strike leaders, said
27 he thought the students would
28 agree to the proposed settlement
29 plan.
j.3.25-26 Harold Graybeal: Harold Graybeal was one class above Jane at ASTC, and Jane did not know him personally. He was a well-known student, however, as he was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, an actor with the Playcrafters (a drama production club), manager of the tennis team, and a member of numerous literary societies at the college.
1 HAS HIS TROUBLES
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21 MR. B.B. DOUGHERTY, president of Appalachian State Teachers'
22 college, has offered a compromise to students who are now on what
23 might be termed a strike.
1 NO DISCRIMINATION.
2 Dr. Dougherty, in addressing the
3 students tonight, emphasized that,
4 should the plan be accepted, stu-
5 dents now registered at the college
6 would not be discriminated against,
7 regardless of whether they had
8 participated in the strike, called
9 Monday night after a demonstra-
10 tion at a basketball game.
11 Classes were suspended today
12 while student strikers picketed the
13 classroom buildings, and adminis-
14 tration officials conferred with stu-
15 dent leaders, but Dr. Dougherty an-
16 nounced tonight that all classroom
17 work would be resumed tomorrow.
18 Strike leaders said further picket-
19 ing would depend on what action
20 is taken looking to settlement of
21 the differences.
22 The striking students demanded
23 that men students be permitted to
24 have "dates" with co-eds two nights
25 a week, and that men and women
26 students have the privilege of sit-
27 ting together at athletic contests.
28 Present regulations require the
29 women to sit on one side of the
30 gymnasium and the men on the
31 other while athletic games are in
32 progress.
j.4.22-32 See exhibit b. Student Handbook for rules and regulations.
1 REGULATION DISREGARDED.
2 Some 50 men students disregard-
3 ed this regulation and sat on the
4 women's side of the gymnasium
5 Monday night at a basketball game,
6 and this demonstration precipitated
7 the strike. Dr. Dougherty said he
8 did not know how many students
9 joined the strike, but Graybeal,
10 editor of The Appalachian, college
11 newspaper, said the strike had the
12 support of 90 per cent of the stu-
13 dents.
14 Other demands of the striking
15 students ask that no disciplinary
16 action be taken against participants
17 in Monday night's disturbance, and
18 that the policeman responsible for
19 allegedly black-jacking two of the
20 students make a public apology.
21 Students tonight were reported
22 firmly resolved to continue their
23 strike if disciplinary action is taken
24 against any members of their group.
25 "We are ready to stick it out until
26 summer," one student said.
27 All day today students con-
28 gregated in groups on the campus
29 and, although there was no appar-
30 ent indication of another outbreak,
31
32 local officials deputized between 10
33 and 15 men to act as special officers
34 in event of an emergency.
35 College student, and town lead-
36 ers, however, generally agreed
37 there would be no need for the spe-
38 cial officers. Deputizing the addi-
39 tional officers was merely as a pre-
40 cautionary measure, it was ex-
41 plained.
1 Say Grievances
2 Of Long Standing.
3 The present student strike at
4 Appalachian State Teachers College
5 is the result of an undercurrent of
6 indignation of long standing against
7 so-called "narrow-minded" social
8 regulations, a representative group
9 of Appalachian students declared
10 here yesterday.
11 Here to present what they termed
12 "their side of the story," the stu-
13 dents said more than 900 of the
14 975 students at Appalachian were
15 participating in the strike demands.
16 These requests, the students re-
17 ported, are fair and simple, and
18 though they regard the school as
19 one of the finest teachers' colleges
20 in the south, they feel that the re-
21 quests would better the school so-
22 cially and morally.
23 The requests which caused the
24 walk-out are:
1 That the night watchman who
2 allegedly clubbed two students
3 apologize to the injured persons.
4 That men students should be al-
5 lowed to associate with co-eds at
6 indoor athletic events, such as
7 basketball games.
8 That the administration board
9 take no action against the leaders
10 of the strike.
11 An amendment was made to the
12 second appeal yesterday morning,
13 which requested that the boys be
14 allowed to pay social calls to the
15 girls from 6 to 7 o'clock for at least
16 two evenings in the week.
17 For several years, the group of
18 students stated, there has been an
19 undercurrent of indignation against
20 rules that allegedly do not allow
21 the students any practical social
22 privileges, that separate the boys
23 from the girls at indoor athletic
24 events, that bar dances and do not
25 permit smoking on the campus, that
26 do not allow the boys to linger and
27 talk with the girls in the halls of
28 the administration building or on
29 the campus after supper, and allow
30 no social privileges except on Sun-
31 day afternoons from 2 to 4 o'clock.
32 The students expressed their de-
33 sire to carry out their complaints
34 in a systematic fashion. They said
35 written requests were presented to
36 the administration board, but they
37 were told that no such action could
38 be taken.
1 The strike began
2 on February 12,
3 1935 over an
4 episode which
5 happened at a
6 ball game the
7 previous nite.
8 All the students
9 had a grand
10 parade all over
11 town carrying
12 banners, etc. It
13 was really ex-
14 citing. We had
15 lots of mass
16 meetings. The
17 strike was led
18 by Harold Graybeal.
19 On the 13th we
20 had to stand out
1 in the rain to picket the doors because a few
2 students wanted to [] classes. That nite
3 Dr. Dougherty offered a compromise. We accepted
4 it, altho we got only a part of what we
5 wanted. It was more than exciting and
6 I had a big time th** days.
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full scrapbook page dedicated to the student strike