Hughie Maynor

Civil Rights: No Accommodations for Indians
Life in the small town of Dunn, North Carolina in 1960 was like any other Southern, segregated town during the Jim Crow era. For decades, residents lived separate public lives based on whether they were Caucasian, African American, or Native American. Schools, restaurants, and theaters were divided based on their race. Growing up in a segregated society seems strange nowadays, but Hughie Maynor was impacted by racial discrimination at every turn. In some ways, being Native American was even more of a struggle than being African American.

“They wouldn’t let us go to the theater, Hughie explains, For a while, the Dunn Stewart Theater had an upstairs and downstairs. The upstairs was for the blacks and the downstairs was for the white folks. We went to the movies and sat downstairs for a couple of years and then one day, we walked up there and there was a sign hanging up there at the ticket booth: No Accommodations for Indians. They wouldn’t let you go upstairs or downstairs. And that went on for a couple of years.“

“One night somebody threw a brick through the window of the movie theater. Uncle Junior went down to the Stewart Theater and he talked to a guy named Bill Yates who managed the theater. Me and Junior went up to Yates’s office to talk to him as to why it was we couldn’t go to the theater. I don’t remember what his excuse was, but they still would not let us go to the movies."

Image description: Hughie Maynor, a Native American from North Carolina, standing in the backyard of a house. He is wearing a cap and a long sleeve shirt. His left arm is across his chest reaching for his shoulder.