LAST WEEK, we lost Robert Drakeford, Carrboro’s first and still only Black mayor. Drakeford served six years as mayor, from 1977 to 1983. Before elected to that office, he was on the Board of Aldermen from 1975 to 1977.
While many people today might not find it surprising that Carrboro had a Black mayor in the 1970s, Carrboro was not then what it is now. And Drakeford had a ton to do with that transformation. He and others, such as Braxton Foushee, the town’s first Black alderman, reshaped Carrboro — which had been a small, conservative, white-dominated, old mill town that was dangerous for Black people to walk freely in after dark — into the progressive hub most folks think of today.
Just before his death, Drakeford, 77, had been in touch with the James Cates Remembrance Coalition. We had convened a group to discuss for the historical record the local political climate as it related to race in the era around the 1970 murder of James Cates. Ultimately, Mayor Drakeford’s health wouldn’t permit him to join the discussion, but he was able to phone in and say hello to some old friends.
That led to conversation among people in the session about Drakeford’s legacy and the profound impact he had on Carrboro. So when Mayor Drakeford died shortly thereafter, I asked Braxton Foushee if he’d share for Stone Walls some reflections on his colleague and friend, and about that era of Carrboro politics.
Here is what Mr. Foushee had to say:1
Bob Drakeford was a visionary. He was a change agent. At the time that we were in office, we kind of changed the direction of the town. Because it was basically a very conservative town and wanted to be left as it was, and he just came in with what we thought were some new ideas, new directions for the town. It turned out to be pretty good.
We wanted to bring the town up to date, solidifying the land use plans, the look of the town, and to bring more voices into the town that hadn’t been a part of the town. More voices, meaning color. Because at that time, the town was kind of stagnant and wasn’t moving in what we thought was the right direction. The biggest thing we did was, the mill was going to be destroyed, and we thought it was worth saving and to make it a little more business-like and expand the size of the downtown. So we brought in Carr Mill Mall. We brought in more recreation. And we brought more voices into the town to be heard.
I was on the Board of Aldermen first. When I got on the Board, I used to tease them at our public meetings that I wasn’t invited to the meeting last night. That meant that they had a meeting before the meeting. I’d say, “You know, I didn’t get a telephone call for the meeting last night.” That really took them by surprise. They’d look at me like, “This crazy fool.” But I knew what was happening. And a lot of our decisions were 6 to 1 at first. Then during my third year, Ernie Patterson got elected, and we started to look for somebody to run against the present mayor. Ernie said, “I got this friend named Bob Drakeford. Go talk to him. Let’s see if we can convince him to run.” We had some discussions with him and then Bob agreed to run. And then Nancy White came in and ran, and that’s when we started. We won our seats.
My first victory was a surprise to everybody. Rebecca Clark was a registration and voter czar. I was assigned the 54 Bypass area because nobody was targeting the students there. We wanted to bring the buses into Carrboro. So we decided, hey, we’ve got to bring these university students in. Rebecca said, you’ve got to go out on the 54 Bypass and knock on doors. We told those students they could be a big part of the change and get buses into town. That was a big thing for them. That was real big. We put it on the ballot, that they should elect people who were in favor of buses. And we got tremendous support from the students.
Eventually we had six votes on the Board against one. And when it started changing, they didn’t know what to do because they didn’t have the support of the students. We had provided the students with something to stay in our camp, the buses. We came up with recreation plans, expanding the business district, upgrading the street systems, and bringing in more people of color for the town workforce. Before, if you didn’t know how the town operated, you didn’t get anything done. Things got done for a few of its residents instead of all of its residents. We changed the look of the town personnel, so that people who were not used to coming to Town Hall could be comfortable coming in. We put a little more flavor in, I like to say. We paved streets. One of the big issues for me was that in the Black neighborhoods they were putting old burnt motor oil on the dirt streets to keep the dust down, while the white neighborhoods were paved.
When Bob won to become mayor, it was a surprise to people. But among us, we felt like, get used to it because we’re not going anywhere. We looked for allies who were progressive, and we put those people on planning boards and other boards because those boards were basically all white.
There was pushback, but we had the votes. We didn’t do whatever we wanted to though, we did what we thought was fair. One of the big things they had to get used to was having a town manager who was Black. At the time, I think we started looking at the zoning in the town. We had to have more progressive voices in the town. We went out and got a Black town manager, Richard Knight, who had some ideas that we endorsed, and he carried them out and we kind of moved the town together to what it is today. He came out of the budget office in Durham. We started finding out where the money was coming from with the legislature and how to use it. Richard knew all that.
We expanded our financial reach to the federal government, through my cousin Herman Foushee, who was in Washington, D.C. He had worked with Marion Barry and was working for the Republican administration. He knew our congressman and was able to talk with him and get money for our district. We helped a lot of smaller towns in North Carolina like us get money from the federal government for sewer projects, recreation projects, lots of things. That was how we got Hank Anderson Park.
That era with Bob shifted the whole direction of the town. Because otherwise it would’ve stayed that little network of a community like it was before and not have opened up. At the time, we knew we were making some drastic changes for the town. But that was intentional by us because it would be more inclusive. And the changes we made, we wanted to make tough to reverse. We kind of set the direction of the town, and they would’ve had to dismantle the whole thing. Bob laid the groundwork for all those plans.
Bob was just a sound guy who was looking to be a part of the change. Change that once we got in power we knew we could keep. He was always looking for ways to better the town, how we could bring more capital into the town to do what we wanted to do. The only thing we weren’t able to do was get as much money as we wanted for public housing. But he got what he could for us. — Braxton Foushee
From Robert Drakeford’s official obituary:
Dr. Robert Wayne “Dr. Bob” Drakeford, PhD was born on April 25, 1945 in New York City, New York, son of the late Robert and Elizabeth McLeod Drakeford. Bob was a veteran who proudly served our country in the United States Army from 1966–1968. Following his time in service, Bob received his Bachelor Degree from Quinnipiac University, his Master Degree at the University or North Carolina Chapel Hill, going on to further his education, receiving his Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. He was a Political Science Professor, served with the United States Department of Agriculture and 4-H Development at Auburn University. He also had a distinguished career, serving as Mayor of Carrboro, NC. During his lifetime, Bob enjoyed coaching basketball at Richmond Technical College. He was a member of Sigma Beta Tau, the Democratic Black Caucus, and the National RV Park Association.
James Cates investigation
For those wondering, I have not heard any further updates on the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into the 1970 murder of James Cates since the family announced the investigation on Stone Walls in March. According to the DOJ’s list of cold cases opened under the Emmett Till Act, the Cates investigation is still open.
And as you all know, James Cates’s cousin Valerie P. Foushee won the Democratic primary last week and is now the Democratic nominee to represent this district in the United States Congress.
New Stone Walls posts coming!
Subscriptions and payments are still on pause, however Stone Walls does have an exciting announcement coming soon. Stay tuned!
The commentary by Braxton Foushee was edited from a transcript of an interview conducted by Mike Ogle on May 21, 2022.