David Played a Harp by
David Played a Harp is an autobiography from a bi-racial, self-educated, retired barber, now 96 years old. He, Ralph W. Johnson, was in the midst of the survival struggles of one of nation's best known small college towns, Davidson, NC. His shop, one of the largest between Richmond and Atlanta, was the target of a student picketing which challeged state law exempting personal service shops from the civil rights act. In an effort to save his business his became, as far as he knew, the first integrated shop in the South, leading it to demise. He writes personally of the crises changes of the 20th century in education, race relations, business opportunity. Social and political upheaval are related by a master raconteur, practiced with half century standing by a barber chair, offering a lilt of hope in gut-wrenching times unbelievable today. Johnson deftly lifts the real people of Davidson out of the past, off the pages and the reader travels with them, sometimes laughing, often crying but always with heartstrings tangled in Jim Crow's ugly destructive mesh. The journey leads from Davidson's dirt main street of 1906 to Davidson an interstate pass-by of today in a history lover's must read.-----
David Played A Harp is the autobiography of Ralph W. Johnson, an African-American barber who owned the local barbershop that was picketed by Davidson students.
In the fall of 1962, Ben Nzengu became the first African student at Davidson. His enrollment, along with that of another Congolese student began the period of racial integration at Davidson. In 1964, the first African-American students enrolled. During this time, campus opinions on integration varied widely among students and faculty, with individuals in both groups in support and in opposition. Once Davidson became integrated in 1962, these tensions continued at both the college and in the town. Some businesses in Davidson, including a local barbershop, refused service to the Black community. In reaction to this, some Davidson students organized boycotted and picketed the shop until service to the Black community (not just Black students) was provided.
After this, students continued to demonstrate and petition for the equal treatment of Black students. For example, members the the Sigma Chi Fraternity accepted Mike Maloy '70 as the first Black pledge and fraternity member on campus. In 1969, Sigma Chi disaffiliated with its national chapter as a result of the national organization's refusal to acknowledge Black pledges ("Sigma Chi Disaffiliation Dissention Splits House"; The Davidsonian, October 17, 1969, pg. 1).
Ben Nzengu, the first Black student at Davidson (Congolese) (1962)
Listed below are select resources related to integration and the Civil Rights Era at Davidson.
Campus publications, such as student newspaper The Davidsonian, covered events related to student activism and campus issues. For more information on integration and the Civil Rights Era, browse digitized issues of The Davidsonian. Individual issues are searchable by keyword.
Select articles related to integration and the Civil Rights Era include:
"Trustees Open College to Congolese Students" (February 17, 1961, pg. 1)
"3 Demonstrators Gain Support for Stand-Ins" (February 17, 1961, pg. 1)
"Five Local Businesses "Won't Serve Them"" (March 3, 1961, pg. 2)
"Students Aim Boycott At Local Barber Shop" (April 5, 1968, pgs. 1 and 6)
"Local Rights Act Wanted" (April 12, 1968, pgs. 1 and 6)
For more information about archival materials and collections related to integration and the Civil Rights Era, please explore our Integration at Davidson research guide (linked below).
Davidson College Library Research Guides are licensed under
CC BY-SA 4.0.
Mailing Address: Davidson College - E.H. Little Library, 209 Ridge Road, Box 5000, Davidson, NC 28035