54 Facts About Louis Austin

Louis Austin was an African-American journalist, civic leader and social activist.

Louis Austin used a new approach to civil rights issues in Durham, incorporating lower and middle class blacks, unlike the moderate, accommodationist approach of the black elite in Durham during this time.

In doing so, Louis Austin created a lasting impact for Durham.

Louis Austin was born in Enfield, North Carolina, a small town eighty-five miles east of Durham.

Louis Austin grew up in a period when African Americans were denied basic civil liberties, including the right to vote.

Louis Austin then attended the National Training School in Durham, North Carolina.

Louis Austin wielded great power among the black press by clandestinely controlling advertisements, loans, and political subsidies.

Louis Austin began working at The Carolina Times in 1921, when it was called The Standard Advertiser.

Louis Austin bought The Times in 1927, with the help of a loan from Durham's black-owned Mechanics and Farmers Bank.

Louis Austin worked as editor for the Times until his death in 1971.

Louis Austin worked tirelessly to shape The Carolina Times into a vehicle for change for the African American community.

Louis Austin used the paper to reenergize the civil rights activism.

The paper's motto was "The Truth Unbridled", because Louis Austin's mission was to provide North Carolinian African Americans the unadulterated truth about contemporary situations and events.

Louis Austin worked towards achieving racial equality for blacks, regardless of their socio-economic status, by approaching discriminatory policies with a new, confrontational strategy.

Louis Austin shared the political philosophies of Du Bois and Frederick Douglass, both of whom advocated protest as a political tool in the struggle for equal rights.

Louis Austin realized that confrontation and defiance, not civility and accommodation, were needed to break white supremacy's stronghold in the South.

Louis Austin led voter campaigns, advocated for the integration of public schools, lobbied for equal pay for black teachers and equal funding for black schools, denounced police brutality, and demanded equal employment opportunity for African Americans.

Louis Austin worked tirelessly to fight for equal education opportunities, and unlike more cautious black leaders in North Carolina, did not hesitate to advocate legal action to enforce equity in education.

Courageous activists, like Louis Austin, were committed to utilizing the judicial system to challenge racial inequalities.

Louis Austin believed that African Americans could achieve better rights while working within the confines of the political system.

Louis Austin viewed political participation as a means for blacks to voice their concerns, and if the masses of the black community were politically engaged, they would be able to attain better rights.

Louis Austin constantly embraced community mobilization in both local and national politics.

For example, in 1932, Louis Austin led a "state-wide non-partisan political conference" in Durham, which attempted to foster black interest in voting, and address the difficulties blacks faced in getting to the polls.

Louis Austin recognized that the Republican Party was no longer the "Black Man's Party," and that for African Americans, the key to gaining influence in North Carolina and throughout the South was through the Democratic Party.

In 1934, Austin displayed his newfound commitment to Democratic Party when he and Frederick K Watkins ran on the Democratic ticket and were elected justices of the peace in Durham.

Louis Austin thus "established a precedent" for blacks serving as justices of the peace in Durham.

Louis Austin joined other black newspapers in articulating this dual strategy in which blacks fought for victory abroad against the Axis powers while fighting for victory at home against the forces of white supremacy.

Young of the Norfolk Journal and Guide, refused to directly attack segregation, Louis Austin was the leading proponent of the Double V strategy in North Carolina and demanded the end of racial segregation.

One example Louis Austin used to back the Double V campaign was how Americans condemned Japanese soldiers for committing atrocities against Americans, but they found nothing wrong with lynching African-Americans.

Louis Austin expressed the absurdity of African Americans fighting for the right to put their lives at risk and defend their country.

However, despite government pressure, Louis Austin remained resolute in his support for the Double-V campaign.

However, Louis Austin remained determined to the Double V strategy, and instead, used the violent uprisings to further his criticism by publicizing the harm that segregation was causing throughout the country.

In June 1943, Louis Austin expressed that "the law of segregation" was the root cause behind racial conflict in North Carolina.

Louis Austin believed that the riot in Durham represented the need for Durham to hire black police.

Louis Austin urged blacks to pursue peaceful methods to end racial segregation.

Unlike older, conservative black activists, Louis Austin sustained his position in the forefront of the movement for justice and equal opportunity during the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Louis Austin recognized the importance of joining with the younger generation of activists because they would be the face of the new movement, and it was crucial to steer them in the right way.

Louis Austin was conscious of the gap between the young activists and the old, wealthy black elite.

Louis Austin recognized the need for the DCNA to change its approach, and The Carolina Times served as a watchdog to inform the public of what he considered to be the "lethargy" of the DCNA's efforts to improve black's rights in Durham.

In June 1957, Louis Austin ran an outspoken editorial about the organization:.

Louis Austin was calling on African Americans to join in a new and more aggressive struggle.

Louis Austin's editorial was deemed incredibly influential by Osha Gray Davidson in The Best of Enemies.

Louis Austin had already seen society change tremendously throughout his lifetime.

Louis Austin believed that, "The pen is mightier than the sword," and throughout his life whenever he felt angry about racial injustices, he voiced them in The Carolina Times instead of resorting to violence.

Louis Austin was a forerunner to these big movements, as they echoed extremely similar beliefs to those that he had been stressing since the early 1920s.

Louis Austin had highlighted the importance of African American engagement in the political system his entire life, and Marshall's appointment to one of the most prominent institutions in the United States government was a testament to Louis Austin's beliefs that blacks could achieve power in the political system.

Louis Austin continued to advocate for civil rights causes until he died on June 12,1971.

Louis Austin lobbied against white supremacy, the Jim Crow laws, racism, lynching, police brutality, employment discrimination, housing discrimination, segregation in schools, as well as other forms of racial discrimination.

Louis Austin influenced Durham through his own undertakings during his own lifetime, and his actions continue to influence change in Durham to this day.

Louis Austin was able to teach the younger generation of activists what it meant to be a powerful leader, and these leaders were able to keep the movement alive.

Louis Austin taught them the importance of political engagement in order to effect change.

Louis Austin served as a paradigm for future black leaders about the importance of challenging the status quo, and not to be too scared to challenge unfair practices when others fear that it might create commotion.

Louis Austin taught Fuller to take on the upper class in the black community with the same zeal and uncompromising spirit that he used in confronting the white power structure.

Louis Austin was recognized as a Main Honoree by the Sesquicentennial Honors Commission at the Durham 150 Closing Ceremony in Durham, NC on November 2,2019.