Brandon Winford

Ph.D. Student
winford@email.unc.edu

Major Field: US History

Other Fields: Southern History, African-American Experience, Civil Rights History, African American Leadership

Advisor:  James Leloudis

Research Interests: Brandon Winford is from Mooresville, North Carolina and received both his B.A. and M. A. degrees in history from North Carolina Central University in 2005 and 2007.  His academic interests are late nineteenth and twentieth century American history.  Brandon’s dissertation project “ ‘The Battle for Freedom Begins Every Morning’: John Hervey Wheeler as a Black Business Activist in the Long Civil Rights Movement, 1908-1978” will examine the idea of “The Long Civil Rights Movement” (LCRM) through the life of banker and civil rights leader, John Hervey Wheeler (1908-1978).  The LCRM is an extension of the parameters that have been placed on the Civil Rights Movement by its dominant civil rights narrative and goes beyond the 1960s, connecting it to earlier and later periods in various ways.  Wheeler’s life is used as a lens to explore broader questions concerning the role of a black businessman and activist within the context of the larger black freedom struggle in America.  As a banker, lawyer, political broker, civic leader, and educator, Wheeler was among the established black leadership in Durham, North Carolina.  He stood at the forefront in helping to shape major transformations and was one of the most influential African American figures in the state of North Carolina and arguably one of the most influential in the South between the 1950s and 1970s.  Wheeler did not gain, nor did he want, the prominence of civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  This is true partly because of his style of leadership – his behind-the-scenes role as mediator and broker.  Because of these factors, Wheeler and people like him have been largely absent from stories of the civil rights movement.  Nevertheless, his doubly unique role as banker and activist offers insight to a new and critical perspective towards understanding the LCRM.  I seek to shed light on his form of activism through examining his approach to leadership, particularly how he used his network and connections with state and national civil rights organizations, financial institutions, government agencies, political leaders, black radicals, and the black masses, to help sustain the civil rights movement and its objectives.