THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503260165
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
For 83 years, E.V. Wilkins, retiring chairman of the Elizabeth City State University board of trustees, has kept an optimistic eye on a world of black and white.
Wilkins always tried to do the right thing.
And in what he considers one of the major good works of a long lifetime, Wilkins worked hard to make sure that his friend Floyd Lupton took a seat on the ECSU board.
Wilkins was successful.
The Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina system has picked Lupton to become one of three new ECSU trustees next June.
And in Lupton, Wilkins is confident he has found an ideal envoy to help win more white support for ECSU, one of five predominantly African-American schools in the 16-campus University of North Carolina system.
Lupton served for 26 years as the late 1st District U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones' chief aide in Washington, and it was Lupton's personal touch with hometown voters in eastern North Carolina that helped build Jones' honored reputation.
``Call Floyd!'' was the magic phrase that got things done in Washington for Albemarle petitioners. For 12 terms, the elder Jones routinely won by at least 70 percent of the popular vote.
At 73, Lupton is a snowy-haired Southern grandee who returned in 1991 to the family home in Belhaven with his wife of 44 years, Doris Ambrose Lupton, when it became apparent that Jones wouldn't seek re-election. The old congressman died in 1992.
``I've been thinking about Floyd ever since he retired,'' Wilkins said last week. ``I knew him before he went to Washington, when he was just a young probation officer - he helped a lot of black boys back in those days.''
And that, of course, is the point.
Wilkins thinks that Lupton will help a lot of other young people, both black and white, when he becomes a trustee of ECSU.
``I've known Floyd longer and better than I knew Congressman Jones,'' said Wilkins, who for nearly 50 years has been one of the state's more powerful African-American Democratic leaders. ``He's a good man and a strong man, and he'll be coming to the ECSU board when he's most needed.''
Wilkins has been mayor of Roper, N.C., across Albemarle Sound in Washington County, since 1974.
``We've had two whites and two blacks on the Town Council for years and years, and we get along just fine,'' said Wilkins.
But as a new white ECSU trustee, Lupton may be tackling some trickier challenges than he ever knew as a congressman's administrative assistant on Capitol Hill.
For years, Wilkins and some Albemarle members of the UNC Board of Governors have been trying to improve town-and-gown relations between ECSU and the larger Elizabeth City community.
Although UNC policy has been to increase white enrollment and overall integration at ECSU, the Albemarle as a whole has been slow to show across-the-board support or interracial loyalty toward the school.
``I hope I can bring in the friendship and support that the university deserves,'' Lupton said at his Belhaven home. ``I'm honored and grateful for this opportunity to serve again.''
Wilkins is sure that Lupton will be the catalyst needed to improve the racial chemistry between ECSU and the northeastern counties that send most students to the Elizabeth City campus.
The ECSU board has a majority of black members, and Wilkins' move in recommending a widely known and influential white Democrat with a major political presence surprised some observers. Some expected Wilkins to nominate one of his many African-American proteges for the job.
``So many people respect Floyd - we couldn't find a better trustee,'' Wilkins said.
Lupton will join another powerful white Democrat on the ECSU board: J.J. ``Monk'' Harrington, a former state senator from Lewiston and at one time president pro tempore of the North Carolina Senate. Harrington, now a power-company lobbyist, still has two years in his term.
``I was delighted to hear that E.V. Wilkins was working to get Floyd appointed,'' said Harrington. ``Floyd's contribution to the university will be enormous, and I think it will do Floyd Lupton a lot of good, too.''
Many Democrats have urged Lupton to come out of retirement and become more active in political affairs at a time when the Democratic Party needs all the help it can get.
``I'm not fed up with politics,'' Lupton said. ``It just seemed like it was good idea to spend more time at home with my wife after all those years dragging her back and forth to Washington.''
``And, yes, I've thought about running for the legislature.''
In Lupton's home hustings around Beaufort County, his friends think one of his first political targets could be state Rep. Zeno Edwards, a Republican dentist, who is now holding down a traditional Democratic seat in the legislature.
``I can see in Daddy's eyes that he isn't too happy being retired, that he misses the active life,'' said Lupton's daughter, Bea Lupton Dillon, 36. She works at Beaufort County Community College, where Lupton is also a board member.
All three of Lupton's children are grown, and daughter Bea said Lupton and his wife have only the daily companionship of ``six grandcats, three granddogs, one great-granddog and numerous grandfish.''
Lupton has had some roller-coaster emotional rides with northeastern North Carolina politics since the death of the senior Jones three years ago.
First, Lupton had to bite the bullet when 1st Congressional District Democratic leaders failed to nominate him to serve out the unexpired term of the elder Jones, selecting instead a black candidate in the newly created minority-favoring 1st District.
U.S. Rep. Eva Clayton, D-Warrenton, went on to win the interim election and the full Congressional term as the first black and the first female to go to Congress from North Carolina in this century.
Then Lupton had to watch Walter Jones Jr., the son of the congressman he served so well, switch to the Republican Party and go on to beat Democratic Rep. H. Martin Lancaster in the new 3rd Congressional District. Lupton actively campaigned for Lancaster.
``I've no hard feelings - that's politics,'' Lupton said last week.
Lupton lives in the 3rd District, and many supporters think it would be poetic justice as well as political retribution if he should someday take on Walter Jones Jr., the Republican now perpetuating the name of Lupton's long-gone friend in Congress.
But for now, his challenge is to live up to E.V. Wilkins' belief that Lupton can make a major contribution to Elizabeth City State University by helping to bring it closer to the community. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Floyd Lupton served for 26 years as the chief aide to the late 1st
District U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones.
by CNB