ARCHDALE, N.C., Nov. 15

New York Times, Nov. 16, 1998

Leaders of the state N.A.A.C.P. are deciding whether to file a formal complaint with a college over a course that asserts that most slaves were happy in captivity and that many served as loyal Southern soldiers.

Leaders of the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People threatened to file the complaint after reviewing the nine-week class at Randolph Community College.

"How is the college letting this happen?" asked Wyatt Kirk, chairman of the state committee of the Commission on Civil Rights.

Mr. Kirk said the committee's 13 members will review the course's teachings at its quarterly meeting.

The state N.A.A.C.P. chairman, Melvin Alston, said his organization might complain to the college about the course after the executive board meets in December.

College officials have stood behind the course, which is taught by local members of Sons of Confederate Veterans, a nationwide heritage group. Twelve students are enrolled.

Course organizers say their intent is to teach while restoring pride to their Confederate ancestors.

"Everybody can celebrate their culture but we can't," said Jack Perdue, a course instructor.

Among the course's statements is that the Civil War was not fought over slavery but over the right of Southerners to self-determination.

The instructors say that slavery was wrong, but conclude from a 1930's series of interviews with ex-slaves that 70 percent of slaves were satisfied with their lives in captivity.

"These people loved the South," said Herman White, who is the main lecturer on the role of black people in the war and the pastor of the Archdale Church of God.

"It's not that the North was all right and the South was all wrong," said William Barney, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of several books on the Civil War. "But it's the height of absurdity to say slavery was not the central issue."

The instructors also teach that as many as 38,000 blacks fought in the Confederate army, and that, by and large, slaves and free blacks fought in the same spirit of patriotism as their white counterparts.

Local black leaders are especially galled by the assertions of slaves' loyalty.

"That's a totally ludicrous statement to say that slaves loved their country," said Richie Everette, president of the Randolph County chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. Instead, Mr. Everette said, slaves seemed to be accepting their fate. "It's just like a battered wife syndrome or a battered child syndrome," he said.

LOAD-DATE: November 16, 1998