to earn a doctorate. Dr. Oxendine spent
his career at the university urging other
Lumbees to go to graduate school. Many,
like Jason Lowry, followed.
Lowry began graduate study at
Appalachian State College during
summers. He credited a professor at
Pembroke with sending him to the
mountains. Another color line was broken.
There was no policy permitting
Lowry to attend a North Carolina public
college, and he had misgivings on several
occasions. The first scare came during
the admissions process. "The man asked
me where I was from, and I told him I
was the one and only Robesonian here,"
Lowry said. "He said `I'm the one and only
Robesonian here from Parkton.' I thought I
was in trouble, but he admitted me."
Another time, he was so certain he
would be sent home that he packed his
bags before meeting with a dean. "I was
goofing off with some boys when he came
up to me and said, `Mr. Lowry please
come by my office,'" Lowry said. "When
I got there, he said, `I see you are getting
along well here. You're in graduate school
now, and you're going to need a typist.' I
said to myself, `I'm here to stay.'"
The dean's secretary typed Lowry's
papers from then on. His master's thesis
in the school counseling program was
titled "To Organize and Implement a
Guidance Program in a Small High School
in Robeson County."
"The things I learned there, I brought
home," he said. "There were only 52
counselors in the state in 1949, but they
hired me as principal at Green Grove
School. That degree served me well."
guidance counselor at Pembroke High
School. It was another first in Robeson
County. "Guidance and counseling was
a new program, and I told them I was
not there to run errands," he recalled.
"Anybody who offered free tests, the Army,
Navy or the employment office, I got them
for my students. I felt I was training them
to take employment tests in places like
Detroit," where many Lumbees went for
work at that time.
Lowry pushed students toward college
too, and as director of admissions at
the university, he may have invented
the school's longtime slogan: "where
education gets personal."
"I had these three local girls from the
county, who were good students, all
A's," he said. "They couldn't get the 750
they needed on the
SAT to get into the
college, so I got
them into a test prep
program," Lowry
said. "One of the
deans objected,
asking me if I knew
what I was doing,"
Lowry said.
"I met with Dr.
(English) Jones about
it, and he said, `you
know what you're
doing; just go back
and keep doing
it,'" he continued.
"Those girls all
graduated with
of teaching. Think about that.
"As educators, our job is to motivate
every child we come in contact with,"
Lowry concluded.
At the university, Lowry found himself
on the forefront of desegregation again. "I
was the first administrator to hire a black
employee, which caused a lot of talk,"
he said. "One of the vice chancellors
asked me if we were ready for that. I had
traveled the world. I said we had to get
ready.
"I know I have prejudices, but I
don't see color," Lowry said. "I went to
Appalachian to get an education. All
students are in school for the same reason,
no matter who they are."
If education is the great equalizer,
Lowry also believes that full Lumbee
recognition would help all people, all
137,000 of them in Robeson County. "My
only hope is that I get to see it," he said.
Which brought the conversation
back to President Obama making the
commencement speech at UNCP in 2012.
"We get Obama down here to speak
at commencement and explain to him
about this place," Lowry said. "There is no
other place that is one third, one third and
one third like this, and we could tell him
about the 55,000 Lumbee Indians here."
Lowry is certain that the president
of the United States, who is a person
of unique heritage, would not only
understand the Lumbee but help them
win recognition. That is the vision from
Pembroke's oldest and, perhaps, wisest
prophet, who is well worth listening to.