May Day protesters march through downtown Durham. Why they ended up at Duke University

More than 200 protesters stopped outside the stone walls surrounding Duke University after marching from downtown Durham in the late afternoon sun Wednesday.

“Disclose! Divest! For Durham workers, reinvest!” they shouted.

One day after pro-Palestinian protests at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State escalated into arrests, Duke University also deployed police to face protesters. Officers blocked a Main Street entrance to campus as the group approached.

But the scene remained calm in Durham, with no one testing the boundary and marchers instead turning back toward downtown after a few speeches.

Wednesday’s march was organized by the Southern Workers Assembly to commemorate May Day, an international labor holiday, and the workers incorporated a protest of the Israel-Hamas war into their cause.

“War is money. The more wars, the more we the working class suffer,” said Ieisha Franceis, a member of the Union of Southern Service Workers.

The workers are calling for:

• $25 an hour for North Carolina workers.

• Affordable housing.

• Duke to pay the city and county

  to make up for the

  local taxes lost to the university's tax-exempt status.
  
  

• A cease-fire in Gaza and for American institutions and companies to divest from Israel amid the country’s ongoing war with Hamas.

The Durham Police Department blocked two major intersections near Duke, but most roads were closed by volunteers standing in front of cars as the crowd marched down Main Street, accompanied by drummers and a few honking vehicles with flags waving out of windows.

Duke University student Michael Cavuto, on behalf of two student groups supporting the protesters, shouted to the crowd they wouldn’t be allowed on campus.

“Cops have locked down the campus, which I’ve never seen happen before,” Cavuto said in an interview. “It just shows that these administrations view us as enemies.”

Should Duke pay more in local taxes?

Reverends Alex Stayer-Brewington and Molly Brummett Wudel said the May Day rally kicked off a campaign to demand Duke make a payment in lieu of taxes to Durham’s local governments, which some universities do in the Northeast.

Duke doesn’t pay property taxes on most of its land in Durham, and the Durham pastors argue that the university’s philanthropic endeavors don’t make up for that lost money.

“They hold wealth that can used for the flourishing of Durham,” Brummett Wudel said. “It’s time.”

“So many small businesses do so much for the community and also pay taxes,” Stayer-Brewington added.

The Southern Workers Assembly proposed a $20 million figure for Duke to pay, but that could change as negotiations evolve. Durham City Council member Nate Baker has said he supports the concept.

Several local unions had representatives in the march, which blocked traffic from about 6:15 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. as it crawled through downtown. That included city government and public schools employees. Both groups have gone on strike in the past year for better pay.

“It’s important for us to be connected,” said Symone Kiddoo, Durham Association of Educators president. “Our fight for union recognition, our fight for our schools, is not separate from the fights of every other worker.”

DAE is organizing a letter-writing campaign to urge county commissioners approve the interim Durham superintendent’s recommended budget — a $27.5 million increase over last year’s — even if it requires tax increases.

A large portion of the increase would help increase pay.

Leticia Zavala was there with a group from El Futuro Es Nuestro (It’s Our Future), a North Carolina farmworkers union. She said they are advocating for access to water, consistent breaks and the right to medical attention when requested.

“We’ve had many deaths in the field since the pandemic. There hasn’t been a season when bodies weren’t sent back to Mexico,” Zavala said.

Franceis is now a certified nursing assistant, but she joined her union when the fast food restaurant she previously worked at went on strike. She said North Carolina’s $7.25 minimum wage allows corporations to “throw us crumbs and pay $9 or $10 an hour and we should be happy with that.”

“All of us,” she said, pausing to take in the scene around her. “We run these businesses.”