“Bloody but unbowed,” Dr. W.L. Poteat will next June retire from the presidency of Wake Forest College “on the sole consideration of my age, and no other.” Thus it is that Doctor Billy—as his boys affectionately call him—wins his 20-year fight for enlightened thinking, for truth. Almost single-handed he has fought a fight against the forces of narrowness and prejudice, and when he steps back from the front to a quieter spot he steps back the outstanding educator of the South and man who is responsible for—as Walter Lippman said—making the name of Wake Forest College nationally known.
Doctor Billy will be past 70 when he retired, but he has raised up a valiant army of our disciples who will carry on his fight with a thrilling joy.
The defeat of the Poole Bill, the collapse of the movement started by the Committee of One Hundred, the failure of Dr. Martin and his followers—all this may be directly attributed to those years of heroic fighting which President Poteat has done.
“You have fought our battles long enough,” said President Chase of the University of North Carolina to President Poteat when the Poole bill was up “and now we are going to do the fighting.” And right there is, we believe, where the tide turned toward enlightenment in North Carolina.
Time after time certain forces in the Baptist denomination have thought that they had President Poteat where they wanted him, that they were going to put him and Wake Forest to looking through a tiny gimlet hole of intelligence, that they were going to force him to adopt creeds and dogmas, to sign his soul away or step down from his position. And each time, great soul that he is, he has been able to evade their snares and to plant himself and his college more firmly on the mountain of truth. The spectacle of the personality of the man meeting his tormentors with a declaration that left the least intelligent of them realizing that they were in the presence of a divine inspiration—the spectacle of the Winston-Salem Salem convention of several years ago—is one which men will tell to their children for generations.
President Poteat has been an inspiring figure when compared with some penurious-soulled leaders who rush to the innermost rooms and hide for fear they will be called upon to make some open declaration. When compared with some of these leaders who first find out what the Brothers and Sisters at Zion’s crossroads are going to say about the matter. When compared with some of the leaders who leap agilely from one side of the fence to the other or balance perfectly on its top.
How he has been able to preserve that beautiful equanimity of character in the face of some of the blackguard tactics which have been employed against him is a mystery we have never been able to understand. We have seen him receive the most scurrilous letter, one damning him to hell, and condemning him in all matter of bitter terms, and we have seen him straightaway send the gentlest answer and one in which he would attempt to explain to the disturbed soul the facts as he saw them.
Yes, Doctor Billy, you win. God bless you.
From the editorial page of the Goldsboro News, Wednesday morning, Aug. 4, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn93064755/1926-08-04/ed-1/seq-4/
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