Learning Activity
Chancellor Carey Bostian to William Rodman, Jr., February 24, 1956
William Rodman Jr.'s Response to Chancellor Bostian, February 28, 1956
Chancellor Carey Bostian to William Friday, Februrary 29, 1956
Questions
1. Why did Chancellor Carey Bostian write to Attorney General William Rodman? What was Rodman's response?
2. Why did Bostian write to UNC System President William Friday?
3. What was the source of Bostian's confusion? Why was he afraid that he may have made a mistake?
4. How did Rodman and Bostian justify their stances on the admission of undergraduate students in the aftermath of the lower court's decision in the Frasier case? Which argument do you find more convincing?
5. What do these documents say about the position of both NC State's administrators and the North Carolina state government towards desegregation? Was one group more committed to desegregation than another? Draw evidence from the letters to support your conclusions.
6. Whose voices are missing from these documents? What might these groups have had to say about the situation?
7. Imagine a dialogue between Bostian and Rodman after the Supreme Court upheld the Frasier verdict. How might their conversation have been different from the exchange in the above letters?
Visit other Exhibits in Crossing the Color Line.