North Carolina's Approach to Desegregation

In the fall of 1953, Robert Clemons and Hardy Liston, Jr. became the first African-American graduate students to enroll at what was then known as North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering. While the admission of Liston and Clemons can certainly be seen as a victory for those fighting for equal rights for African Americans, the presence of two black students in a campus of thousands hardly represented an overthrow of segregation. The early experiences of what would become North Carolina State University were fairly typical of the University of North Carolina system, which at that time also included UNC-Chapel Hill and Woman’s College (UNCG). The state government of North Carolina promoted what many officials considered to be a “moderate” approach to the desegregation of its public primary and secondary schools, which admitted only a handful of black students into white schools. The desegregation of the state’s higher education system took place along similar lines. Although the kind of violent protests seen on campuses like the University of Mississippi did not occur in North Carolina, the state showed a somewhat lackluster commitment to integration that was often prodded by judicial litigation and federal legislation rather than a desire to combat racist attitudes and policies.

Visit other Exhibits in Crossing the Color Line.