All White or Nonblack?

Class of 1898

Although the North Carolina Consolidated University System certainly embraced segregation, not all non-white students were barred from its campuses. For example, Asian and Asian-American students were studying at NC State as early as the 1890s. The university’s first Asian graduate was Teisaku Sugishita, a young man from Tokyo, Japan who received a degree in Civil Engineering in 1898. Although these Asian students faced prejudice on primarily white campuses, they were at least permitted to enroll in the universities. Black students, however, were categorically barred based solely on the color of their skin. In fact, when Congress passed the Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1890, requiring states that received money for land-grant colleges (which concentrated on agriculture and engineering) to provide opportunities for African American students, North Carolina legislators chose to create North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University rather than desegregate NC State. This prohibition would last for more than six decades.

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