Desegregation in North Carolina's Elementary and High Schools

The approach that the University of North Carolina system adopted toward integration reflected the strategy pursued by the state of North Carolina in regard to the state’s elementary and high schools. Although North Carolina officials originally appeared resigned to desegregation, when it became clear that the federal government was not going to force the issue, the state government began to look for ways to circumvent the Supreme Court. In an effort to keep schools segregated, the legislature adopted a “moderate” approach which used “legal” methods rather than outright defiance in order to achieve their goals.

The Pupil Assignment Act, passed by the General Assembly in 1955, created criteria to determine which school a child should attend, a strategy that allowed officials to argue that continued segregation was not based on race but on other “neutral” factors such as the school a child previously attended. Whatever the state’s rationale however, the effect was a delay in integration. The law was also specifically designed to make state wide lawsuits more difficult by shifting responsibility for education from state officials to the members of local school boards. This meant that it would take multiple cases in order to ensure statewide integration.

The very next year, the Assembly adopted the Pearsall Plan, a law which gave school districts the option of shutting down schools by public referendum if they were faced with desegregation. Those who supported the law, including North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges, presented the plan as a “moderate” alternative to the extremism of those who fought for full integration, such as the NAACP, and those who wanted no integration whatsoever, such as the Ku Klux Klan. These supporters argued that, as unenlightened whites would not accept desegregation, the measure was necessary to prevent violence throughout the state. The law thus emerged out of the tradition of North Carolina progressivism which avoided conflict and promoted civility often at the expense of the state’s African American population.