UNC System's Approach to Desegregation

Memorandum by Harris Purks, October 7, 1954

When the federal government required North Carolina colleges and universities to desegregate they did so without violent protest. This does not mean, however, that the UNC system embraced integration. Rather than openly defying the federal government, University officials sought legal methods for maintaining segregation, often forcing African American students to file suit against the University system in order to gain admittance. When they ran out of options in court, desegregation occurred at a gradual pace that some university officials claimed was necessary to avoid a public outcry. In 1954, after the first graduate students had already entered NC State, Harris Purks, Vice President and Provost of the Consolidated University System sent a memo to System President Gordon Gray considering three options the university could pursue regarding desegregation. Purks argued that the universities could bar all African American students from enrolling, allow large scale desegregation of the university, or adopt a slower, gradual approach to desegregation, which admitted only a few students at a time. He recommended that, as the federal court system would overrule a complete ban and state residents would not support immediate desegregation, gradual integration was their best option. This response was in keeping with the state of North Carolina’s emphasis on moderation and gradualism in the face of school desegregation.

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