Peter Holmes (part 2)

Title

Peter Holmes (part 2)

Description

Peter Holmes became the Director of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in 1973 and held the position until 1975. In this interview, he talked about black college Presidents visiting Nixon over their concerns that changing the racial composition of their schools would lead to the elimination of the racial identity of their school resulting in the undermining of their ability to provide educational opportunities that they wanted for minorities. (pg. 8)

Creator

Southern Oral History Project

Source

Interview with Peter Holmes by William Link, April 18, 1991. L-0168, in the Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/sohp&CISOPTR=401&CISOBOX=1&REC=14

Date

1991-04-18

Format

Interview

Type

oral history

Identifier

ccl207

Interviewer

William Link

Interviewee

Peter Holmes

Transcription

PETER HOLMES:
There's no question. I mean, that was the basis for these black college presidents to come in and see President Nixon at the time. And expressing concern that, yes, they wanted enhancements, they wanted to increase their financial support for their institutions. But that pressures to achieve numbers, goals, what have you, in terms of racial composition, would ultimately leave to the elimination of the racial identifiability, and thus undermine their ability to provide the type of educational opportunity they wanted to to minority students.

WILLIAM LINK:
Tell me about the people within the OCR that would have —

PETER HOLMES:
An argument that you didn't see in the elementary and secondary education level.

WILLIAM LINK:
You didn't. Yeah.

PETER HOLMES:
Very seldom would you see the principal of the black school arguing that, "You can't require us to desegregate our school because this is going to hurt our—" You didn't have that attitude. It was unique to the higher education level.

WILLIAM LINK:
It's interesting, actually, you hear that now. I think that's in retrospect.

Original Format

interview

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Citation

Southern Oral History Project, “Peter Holmes (part 2),” The State of History, accessed March 28, 2024, https://soh.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/items/show/239.