Space on Campus

As black students struggled to succeed academically, socially, and civically in a predominantly white university, spaces on and immediately surrounding campus were often the most contested. Simply finding places to live, to work, and to hang out without feeling unsafe or unwelcome was a challenge.

NC State’s black students lived and worked in proximity to their white counterparts, but they often traveled elsewhere for social, cultural, and political fulfillment. Shaw University was one such place. By being benignly forced—by a discomforted white majority—to leave campus and the surrounding area for non-academic engagement, black students faded into the periphery in the minds of white students, faculty, and administrators.  

Additionally, although it was just a generation after the struggles of people like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King began that white and black students mingle together with smiles on their faces, it is important to remember that less than 2% of NC State’s students were black—though often welcomed, black students still faced discrimination in admissions practices. [1]

Gaining access to spaces on and around campus would prove vital to the advocacy of black rights at NC State. Without it, black voices would remain unheard. The documents, photos, and text in this section speak to the different challenges black students faced as they navigated their academic careers at NC State.