A Mixed Bag

Students at Engineering Conference, circa 1970s. 

After many petitions and requests, NC State began offering black studies courses in the fall semester of 1969.[1] Until that autumn, black students at NC State had been leaving campus and traveling downtown to Shaw University or St. Augustine’s to take course in black literature, history, and culture. This meant that much of the black students’ academic, as well as social, lives were still centered in traditionally black spaces.[2] However, NC State students’ treks down to Shaw University also meant that the students formed strong bonds with their fellow black students at Shaw and St. Augustine; on numerous occasions throughout the 1960s, students from these traditionally black colleges would join NC State students in protests and demonstrations, swelling numbers and lending credence to their cause.[3] Despite this silver living, with the development of what came to be known as Africana Studies, students were relieved to finally gain further access to academic spaces at NC State.

Aside from having to take largely white-centric courses, black students at NC State also rarely took a class with a black faculty member. It took until 1965 for an African American to achieve full faculty ranking.[4] Dr. Dorothy S. Williams became a beacon for black students hoping to succeed in academia, but she was a rarity at NC State in the 1960s and 1970s.

NC State Women's Basketball Players engage in study session, circa 1977-1978.

Many administrative and faculty leaders worried both about how to judge black students against their white counterparts. As late as the early 1980s, memos circulated amongst black faculty members on campus about black admissions and black student success. One concerned black faculty member, Phyllis A. Mann, wrote that black students were held to a higher standard and were only desirable to admissions officers if they can “boost them up the athletic rungs of top colleges.” She went on to ask, “are all White students who are admitted also judged by these criteria?” Mann identified herself as one of “a small number of Blacks who make their break in life by being aggressive and assertive,” but she likely speaks for any number of black students, faculty, and staff who witnessed blacks being held to higher standards than their white counterparts before being admitted into traditionally white space.[5]

Additionally, because of federal investigations into non-compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, NC State had earned a reputation as a school disinterested in black students. Another memo addresses the perception that NC State was only interested in black students if they had exceptional athletic or academic prowess.[6] In this way, NC State retained a reputation for being a primarily white space well into the 1980s.

[1] Historical State, “African Americans, Timeline,” accessed 25 October 25 2014. http://historicalstate.lib.ncsu.edu/timelines/african-americans#d1960.

[2] Karen Archia, “Teacher Goes from Freshman to Doctor,” The Technician, Black History Special, date unknown, folder 7, box 2, UA 050.1.1 University Archives Reference Collection, North Carolina State University Special Collections, Raleigh, NC.

[3] Alice Elizabeth Reagan, North Carolina State University: A Narrative (Ann Arbor, MI: Edwards Brothers, 1987), 186.

[4] Historical State, “African Americans, Timeline,” accessed October 25, 2014, http://historicalstate.lib.ncsu.edu/timelines/african-americans#d1960.

[5] Phyllis A. Mann, untitled memo, date unknown. UA 005.009, Office of the Provost, Office for Equal Opportunity and Equity Records, 1970-2000, accessed October 25, 2015, http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/ua005_009.

[6] Unknown, untitled memo, date unknown, UA 005.009 Office of the Provost, Office for Equal Opportunity and Equity Records, 1970-2000, accessed October 25, 2015. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/ua005_009.