Space in Print

While NC State’s campus and classrooms were real, physical spaces that black students had to navigate, there were also more abstract, metaphorical spaces being contested during this time. The Technician, the university’s student-run newspaper, is a case in point. Throughout most of the 1960s, the paper largely ignored the struggles, achievements, and day-to-day interests of black students. However, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the newspaper began covering more and more topics relating to NC State’s black community. As exposure of the Civil Rights Movement, student protests, and black achievements grew, black students gained more visibility and more access to public space—both of which were necessary to the push for equality.