Academic Staff

Oral History Interview with I.T. (Isaac Thomas) Littleton

I.T. Littleton oral history interview.

Oral History Interview with Doretha Blalock, Margaret Hunt, and Cyrus King

Doretha Blalock's, Margaret Hunt's, and Cyrus King's oral history interview.

Academic staff were positions that required some formal education or training, such as librarians, researchers, and some clerical positions. The jobs were considered skilled and did not require much manual labor which often indicated they were traditionally held by white employees. D.H. Hill Library was one of the first workplaces on NC State’s campus to integrate its staff. Library management, particularly I.T. Littleton, Cyrus King, and Margaret Hunt among others, actively participated in the Civil Rights Movement and were instrumental in ensuring black employees received opportunities to work at the library. The university did not force library administration to hire black employees which the administration highlighted in the university's first affirmative action report calling the hirings “significant because they resulted not from outside pressure, but from the Library administration’s belief that blacks should be hired.”[1]

The first academic black employee to work at the library was also the first black student to receive a degree from NC State; Ed Carson worked as a student assistant in 1959. In 1962, Edward Walker got a job as a mail clerk, becoming the first black full-time academic staff member at the library. And in 1964 the library hired Dorothea Blalock to fill the first black clerical position.[2] Ms. Blalock remembered her time at the library fondly, recalling an attitude of tolerance and opportunity, “I was well taken care of and backed up by Mr. King. And eventually the barriers broke, but not for a while…There were no incidents here at all.”[3]

Despite the library’s initiatives, not all of NC State’s workplaces were as accessible for black employees. Nine years after Ms. Blalock started working at the library, most university offices and schools still did not employ a significant number of black academic staff. Out of 414 academic staff positions available on campus in 1973, only 26 were filled by black employees and 13 of those worked in the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences.[4]


[1] “Affirmative Action Plan, North Carolina State University at Raleigh,” January 1974, Folder 1, Box 42, Series 2, UA 005.009, Office of the Provost, Office for Equal Opportunity and Equity Records, 1970-Circa 2000, North Carolina State University Special Collections, Raleigh, NC.

[2] I.T. Littleton, interview by Chad Morgan, January 26, 2007, transcript, Box 1, Folder 1, MC 00071, North Carolina State University Libraries Integration Oral Histories, North Carolina State University Special Collections, Raleigh, NC.

[3] Dorothea Blalock, Margaret Hunt, and Cyrus King, interview by Chad Morgan, February 15, 2007, transcript, Box 1, Folder 2, MC 00071, North Carolina State University Libraries Integration Oral Histories, North Carolina State University Special Collections, Raleigh, NC.

[4] “Affirmative Action Plan, North Carolina State University at Raleigh,” January 1974, Folder 1-7, Box 41, Folder 1, Box 42, Series 2, UA 005.009, Office of the Provost, Office for Equal Opportunity and Equity Records, 1970-Circa 2000, North Carolina State University Special Collections, Raleigh, NC.