Appealing to African Americans

A Special Task Force for the Chancellor of NC State created a pamphlet titled “The Image of North Carolina State University in the Black Community: A program for Change” to alert faculty of the roadblocks intimidating African Americans to willingly enroll in the program. [1]

NC State integrated its student body before 1978, however the integration only came from “external mandates rather than from initiative by the University.” The African American community was aware of these actions and believed NC State was unwilling to “alter its traditional white domination.” The second negative act was related directly to the Agricultural program. The Task Force discovered African Americans viewed SALS as a “plantation society.”[2] 

When NC State’s School of Agriculture and Life Sciences was founded, only whites were admitted. If African Americans wished to pursue a formalized education in agriculture they had to attend North Carolina A&T State University. How then could African American students feel welcome?

The Special Task Force concluded the School of Agriculture needed to alter its image from a plantation society to a modern sophisticated field of study. The department addressed its racist practices and began to alter its image and practices to make African American students feel welcome.[3] The School of Agriculture reached out to African American high school seniors to educate them about career opportunities in agriculture. African Americans in the program were awarded scholarships, empowering them with the same educational opportunities handed to white students. The Annual Reports in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s illustrate SALS push to recruit and retain African American students in the agricultural field.