Browse Exhibits (28 total)

In 1972, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sued the federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) for neglecting the enforcement of desegregation in higher education.  Judge John Pratt in Adams v Richardson wrote that HEW allowed North Carolina as well as nine other states to continue receiving federal funds despite the state’s violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to this federal legislation, government agencies that received federal funds are banned from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

After almost a decade of negotiations with HEW, in 1981 North Carolina became the last state without an approved desegregation plan for higher education as state officials resisted HEW’s efforts to eliminate degree program duplication in the state’s colleges and universities. The UNC system, the single coordinating board of the state’s 16 public institutions of higher education, attempted to reframe the desegregation issue as a state’s right to govern its own academic institutions. Taking the focus off race, this colorblind defense disregarded the history of discrimination that created inequalities between historically black and white institutions.

Crossing the Color Line: On Their Own Terms, 1972-1981 examines the UNC system, which included North Carolina State University, response to efforts made by the federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) to desegregating higher education.

HEW’s attempts to eliminate duplicate degree programs in the state’s colleges and universities were met with resistance. North Carolina was the last state to get an approved desegregation plan because officials of the UNC system felt that HEW was violating their right to control their own academic institutions.

This exhibit contains oral interviews produced by The Southern Oral History Program.

Visit other Exhibits in Crossing the Color Line.

These locations are where North Carolina’s States first black athletes began to make their presence known on campus to both fellow students and alumni. These spaces were also important in helping to break down the walls of resistance to integration and in opening opportunities for future students both athletes and non-athletes. They were also shared sites of integration for all citizens of Raleigh.

This exhibit is part of a collaborative project. To learn more, check out: The Student Body, The Workplace, and The Community.

In our larger project, Race & Space, the collaborators explore the concept that integration was not an event but rather a process. Legalized educational integration was only the first step in a long process of negotiations for equal access to education, opportunity, and space. In our project, we argue that NC State was not suddenly “integrated,” but instead underwent a series of incremental changes through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s as black athletes, students, faculty, staff, and community members advocated for their rights to public space, both physical and metaphorical.

Race & Space: The Student Body argues that black students at NC State faced numerous challenges as they tried to succeed academically, gain a social and political voice, and move into traditionally white spaces. By analyzing this history spatially, the exhibit concludes that equal treatment, education, and access on NC State’s campus were never a given; instead, they were goals towards which black students strived for many years through negotiation, protest, and hard work.

Above are seven spaces that experienced tension and strife, as well as victories and celebrations, during the tumultuous post-integration period at NC State. In many ways, each of these spaces was contested by both black and white students as the student body struggled to adjust to black students' fight for academic, social, and political equality on campus. Understanding events in each of these spaces is seminal to understanding the shifting attitudes, demographics, and realities at NC State during the 1960s and 1970s. 

These locations pop up in various parts of the exhibit, Race & Space: The Student Body. I hope you enjoy exploring the map and the exhibit! 

This exhibit is part of a collaborative project. To learn more, check out: The Athletic Department, The Community, and The Workplace.

Susanna Lee, an associate professor in the History Department at North Carolina State University, manages The State of History. Graduate students in the history and public history programs selected and digitized all primary sources in the collections and wrote all exhibits. The Site Creators Exhibit presents primary sources from a variety of topics that illuminate creators' professional biography or inspire their intellectual interest in history.

This exhibit examines the ways in which the members of State's Mates socialized through formal functions such as fashion shows, talent shows, beauty pageants, and others.  State's Mates used social activities as a way to connect with other student wives, express their femininity in a university environment, and play with the social norms of the 1950's and 1960's.