North Carolina Central University - Durham, North Carolina

Southeast corner of East Lawson and South Alston streets in Durham

North Carolina Central University is the historically black university in Durham, NC. Yes, there is another higher education school in Durham. It is a well-regarded school for a long time, though some policies had unintended consequences. I'll go a little bit into that, but for now, some quick facts about NC Central!

Founded: 1909 (but some places on campus and on their website list the founding in 1910)

Colors: Maroon and Grey

Mascot: Eagles

Athletics: NCAA Division 1-AA (yes, I still call it that. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, this is the D1 that has a champion determined with a traditional draw of 24 teams)

Students: 6,2585 undergraduates, 1,801 graduates

Academics: 78 degrees offered across bachelor's, associates, master's/first professional, and doctoral programs (with a well-regarded law school in NC)

For this, I will refer to a couple of book and journal sources:

• Link, Arthur S., David W. Hirst, John E. Little, John M. Mulder, Sylvia Elvin Fontijn, and M. Halsey Thomas, eds. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson. Vol. 19. 69 vols. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975 (henceforth known as "Wilson Papers")
• Lovett, Bobby L. America's Historically Black Colleges & Universities: A Narrative History from the Nineteenth Century into the Twenty-first Century . Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2011.
• Richardson, J. and III, J. (2004). Brown and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs): A Paradox of Desegregation Policy. The Journal of Negro Education, 73(3), pp.365-378
• Taylor, Edward. (1999). Peril or Promise: The Effect of Desegregation Litigation on Historically Black Colleges. The Western Journal of Black Studies, 23(2), pp. 73-82.

(Source)

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Now, onto more of its history!

North Carolina Central University was founded in 1909 by Dr. James Edward Shepard (who is possibly the man who is honored with the naming of Shepard Magnet Middle School nearby). When he started it, he named the school the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua. Dr. Shepard was born in Raleigh, was educated at Shaw University, and founded this school in the Hayti District of Durham at the turn of the 20th century. I'd go more into him, but there's a sign for him, too. So I'll save more of his story for another day.

The Hayti District was a black community founded at the end of the Civil War for freedmen looking for work in Durham. It soon prospered, becoming a home to its own hospital (now it's Lincoln Community Health Center, not an actual hospital), North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company (now known as NC Mutual Life Insurance Co., and moved its headquarters closer to downtown Durham), as well as many of locally-owned black businesses, and its own congregations and social circles. The community was a well-known place among blacks during the Jim Crow era, and helped foster black culture and music during segregation.

Lincoln Community Health Center, 1971 (Source)

The National Religious Training School was part of  this larger black community, as Dr. Shepard founded it to be "the development in young men and women of the character and sound academic training requisite for real service to the nation". You might have noticed the funny word "Chautauqua" Dr. Shepard added to the name of the school; I looked into it and Chautauqua was the name of an adult education movement in the early 20th century. While it had religious roots, it was open to all (Protestant) faiths at the start, and grew to reflect a larger movement of education, with the goal of bringing it to working and middle class Americans.

Anyways, the school provided both high school and college education to African Americans as a private institution, with support from both local and progressive donors, including Benjamin N. Duke (the son of Durham's Washington Duke, for whom Duke University is named) and the future President Woodrow Wilson (p. 399-400 in the "Wilson Papers"). While their support was much needed and appreciated, 21st century perspectives critiques the support as often encouraging the segregation of the races in higher education (Woodrow Wilson was pretty racist, though he actively supported egalitarian ideals). The school was eventually sold in 1915, but managed to reopen thanks to the support of Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage. Dr. Shepard and the school encountered more financial trouble, and decided to sell the school to the state in 1923. The state renamed it the Durham State Normal School, removed the high school curriculum, and maintained it the best they could, but it wasn't enough to support the students.

A movement to establish liberal arts education for African Americans came through North Carolina, and Dr. Shepard lobbied the state government to establish such education at Durham State Normal, also as a bid for funding for more (and much needed) buildings on campus. He also protested the Jim Crow laws in the process: he went to Raleigh by car, to avoid the segregated train seats. Even white merchants came to him to sell their goods so he wouldn't have to deal with any rudeness while shopping downtown. While this happened, a fire destroyed several buildings at Durham State Normal, forcing the school to erect temporary barracks-like buildings, but the school received the state's choice of being the first state-supported liberal arts school for African Americans. It then became the North Carolina College for Negroes, and nominated Dr. Shepard as its first chief administrator.

Clyde R. Hooey Administration Building, NC College for Negroes, c. 1930 (Source)

Despite its new designation and revamped curriculum, the college did not get the funds needed for most of its construction. The only brand new building was Dr. Shepard's house, primarily funded by a local fundraising drive, and the lack of buildings to support the students and new departments hindered any accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (SACSS). Benjamin N. Duke provided a huge donation, beginning the College's building endowment. The College's Board began to plan renovations and expansion of campus; this gradual change eventually led to the College's accreditation in 1930. The College continued to expand its curriculum and its campus, eventually adding the College's first graduate-level courses and law school, in 1939 and 1940 respectively.

The school was renamed to North Carolina Central University in 1969, and joined the University of North Carolina system in 1972. It continued to grow into the university we know of today, producing numerous leaders, including Julius L. Chambers (who, as a civil rights attorney, established the first integrated firm in NC and successfully litigated numerous Supreme Court cases). I'm sure he has his own sign somewhere in NC, so I'll leave his story for another time. The University is a local leader to this day.

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As many of you may know, segregation of the races affected both the founding of NCCU and its sustainability. Many historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were founded under the shadow of Jim Crow, providing space and resources for the African American communities across the country (and especially in the South). However, the landmark Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education struck down the "separate but equal" precedence, requiring equal state resources for both whites and blacks, and struck down segregation laws at many levels. I bet that sign exists, so I'll go into more details then.

Prior to this decision, only whites could attend schools like Duke, Yale, Princeton, and even numerous public universities and colleges in the South (yes, including UNC-CH). That's why schools like NCCU existed: to provide a quality higher education to African Americans, as they would be disqualified due to their race at other schools. The 1954 Brown decision changed all that: segregation is now unconstitutional (more than just illegal), and that integration must occur. How quickly and how it should be done, though, was left to the states, meaning a lot of Southern states stalled or hampered integration efforts (p. 140 in Lovett, 2011).

Thurgood Marshall, LLB (Source)

Despite other speed bumps (a lot of protests happened between the Brown decision and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and, really, the war hasn't ended even now), a lot of legal and legislative walls enforcing segregation came down around the country. This included the slow integration of traditionally white institutions. As desegregation occurred and more and more blacks attended traditionally white institutions, HBCUs were seen by many (including progressive whites) as unnecessary and redundant (Richardson and Harris III, 2004).

Furthermore, while previously HBCUs would be guaranteed any non-white student interested in higher education, they now had additional competitors from hundreds of other schools seeking to desegregate. This competition also now applies to state funding, as states were at this point required to provide financial support to HBCUs (if any), as mandated by another case known as Adams v. Richardson in 1973 (Taylor, 1999).

Morehouse College (Source)

All in all, a variety of other policies meant that HBCUs, while held as an ideal of integration for the time, are having to fight for their existence, students, and funding. Many still exist (101, to be exact), but one can argue that the quality of education was hurt due to desegregation and integration efforts. I'm not saying that desegregation and integration were wrong; they were much needed policies, and still needed in a lot of aspects of American society. However, I wanted to recognize that these institutions are still needed, and have been hurt by a variety of policies, litigation, and legislation.