The history of segregation in North Carolina predates the Plessy v. Ferguson decision by the United States Supreme Court that legally sanctioned the idea of “separate but equal” facilities for African Americans and whites. Segregation in education began during the Reconstruction period as the state of North Carolina appropriated funding to educate the white and black populations separately. These “normal” or teacher training schools helped educate future teachers for communities throughout North Carolina. Universities today in the University of North Carolina system that were established as normal schools include Western Carolina University and Elizabeth City State University. In North Carolina, Shaw University in Raleigh was the first private African American college in the South. Founded in 1865 by Baptists, the university was home to the Leonard Medical School from 1882 to 1918. Quakers using federal funding educated the Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. In the 1880s there were still no schools in North Carolina that educated the large numbers of American Indians in eastern North Carolina. In 1887, by act of the North Carolina Legislature, the Croatan Normal School was founded to train teachers for the Indians in Robeson and adjoining counties. That school continues today as the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

As Reconstruction ended in North Carolina, rights that the state and federal governments had given to blacks and Indians began to slowly erode. The Wilmington Race Riot in 1898 signaled a definitive end to a time of relative freedom and prosperity for minorities in North Carolina, yielding to an era known as Jim Crow. The term Jim Crow became a racial epithet in the nineteenth century, and by the early twentieth century it was used to denote a system of oppressive laws and customs aimed at African Americans.

Jim Crow laws in North Carolina consisted of legislated laws and local custom that permeated daily life, giving minorities the status of second-class citizens. North Carolina had separate hospitals, prisons, schools, churches, cemeteries, restrooms, and even Bibles used to swear in courtroom witnesses. One law directed the state librarian “to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals.” Another stated that “white and colored militia shall be separately enrolled, and shall never be compelled to serve in the same organization,” and that minorities had to serve under white officers. Although not all customs were observed everywhere, the following norms were widely practiced.

• It was understood that blacks would defer to whites and step off of sidewalks when whites passed.
• Blacks could buy food from counters or windows near the kitchen in restaurants, but were not allowed to eat in “white” restaurants with whites.
• State and county fairs often had what were referred to as “colored day,” a day when blacks attended the fair.
• Blacks would buy tickets to movies and other shows through a separate window, enter through a separate door, and sit in the balcony.
• Sections of buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation were designated for blacks and whites.
• Hospitals, if they treated blacks at all, had separate wards for blacks and whites.
• Water fountains, building entrances, and bathrooms had signs designating who could use certain facilities.

A separate drinking fountain on the county courthouse lawn, Halifax, 1938.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Dr. Ronald L. F. Davis observed in his essay “Racial Etiquette: The Racial Customs and Rules of Racial Behavior in Jim Crow America” that “the whole intent of Jim Crow etiquette boiled down to one simple rule: blacks must demonstrate their inferiority to whites by actions, words, and manners.” This intent can be seen in one of the largest segregated areas of life under Jim Crow, education. Blacks and whites attended different schools, but despite the Plessy ruling that public education would be "separate but equal," there was little that was equal in the quality of education between the schools. White schools had larger appropriations and better resources than black schools and black teachers were paid significantly less than their white counterparts. Although North Carolina prohibited the use of the same books by the two schools, black students often had to use textbooks that were old and worn from years of use in white schools. Many who grew up in that time say that it was common to have the names of whites filling the front cover by the time the books came to them.

Segregation in North Carolina was not just a black and white issue; American Indians often had to suffer through these same indignities. In the state's American Indian communities, segregation was not always as evident and identifiable. Segregation in many of the smaller American Indian communities often took the same face as segregation against blacks, but some people could bypass it if they had a light skin tone, “passing” as whites. Repeatedly, American Indians petitioned for their own schools, in effect asking to be a part of the system of segregation. They did this to gain education, but also to assert and preserve their identity that was often ignored and overlooked by other communities. Many Indians felt that if Indians had not asserted their identity they would have ceased to exist in a few generations.

In the Lumbee/Tuscarora community of Robeson and adjoining counties, segregation took a form different than that of anywhere in North Carolina. Robeson County had tri-racial segregation, with three school systems, three seating areas in movie theatres, and three water fountains.

In 1913, Robeson County's governor-appointed white mayor asked that three waiting rooms—one for each race—be provided in the town’s proposed train station. The unusual request failed because the railroad company’s standard station plans could not accommodate triracial facilities. Click on the image above to read the letter in entirety.

In 1954 the Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Supreme Court ruling stated that the system of segregation in schools had to end. North Carolina in response instituted the Pearsall Plan, which was a voucher system so students could attend private schools, giving students freedom of choice without desegregating the schools. Many saw the Brown decision as the beginning of what would become a nationwide Civil Right movement. The systems of segregation were soon challenged throughout North Carolina from schools to accommodations, with the February 1, 1960 Greensboro sit-in referenced as a watershed event in the movement (see Session 3 for an article on the sit-in).

Segregation, entrenched in the laws and customs of North Carolina for many years, faded out in the 1960s. By early 1970s schools were the only segregated facilities in the state. In 1971, the federal government demanded that North Carolina schools completely desegregate, and those systems still segregated did finally desegregate. Following the district court ruling in 1999 that Charlotte could no longer achieve integration of race with busing, many school systems now bus students to achieve integration based on economics. Many believe that resegregation of schools is taking place today, and that we must now remember these past woes in order to keep from repeating them.

Jefferson Currie is an assistant curator at the North Carolina Museum of History.

Assignment 2

Complete one of the following assignments:

Option 1 (If you are seeking reading credits for this course, choose this option.)
Primary sources, like the letter, oral history, and voter registration card in this session, can be fascinating items that make history come alive and make reading engaging. Using civil rights-related primary sources found in this workshop and/or elsewhere on the Internet, develop a lesson plan that:

• teaches your students the difference between primary and secondary sources
• demonstrates the personal and real feel of history that reading a diary entry, letter, oral history transcript, document, and/or period newspaper account can invoke
• shows how reading primary sources differs from reading textbooks and other secondary sources

(Read the workshop's session on Primary Sources for more information and related links.)

Option 2
Some civil rights-related images and artifacts are disturbing. Ku Klux Klan masks and robes, for instance, and photographs of lynchings, cross burnings, and violent demonstrations can invoke a wide range of strong feelings. Museums have to decide whether to include such items in exhibits and, if so, how best to interpret them. How do you feel about showing such images in the classroom? Are they good teaching tools that drive home lessons about civil rights, or too graphic or likely to anger or upset some students? If they are shown to students, how should they be explained? How do you determine what images and other materials are age-appropriate? State your case on the workshop's Bulletin Board.

Option 3
World War II offered African Americans in the military new opportunities, although they continued to face segregation and discrimination. Create a lesson plan in which your students learn about the African American military experience in World War II. The lesson can be broad or can focus on one or two aspects, such as a particular African American soldier or division, segregation policies, or new opportunities for blacks.