School Desegregation

After Brown: the Desegregation of Durham High School

info@paulimurraycenter.org — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 07:55:41 +0000

After Brown: the Desegregation of Durham High School info@paulimurr… Wed, 07/07/2021 - 03:55

Today, this school building is seemingly ordinary – students with backpacks chat with their friends, struggling to carry their textbooks and school projects, as the busses line up outside on the street. Durham High School, founded in 1922 and now known as Durham School of the Arts, was a crucial site in the fight for school desegregation.

Brown v. Board of Education is the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case that declared the segregation of schools by race as unconstitutional. But, the ruling did little to enforce this new policy. Durham, like many southern communities, did nothing to advance any desegregation efforts. White students continued to attend school in this building and Black students attended Hillside High School on Fayetteville Street.

African American leaders soon began to advocate for school desegregation with the support of this Supreme Court ruling. In 1957, the parents of Jocelyn McKissick and Elaine Richardson filed a lawsuit asking that their daughters be reassigned to Durham High School. Although these claims were rejected, McKissick and Richardson inspired a movement to begin the integration process: in the 1959-1960 school year alone, there were about 225 reassignment requests for Black students to transfer to formerly all white schools. Ultimately, eight requests were granted, marking the first integration of Brogden, Carr, and East Durham Junior High Schools as well as Durham Senior High School. In 1960, Jocelyn McKissick became the first African American female to graduate from Durham High School.

Members of Durham’s Black community, joined by the NAACP, continued to push for school desegregation through legal action when these first transfers did not lead to system-wide desegregation. After the NAACP sued the Durham County School System in 1968, the Federal District Court in Greensboro finally ordered complete integration of the Durham County School System in 1970.

The first Black students to attend Durham High School were resilient despite waves of harassment. These students continued their education and their parents called on school leadership to protect their children during the school day. Today the Durham School of the Arts’ student body is very diverse, with African American, Latinx and White students each representing about 30% of the total enrollment. Yet, parents continue to advocate for fair and equitable treatment for all students and battle against the white supremacy that continues to impact our community institutions.

Sources:

https://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/C-0068/excerpts/excerpt_4639.html

https://educationpost.org/why-durham-public-schools-need-integration/

https://durhamvoice.org/?p=34723

https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/jslh25&div=4&id=&page=

http://andjusticeforall.dconc.gov/gallery_images/andree-mckissick-and-henry-vickers-integrate-carr-junior-high/

https://www.facebook.com/DurhamPublicSchools/videos/beyondthecelebrations-desegregation-of-durham-schools-may-12-2021-1-pm/517367259676981/

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.90708 36.00238)

Tags:

Education

Civil Rights

School Desegregation

Desegregation

400 N. Duke Street
Durham, NC 27701

Amiya Mehrotra

High School Students and their Parents Mobilizing for Civil Rights

balau — Thu, 05 May 2016 20:04:17 +0000

High School Students and their Parents Mobilizing for Civil Rights balau Thu, 05/05/2016 - 16:04

“What shall we teach our children about race and race relations?” This question from Wallace Nelson, a Cincinnati representative of the Congress for Racial Equality, silenced the Hillside High School Parent-Teacher Association meeting on January 14th, 1952.

Nelson’s answer was a boycott of segregated public schools to prove that non-violent direct action was a viable strategy in Durham’s efforts to promote learning and friendships between students of different races. The room of more than 100 parents and community leaders erupted in applause to this proposal. Hillside parents understood the value of education in promoting social mobility and were especially motivated to engage in this action by their desire for a better future for their children.

They all agreed that actions speak louder than words. Reverend Charles Jones, a Presbyterian minister from Chapel Hill, also commented that a child is not taught by “telling.”

Hillside High School, the site of the meeting, was more than a gathering space. The students at Hillside High represented hope for the future for the historically disenfranchised black community in Durham. Significantly, the school was one of the South’s highest-ranking Black schools before desegregation. The overwhelming support in favor of the proposed boycott pushed the Durham Committee on Negro Affairs to name a special committee with Reverend William Fuller as head, to review and study Nelson’s call to action.

Unfortunately, the Durham Committee on Negro Affairs declared the “present time unsuitable for the boycott” during their meeting on January 20th. This meeting was one of many that mobilized Durham’s Black community and sparked essential conversations about change and equality in education and all aspects of their lives. The success of the economic boycotts in Durham years later were possible because of the attempts like this one that began in the halls of Hillside High School.

Date

Fri, 01/04/1952 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.904145 35.975817)

Tags:

1900 Concord Street
Durham, NC 27707
(site of former Hillside High School, now on campus at NCCU)

Amiya Mehrotra and Chandra Christmas-Rouse

Before Brown v. Board – Conrad Pearson Fights for Desegregating Higher Education

balau — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 17:12:07 +0000

Before Brown v. Board – Conrad Pearson Fights for Desegregating Higher Education balau Tue, 04/19/2016 - 13:12

Thomas Hocutt, a Black student from Durham, wanted to become a pharmacist. But in 1933, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill denied his application to their Pharmacy school on the basis of race. Attorneys Conrad Pearson and Cecil McCoy took up his case and with the support of the NAACP, filed a suit against the University. This was one the first attempts to integrate higher education in the United States. Despite their best efforts, the case known as Hocutt v Wilson was dismissed because Durham officials withheld Mr. Hocutt’s undergraduate transcript, making it impossible for him to meet the requirements for admission to the Pharmacy school. The separate but equal doctrine in education stood for another 20 years.

This result was no surprise to Pearson, but that didn't make it any less heartbreaking. Durham residents were split on Hocutt: some preferred working to add a Pharmacy school at North Carolina Central, and others were supporters of integrating the all white UNC-Chapel Hill. The case inspired other Durham lawyers to initiate civil rights actions of their own and paved the way for one of the most influential civil rights cases, Brown v Board of Education. In 1954, this case rendered the concept of separate but equal unconstitutional and consequently desegregated schools across the country.

Pearson, a Howard Law grad, and McCoy, a Brooklyn Law grad, were vital activists in the movement for Black liberation in their native Durham. They employed their knowledge of constitutional law to combat racial segregation in their home state by taking on civil rights cases that challenged racial oppression. In addition to the Hocutt case, they joined a group of lawyers to file a Durham desegregation case in 1955 called Wheeler v. Durham which led to the integration of Durham public schools.

Sources:

Gershenhorn, Jerry. "Hocutt v. Wilson and Race Relations in Durham, North Carolina, during the 1930s." The North Carolina Historical Review 78, no. 3 (July 2001): 275-308. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23522330.

Date

Wed, 02/01/1933 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.89884 35.98553)

Tags:

Conrad O. Pearson
Attorney and Counsellor at Law
Rooms 8-10 Royal Knights of King David Bldg.
809 Fayetteville St. Durham, N. C. Phone L-1061

Amiya Mehrotra and Jillian M. Williams