North Carolina in the Sixties3
By
Wil Hartzler
In 1954, before the U. S. Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall,
later a court member himself, argued before the Court that the earlier
separate but equal doctrine failed to provide equal educational opportunities for black students. The Court agreed in what has become the
historic precedent, Brown v. Board of Education. That decision was
met with large-scale resistance across the South. In 1957, however,
the North Carolina legislature enacted the Pearsall Plan which granted
local school boards the option of allowing black students to transfer
to previously white schools on application from their parents. Schools
in Greensboro, High Point, and Charlotte were the first to take this
step.
My family and I arrived in North Carolina in the late summer of
1959, and I assumed the position of executive secretary of the Southeastern Regional Office of the American Friends Service Committee.
The AFSC already had staff working on school desegregation. But also,
AFSC staff assisted skilled black persons to find employment in firms
Wil Hartzler, Greensboro, North Caroina, member of Springfield
Friends Meeting.
3 This article is based upon the author's presentation to the 2004 annual
meeting of the North Carolina Friends Historical Society.
18
North Carolina in the Sixties3
By
Wil Hartzler
In 1954, before the U. S. Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall,
later a court member himself, argued before the Court that the earlier
separate but equal doctrine failed to provide equal educational opportunities for black students. The Court agreed in what has become the
historic precedent, Brown v. Board of Education. That decision was
met with large-scale resistance across the South. In 1957, however,
the North Carolina legislature enacted the Pearsall Plan which granted
local school boards the option of allowing black students to transfer
to previously white schools on application from their parents. Schools
in Greensboro, High Point, and Charlotte were the first to take this
step.
My family and I arrived in North Carolina in the late summer of
1959, and I assumed the position of executive secretary of the Southeastern Regional Office of the American Friends Service Committee.
The AFSC already had staff working on school desegregation. But also,
AFSC staff assisted skilled black persons to find employment in firms
Wil Hartzler, Greensboro, North Caroina, member of Springfield
Friends Meeting.
3 This article is based upon the author's presentation to the 2004 annual
meeting of the North Carolina Friends Historical Society.
18
