The Libraries celebrates Juneteenth

In observance of Juneteenth this year—the 156th anniversary of the day the last enslaved people learned of their freedom in the United States—NC State is observing a campus holiday and closing classes. Earlier this week, Chancellor Woodson sent a message celebrating Juneteenth and pointing readers to the African American Cultural Center’s Juneteenth page, which speaks to the significance of the June 19 date and honors the contributions of Black people to our university, our state, and our nation.

The Libraries joins campus in celebrating Juneteenth and offers its own Historical State Timeline of African Americans at NC State. Produced by the Special Collections Research Center, the timeline notes significant events and firsts in Black history at the university.

Following the timeline from its start in the 19th century, it’s clear that the university was intentionally very slow to allow Black students and to hire Black faculty—typical practices in higher education throughout the state and across the South.

When the Second Morrill Act was passed in 1890 requiring states to provide technical education for African Americans, the Consolidated University of North Carolina chose to take advantage of a racist loophole to create the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro for the purpose of admitting Black students rather than to allow them admission to existing schools (including NC State) throughout the state.

This tactic held progress at bay until 1951, when the Consolidated University began allowing Black graduate students, who first enrolled at NC State two years later. NC State didn’t welcome Black undergrads until four students enrolled in the fall of 1956. 

Vivian Henderson became the university’s first Black faculty member in 1962, taking a position as a visiting professor of Economics. Three years later, Dorothy Williams became the first Black instructor with full faculty ranking, teaching in Sociology and Anthropology.

Throughout the 1960s, as the Civil Rights movement gained momentum on southern campuses, Black students and faculty made gradual progress in academics and athletics at NC State. Students and faculty protested throughout the decade to pressure the university, and the city of Raleigh, to end segregation policies and practices. By 1969, many firsts had been achieved, including NC State’s first Black Student Senate President, but the school’s enrollment of African American students was still only about 200.

In 1970, the year that students founded the African American Cultural Center in a space in the YMCA Building, NC State was found by the Health, Education and Welfare Department (HEW) as having failed to comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The school would not become compliant for another four years. Notable Black students in the 1970s included architect Phil Freelon (‘75), who went on to design many significant buildings including the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and basketball star David Thompson, who became NC State's first African American All-American winner and led the Wolfpack to their first national championship in 1974.

Kevin Howell, a political science major, became the first African American to serve as Student Body President in the 1987-1988 school year. Howell went on to become the university's primary liaison with state and local governments, and the senior vice president for external affairs of the entire UNC System. Howell was among Black student leaders who gathered in 1988 to discuss campus issues including the low graduation rate for Black students, the lack of African American faculty members and athletic administrators, and discriminatory discipline practices within the athletics department. By 1989, Black enrollment at NC State passed 2000.

However, racial tensions on campus remained high. Student Body President Brian Nixon received racist death threats and was attacked outside his residence hall in 1990. Citing a lack of representation in the newsroom and on the pages of the Technician, Black students started the Nubian Message newspaper in 1992. 

Dedicated in 1995, the Witherspoon Student Center became the first building on campus named after an African American. The dedication honored Dr. Augustus McIver Witherspoon, who earned his Ph.D. in Botany in 1971 before a lengthy teaching and administrative career at NC State, including an appointment as Associate Provost and Coordinator of African-American Affairs.

As the 21st century began, Black students were still pushing for equality and fighting racism on campus. The African American Student Advisory Council began issuing report cards in 2002, grading the university on enrollment, retention, and graduation of African American students and issuing an F to the school for recruiting Black students. In 2004, Black students staged a sit-in at a Student Senate meeting to protest the relative lack of funding for African American organizations. 

In 2008, Presidential candidate Barack Obama visited campus. Later that year, however, NC State became an international embarrassment as racist graffiti against Obama was found in the Free Expression Tunnel. After the four students responsible were identified, then Chancellor James Oblinger founded the Campus Culture Task Force Committee. Nonetheless, racist epithets were found in the tunnel again in 2010.

The last decade has seen the foundings of Diversity Education Week, the Red, White & Black Tour, and the Black Business Student Association. “Blackout” protests have marked the Michael Brown verdict in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 and police shootings of Black people in Charlotte and Tulsa in 2016. After students were found to have made racist comments in a private chat after the 2016 protests, Student Government hosted a Racial Climate Town Hall.

The Libraries timeline, and oral histories within its Wolf Tales project, offers opportunities to reflect on Black history at NC State. Combined with the work of other libraries such as the Juneteenth resources curated by the NC Central University’s James E. Shepard Memorial Library, these resources provide a rich context within which to consider your own role in racial progress to this point, as well as into the uncertain future.