North Carolina Fund

Last updated

The North Carolina Fund was a series of experimental programs conceived at the request of North Carolina governor Terry Sanford, who was aided by the writer John Ehle. Its director, George Esser, was appointed in 1963. It was created as a non-profit corporation to operate for five years only, with a mandate to create experimental projects in education, health, job training, housing, and community development.

Contents

During the summers of 1964 and 1965, the North Carolina Volunteers Program created teams of African-American and white college students to work together and show that communities could be stronger if their members reached across lines of race and class to solve problems of poverty. At the core, it aimed to lessen minority poverty all across North Carolina and to further the cause of civil rights.

Also by example, the North Carolina Fund served as a model and catalyst for such national programs as Head Start, VISTA, and the Community Action movement.

Creation

Feeling that his education program had spent most of his political capital in the legislature, North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford began seeking private support to fund anti-poverty efforts in the state. [1] While traveling across the state to promote his education plan, Sanford came to be of the belief that much of the poverty in North Carolina was due to racial discrimination and the lack of economic opportunity for blacks. He thus concluded that any anti-poverty plan he created would have to address economic problems for both blacks and whites. [2] In the summer of 1962 he met John Ehle, a novelist and professor whom he quickly took on as an adviser on public policy. [3] With Ehle he met with leaders of the Ford Foundation, a private philanthropic organization, and discussed a variety of issues with them, including anti-poverty efforts. [4] He also established contact with George Esser, an academic at UNC-Chapel Hill's Institute of Government, to ask him for potential uses of Ford Foundation funds in combating poverty. [5] Sanford's aides organized a three-day tour of North Carolina in January 1963 for Ford Foundation leaders to convince them to fund an anti-poverty project. [6] Sanford's attempts to devise a plan became increasingly urgent over the following months, as civil rights activists intensified their calls for racial equality and the prospects of a white backlash grew. [7] He worked to secure the support of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, two smaller North Carolina philanthropic organizations, to bolster proposed grants from the Ford Foundation, [8] and tapped the advice of John H. Wheeler, leader of the black business community in Durham. [9] He also invited officials from the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to come to North Carolina to work on coordinating federal efforts with the state project. [10]

Sanford with President Lyndon B. Johnson on one of his "poverty tours" in Nash County, May 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson on "poverty tour" in Nash County, North Carolina.jpg
Sanford with President Lyndon B. Johnson on one of his "poverty tours" in Nash County, May 1964

In July 1963 the Ford Foundation committed $7 million to support an anti-poverty project in North Carolina. With additional grants from the other foundations, on July 18 Sanford, Wheeler, Charlie Babcock (a board member of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation), and C. A. McKnight (the editor of The Charlotte Observer ) incorporated the North Carolina Fund. [11] Its goals were to fight poverty and promote racial equality across the state. [12] Since the North Carolina Fund was backed by private organizations and not financed by the state, it could be more flexible in addressing social issues while also avoiding political opposition from segregationists. [13] Sanford was made chairman of the Fund's board. [14] He publicly announced its creation at a press conference on September 30, garnering a positive reception from state newspapers. [15] The organisation had a racially integrated staff—which was unusual at the time—and consulted the local residents it aimed to assist. [16]

Operations

The Fund launched a program that utilized team teaching and provided for teacher aides, which was studied by President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration and used as a model for Head Start. The Fund also supported eleven additional anti-poverty programs under another initiative which included the establishment of day care facilities and job training courses. These were also evaluated by the Johnson administration when it developed its "War on Poverty" programs. [17] Sanford himself was disappointed by Johnson's War on Poverty and the agency responsible for it, the Office of Economic Opportunity, and told federal officials that the goal of their effort should not be to eliminate poverty—which Sanford thought impossible—as much as it should be to reduce the "causes of poverty." [18] Johnson administration officials considered placing Sanford in charge of the office. [19]

One of the North Carolina Fund's prominent programs was Operation Breakthrough (Durham, North Carolina), an organization in Durham.[ citation needed ]

The Fund ceased operations in 1969. [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill</span> Public university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolling students in 1795, making it one of the oldest public universities in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Sanford</span> 65th governor of North Carolina

James Terry Sanford was an American lawyer and politician from North Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, Sanford served as the 65th Governor of North Carolina from 1961 to 1965, was a two-time U.S. presidential candidate in the 1970s, and served as a U.S. senator from 1986 to 1993. He was a strong proponent of public education and introduced several reforms and new programs in North Carolina's schools and institutions of higher education as the state's governor. From 1970 to 1985, Sanford served as the president of Duke University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Holshouser</span> American politician

James Eubert Holshouser Jr. was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 68th Governor of North Carolina from 1973 to 1977. He was the first Republican candidate to be elected as governor of the state since 1896. Born in Boone, North Carolina, Holshouser initially sought to become a sports journalist before deciding to pursue a law degree. While in law school he developed an interest in politics and in 1962 he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives where he focused on restructuring government and higher education institutions, and drug abuse legislation. Made chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party in March 1966, he established the organization's first permanent staff and gained prominence by opposing a cigarette tax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William B. Umstead</span> American politician

William Bradley Umstead was an American politician who served as a United States Senator and the 63rd governor of North Carolina from 1953 to 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skipper Bowles</span> American politician (1919–1986)

Hargrove "Skipper" Bowles Jr. was an American Democratic politician and businessman, based in Greensboro, North Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woody Durham</span>

Woody Lombardi Durham was an American play-by-play radio announcer for the North Carolina Tar Heels football and men's basketball programs from 1971 to 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ehle</span> American writer (1925–2018)

John Marsden Ehle, Jr. was an American writer known best for his fiction set in the Appalachian Mountains of the American South. He has been described as "the father of Appalachian literature".

George Hyndman Esser Jr. was an American civil rights advocate who led the North Carolina Fund at the request of then-governor Terry Sanford in the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvey Cloyd Philpott</span> American politician

Harvey Cloyd Philpott was an American businessman and politician who served as the 24th Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina in 1961. Philpott grew up in Lexington, North Carolina. Following the completion of his education, he rose to become president and chairman of the board of the United Furniture Corporation. He held several local political offices before being elected to a seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1953 as a Democrat.

Albert Coates (1896–1989) was the founder and long-time director of the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Atwater</span> American civil rights activist (1935–2016)

Ann George Atwater was an American civil rights activist in Durham, North Carolina. Throughout her career she helped improve the quality of life in Durham through programs such as Operation Breakthrough, a community organization dedicated to fight the War on Poverty. She became an effective activist and leader when advocating for black rights, such as better private housing. Atwater promoted unity of the working-class African Americans through grassroots organizations.

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall is an American historian and Julia Cherry Spruill Professor Emerita at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her scholarship and teaching forwarded the emergence of U.S. women's history in the 1960s and 1970s, helped to inspire new research on Southern labor history and the long civil rights movement, and encouraged the use of oral history sources in historical research. She is the author of Revolt Against Chivalry: Jessie Daniel Ames and the Women’s Campaign Against Lynching;Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World and Sisters and Rebels: The Struggle for the Soul of America.

John Sprunt Hill was a North Carolina lawyer, banker and philanthropist who played a fundamental role in the civic and social development of Durham, North Carolina, the expansion of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the development of rural credit unions in North Carolina during the first half of the 20th century.

Operation Breakthrough, an anti-poverty movement, was established in Durham, North Carolina in August 1964. It played a prominent and influential role in the expansion of the Civil Rights Movement in Durham. Terry Sanford, its founder, managed to develop that through the help and involvement of the North Carolina Fund. A Member of the Democratic Party, Sanford was the former governor of North Carolina and was highly respected for his intervention in the improvement of public education. Indeed, in the 1960s, the education system in place in North Carolina was very poor as one quarter of the adults above 25 years old had received an education inferior to sixth grade, making most of them illiterate.2 Because of the high success of the program, the concept developed through the North Carolina Fund was mimicked throughout the nation, transforming what initially was a state wide program to a national program. Throughout this movement, activism played a fundamental role as the main aim of the program consisted of changing the economic situation of a state through the use of political and social power.

Anne Cannon Forsyth was a Cannon textiles and R.J. Reynolds tobacco families heiress, and education activist who created the Anne C. Stouffer Foundation in 1967, which was the first foundation to offer full scholarships for young African-American students to attend elite southern preparatory boarding schools. She also served as founder and president of the North Carolina Fund. The Anne Cannon Trust awarded $100,000 to Appalachian State University to provide educational scholarships to underrepresented populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin M. Gill</span> Lawyer and politician in North Carolina, USA (1899–1978)

Edwin Maurice Gill was an American politician, lawyer, and public finance official who served as North Carolina State Treasurer from 1953 to 1977.

The Carolina Population Center (CPC) is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. CPC was established in 1966. The primary goals of the center are to conduct research on population, health, aging, and the environment, and share data and findings that push the field forward and train the next generation of population scholars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph H. Scott</span> American politician and businessman

Ralph Henderson Scott was an American politician and businessman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Rose Sanford</span> First Lady of North Carolina

Margaret Rose Sanford was an American civic leader, teacher, and philanthropist who, as the wife of Terry Sanford, served as First Lady of North Carolina from 1961 to 1965. Prior to entering public life, she worked as a teacher in North Carolina and Kentucky. As first lady, Sanford hosted the first annual North Carolina Symphony Ball in 1961, established a library of North Carolinian books at the North Carolina Executive Mansion, and planted a rose garden on the mansion's grounds. She was the first governor's wife to decorate the Governor's Western Residence in Asheville. Sanford sent her children to the first racially integrated public elementary school in Raleigh, North Carolina, while the family lived in the executive mansion. She served on the board of the Methodist Home for Children, the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Stagville Plantation Restoration Board, and East Carolina University. She was also a member of the Education Commission of the States and the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. While Sanford's husband served as president of Duke University, she was appointed by Governor Jim Hunt to serve on a delegation of university faculty and administrators to China in 1975.

James Andrew Felton was an educator, counselor, community leader, and author in northeastern North Carolina. His decades of activism exemplified black organizing during the “long civil rights movement” through efforts to ensure equal rights for African Americans, merge North Carolina’s segregated teacher associations, improve housing conditions in the state’s Black Belt, and preserve black history.

References

  1. Eamon 2014, p. 83.
  2. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, pp. 50–54.
  3. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, p. 59.
  4. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, pp. 59–60, 64.
  5. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, pp. 64–65.
  6. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, p. 65.
  7. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, p. 66.
  8. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, pp. 79–80.
  9. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, p. 81.
  10. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, p. 87.
  11. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, p. 82.
  12. Smith, Aidan (July 2005). "July 1963 – The North Carolina Fund". This Month in North Carolina History. UNC University Libraries. Archived from the original on April 17, 2014. Retrieved June 9, 2008.
  13. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, p. 83.
  14. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, p. 85.
  15. Korstad & Leloudis 2010, p. 88.
  16. Covington & Ellis 1999, p. 332.
  17. Eamon 2014, pp. 83–84.
  18. Covington & Ellis 1999, p. 360.
  19. Goldsmith 2018, p. 135.
  20. Covington & Ellis 1999, p. 330.

Works cited