North Carolina Central University, a state-supported liberal arts institution, is a public, historically black university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Dr. James E. Shepard in affiliation with the Chautauqua movement in 1909, it was supported by private funds from both Northern and Southern philanthropists. It was made part of the state system in 1923, when it first received state funding and was renamed as Durham State Normal School. It added graduate classes in arts and sciences and professional schools in law and library science in the late 1930s and 1940s.
Henry McKinley "Mickey" Michaux Jr. is an American civil rights activist and Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly. He represented the state's thirty-first House district from 1983 to 2019 and previously served from 1973 through 1977. The district included constituents in Durham County. Upon his retirement, Michaux was the longest-serving member of the North Carolina General Assembly. In the 2007-2008 session, Michaux served as senior chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and chairman of the House Select Committee on Street Gang Prevention.
George Kenneth Butterfield Jr. is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 1st congressional district since 2004. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected in a special election after the resignation of Frank Ballance.
Melville Jean Herskovits was an American anthropologist who helped establish African and African-American studies in American academia. He is known for exploring the cultural continuity from African cultures as expressed in African-American communities. He worked with his wife Frances (Shapiro) Herskovits, also an anthropologist, in the field in South America, the Caribbean and Africa. They jointly wrote several books and monographs.
Floyd Bixler McKissick was an American lawyer and civil rights activist. He became the first African-American student at the University of North Carolina School of Law. In 1966 he became leader of CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality, taking over from James Farmer. A supporter of Black Power, he turned CORE into a more radical movement. In 1968, McKissick left CORE to found Soul City in Warren County, North Carolina. He endorsed Richard Nixon for president that year, and the federal government, under President Nixon, supported Soul City. He became a state district court judge in 1990 and died on April 28, 1991. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Albert Nathaniel Whiting was an American academic who was President and Chancellor of North Carolina College from 1966 to 1983. He was born in Navesink, New Jersey in July 1917, and served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. He received his PhD from the American University in 1952. Whiting served as Dean of the Faculty of Morgan State College before becoming President and Chancellor of North Carolina College. He was married to Lottie Luck, who predeceased him in 2004 at the age of 85.
James Edward Shepard was an American pharmacist, civil servant and educator, the founder of what became the North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. He first established it as a private school for religious training in 1910 but adapted it as a school for teachers. He had a network of private supporters, including northern white philanthropists such as Olivia Slocum Sage of New York.
The North Carolina A&T–North Carolina Central rivalry is an ongoing series of athletic competitions between North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and North Carolina Central University, both of which are located in North Carolina.
The Myth of the Negro Past is a 1941 monograph by Melville J. Herskovits intended to debunk the myth that African Americans lost their African culture due to their experience of slavery. The book was the first publication of the Carnegie Corporation's Study of the American Negro and took 15 years to research. Herskovits argued that African Americans had retained their heritage from Africa in music, art, social structure, family life, religion, and speech patterns. The book became controversial because it was feared its arguments could be used by proponents of racial segregation to prove that African Americans could not be assimilated into mainstream American society.
The North Carolina Central University School of Law is the law school associated with North Carolina Central University. The school is fully accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and the North Carolina State Bar Council, and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). According to NC Central's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 37.9% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation.
The American Council on African Education was established by Nwafor Orizu in 1945 which obtained numerous tuition scholarships from American sources for the benefit of African students. Amongst its important members are Alain LeRoy Locke, Oric Bates, Mary McLeod Bethune, Harry Emerson Fosdick and Constance Agatha Cummings. They were instrumental in offering scholarships to Nigerian students studying in the United States. Its membership consisted of both black and white academics, journalists and philanthropists.
Robert R. Bond was the first graduate of what is today called North Carolina Central University School of Law. He graduated in 1943, and was the only African American to successfully pass the North Carolina bar exam that same year.
Hocutt v. Wilson, N.C. Super. Ct. (1933) (unreported), was the first attempt to desegregate higher education in the United States. It was initiated by two African American lawyers from Durham, North Carolina, Conrad O. Pearson and Cecil McCoy, with the support of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The case was ultimately dismissed for lack of standing, but it served as a test case for challenging the "separate but equal" doctrine in education and was a precursor to Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
The Royal Ice Cream sit-in was a nonviolent protest in Durham, North Carolina, that led to a court case on the legality of segregated facilities. The demonstration took place on June 23, 1957 when a group of African American protesters, led by Reverend Douglas E. Moore, entered the Royal Ice Cream Parlor and sat in the section reserved for white patrons. When asked to move, the protesters refused and were arrested for trespassing. The case was appealed unsuccessfully to the County and State Superior Courts.
African-American North Carolinians are residents of the state of North Carolina who are of African ancestry. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, African Americans were 22% of the state's population.
Louis Austin (1898-1971) was an African-American journalist, civic leader and social activist. Austin purchased The Carolina Times in 1927 and transformed it into an institution that aided African Americans in their fight for freedom and equality in North Carolina. He used a new approach to civil rights issues in Durham, incorporating lower and middle class blacks, unlike the moderate, accommodationist approach of the black elite in Durham during this time. Austin's unusual strategy of advocating for the majority of blacks to have a voice in society succeeded in galvanizing a broader segment of the African American community in Durham to act for social change. Austin's approach to black activism helped lay the groundwork for the modern Civil Rights Movement in Durham in the late 1950s and 1960s, which also encouraged lower-income blacks to become politically active. His strategies—which were once considered too radical by his peers—allowed Austin to maintain his influence in Durham well into the 1950s and 1960s. In doing so, Austin created a lasting impact for Durham.
The Carolina Times was an American, English-language weekly newspaper published in Durham, North Carolina, United States, founded in 1919 or 1921. It ceased publication in 2020.
Lamont Lilly is an American writer, political activist, and community organizer based in Durham, North Carolina. He is also a former vice-presidential candidate with the Workers World Party in the 2016 presidential election.
Harold T. Epps Sr. was a prominent attorney in North Carolina who was instrumental in desegregating the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.
