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Harvey E. Beech

Harvey E. Beech (1923–2005) was one of five students who in 1951, after a lengthy court battle, became the first African Americans admitted to the UNC law school in Chapel Hill. Born in Kinston, he graduated in June 1952 and practiced law for more than 35 years.

Source: UNC Libraries: Harvey E. Beech Papers, 1939-2004 (#05465-z), finding aid

1923– · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

5 works about Harvey E. Beech are indexed here, as is one work by Beech.

Search these 5 works Research sources View indexed works ↓

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Black law students sue to enter UNC's Law School On October 25, 1949, Harold Epps and other law students at North Carolina College in Durham sued for admission to UNC's law school. A federal district court ruled against them on October 9, 1950, but the Fourth Circuit reversed on March 27, 1951, and the Supreme Court refused to hear the university's appeal on June 4, 1951. People: Floyd B. McKissick, Harvey E. Beech, J. Kenneth LeeUNC School of Law, Law School First: Lawsuits
  2. Dean Brandis handles the applications of Pauli Murray and three other Black students to the law school After the trustees left admissions to each professional school's dean, Brandis wrote Chancellor R. B. House about four Black applicants, Pauli Murray, J. Kenneth Lee, Harvey E. Beech and William C. Chance Jr., and on June 6 told Murray the school offered no graduate law courses. The UNC Libraries exhibit reads these letters as showing the law school resisting integration. People: Pauli Murray, R. B. House, J. Kenneth Lee, Harvey E. BeechSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, 1951: Murray inquiry about law school admissions
  3. UNC Law School begins desegregation About a week after the Supreme Court refused on June 4, 1951, to review McKissick v. Carmichael, Black students registered for summer session at UNC's law school, the first African Americans to enroll at the university. UNC Law names them as Harvey E. Beech, James L. Lassiter, J. Kenneth Lee, Floyd B. McKissick and James R. Walker. People: Floyd B. McKissick, Harvey E. Beech, J. Kenneth LeeChapel Hill Weekly (June 15, 1951): Negroes Enter University
  4. Harvey Beech and J. Kenneth Lee graduate from UNC's law school A year after they entered as the first Black students at UNC's law school, Harvey Beech and J. Kenneth Lee received their law degrees. UNC also lists James Robert Walker among the 1952 graduates. People: J. Kenneth LeeSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Harvey E. Beech Papers, 1939-2004 (#05465-z), finding aid
  5. Harvey Beech receives the General Alumni Association's Distinguished Service Medal The General Alumni Association awarded Beech its Distinguished Service Medal in 2002. The citation, read at the Annual Alumni Luncheon, called him the inspiration behind the Black Alumni Reunion and noted the scholarship endowment he set up at the university.Search the index · Carolina Alumni: Distinguished Service Medal (list of recipients)

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Harvey E. Beech, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Indexed works

Works about or by Harvey E. Beech. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

By Harvey E. Beech

Oral history interview with Harvey E. Beech, September 25, 1996 interview J-0075, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).

Beech, Harvey E. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Harvey E. Beech (born 1923), one of the first African American students at the UNC School of Law, interviewed by Anita Foye on September 25, 1996 for the Southern Oral History Program. He describes growing up in Kinston, youngest of five children of a barber who never learned to read but built a chain of shops that put his children through college, then his legal education at Chapel Hill and career as a lawyer and civil rights advocate. One hour thirty-four minutes. Electronic edition 2007.

NC Cardinal UNC

About Harvey E. Beech

The integration of UNC-Chapel Hill: Law School first

Nixon, Donna (Donna L.) · 2019 · North Carolina Law Review Association

Donna Nixon's article on the desegregation of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which began at the School of Law. Subjects include Harvey E. Beech, James L. Lassiter, J. Kenneth Lee, Floyd B. McKissick and James R. Walker Jr. Published in 2019 at Chapel Hill by the North Carolina Law Review Association and shelved with the law collection.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Beech, Harvey E., 1923-.

UNC

Harvey Beech speaks : 1st black graduate of the University of North Carolina reminisces and expands.

Dove-Coleman, Evelyn · 2001 · Pathchoice Nonprofit Corp

Evelyn Dove-Coleman's interview with Harvey E. Beech, born 1923, whom the subtitle calls the first black graduate of the University of North Carolina. Topics include African American college graduates, higher education, social conditions and North Carolina lawyers. Published at Kinston by Pathchoice Nonprofit Corp in 2001, 45 pages with illustrations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Beech, Harvey E., 1923-.

UNC

J. Kenneth Lee papers, 1949-1994

Lee, J. Kenneth (John Kenneth), 1923-2018 · 1949

J. Kenneth Lee (1923 to 2018), a Black lawyer in North Carolina, left papers covering 1949 to 1994, collection 4782 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. The papers concern his legal career alongside the integration of higher education in the state, civil rights work for African Americans, and the study of law at Chapel Hill, where Harvey E. Beech is named with him.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Beech, Harvey E., 1923-.

UNC

Law school first : The African Americans who integrated UNC-Chapel Hill.

Kathrine R. Everett Law Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A history produced by the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on the African American students who first integrated the campus through its School of Law. Harvey E. Beech, J. Kenneth Lee and Floyd B. McKissick are among the people discussed, and the account sits within twentieth century civil rights and race relations in North Carolina.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Beech, Harvey E., 1923-.

UNC

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Background

  • Harvey E. BeechThe Local Reporter Nonprofit news for Chapel Hill and Carrboro
  • LawsuitsUNC-Chapel Hill University histories, exhibits, and research guides

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Harvey E. Beech Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
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