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Local figure

Floyd B. McKissick

Floyd B. McKissick (1922–1991) was among the first Black students at the University of North Carolina's law school in Chapel Hill. A Durham lawyer with undergraduate and law degrees from North Carolina Central University, he became national director of the Congress of Racial Equality in 1966 and founded Soul City near Warrenton in the early 1970s.

Source: UNC Libraries: Floyd B. McKissick Papers, 1940s-1980s (#04930), finding aid

Also found in catalogs as Floyd B (Floyd Bixler) McKissick.

1922–1991 · Dates from the Library of Congress · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

7 works about Floyd B. McKissick are indexed here, as are 2 works by McKissick. 1 held at OCPL →

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

White Cross School: merger votes, Black families’ transfers and the closing, 1958–19611958–1961 · 18 events · After White Cross voters rejected joining the Chapel Hill school unit, the area's Black pupils rode to Hillsboro, and after Black parents applied to the all-white White Cross School the county board closed it. The merger lost in a May 1958 election with Carrboro, 916 to 565, and White Cross rejected it again, 116 to 110, in August 1959; 70 of its Black pupils began riding to Central School in Hillsboro, 15 miles or more from home. A third vote failed in 1960. In January 1961 parents of 23 Black children applied to White Cross School. The county board refused, and on May 1 voted to close the school and move its 75 white pupils to Cameron Park School.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 8 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. 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
  3. First Black undergraduates enter UNC LeRoy and Ralph Frasier and John Lewis Brandon, all of Durham, became UNC's first Black undergraduates when they began classes on September 19, 1955. A three-judge federal court in Greensboro had ordered the university on September 10 to process their applications, and they registered in the General College. People: Floyd B. McKissick, LeRoy Frasier, Ralph Frasier, John Lewis BrandonChapel Hill Weekly (September 20, 1955): Negro Students Are Attending Classes
  4. Floyd McKissick represents the White Cross children at a school board hearing At a hearing on Friday, March 3, 1961 on the appeal of the parents of 19 of the White Cross children, the children were represented by Durham attorney Floyd McKissick, who argued that they were being denied their constitutional rights, that the area had no school for Black children and that the White Cross school had empty rooms. The Chapel Hill Weekly reported that the county board denied them again, reading a statement it had prepared before the hearing began; The News of Orange reported the board reaffirming its February 6 denial on Monday, March 6, as administratively impossible to change during the school year. People: Floyd B. McKissickThe Chapel Hill Weekly, December 28, 1961, year-in-review story on integration, p. 2 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 9, 1961, p. 6
  5. The county school board again refuses nine Black children places at the closed White Cross School After a formal hearing requested by their attorney, Floyd B. McKissick of Durham, the Orange County Board of Education unanimously denied the applications of nine Black children, from sixth graders to entering first graders, to be reassigned from Central School in Hillsboro to the white White Cross Elementary School, on the ground that the school had been closed. People: Floyd B. McKissickThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 27, 1961, p. 4
  6. Floyd McKissick sends organizers to Chapel Hill and defends arrested demonstrators As head of CORE's Durham office, McKissick sent organizer Quinton Baker to Chapel Hill in 1963 to teach nonviolence and demonstration tactics, and he acted as attorney for many demonstrators arrested there. Letters to him in 1964 include one written from the Orange County jail. People: John Dunne, Quinton BakerSearch the index · UNC Libraries: I Raised My Hand to Volunteer, Documents and Photographs
  7. Floyd McKissick and Malcolm X appear together at UNC's Memorial Hall A day after their meeting in Durham, Durham attorney Floyd McKissick and Malcolm X appeared at UNC in a meeting moved from Howell Hall to Memorial Hall when about 1,600 people came. McKissick said he believed the Muslim movement had grown out of the frustration of Black Americans.Search the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 21, 1963, p. 1 (Malcolm X Speaks Here)
  8. Orange Superior Court convicts Pat Cusick and three others for the Merchants Association sit-in A jury in Orange Superior Court at Hillsborough convicted Pat Cusick and three other demonstrators of trespass for the July sit-in at the Merchants Association office. Cusick chose 30 days on the roads over paying the fine and fasted 17 days in protest at being placed in a segregated prison camp. People: Floyd B. McKissickSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 15, 1963, p. 1

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Floyd B. McKissick, 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 Floyd B. McKissick. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

By Floyd B. McKissick

Oral history interview with Floyd B. McKissick, Sr., May 31, 1989: interview L-0040, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

McKissick, Floyd B. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Floyd B. McKissick, Sr. (1922-1991), later head of the Congress of Racial Equality, recalls his early life in a Southern Oral History Program interview recorded May 31, 1989, by Bruce Kalk. McKissick recalls the racism he met growing up and while serving in the Army during World War II. The interview then turns to his law studies and his part in integrating UNC as one of the first Black students admitted to its law school. Published online in 2007 in Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Floyd McKissick, December 6, 1973 interview A-0134, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).

McKissick, Floyd B. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Floyd B. McKissick (1922-1991), interviewed by Jack Bass and Walter DeVries on December 6, 1973 for the Southern Oral History Program. McKissick, who broke the color line at the UNC School of Law and later led the Congress of Racial Equality from 1966, looks back over a life in politics and activism, from civil rights work before and after the Second World War to support for the student sit-ins of the 1960s. He also discusses Terry Sanford, segregation in transportation and the Soul City project. Fifty-seven minutes. Electronic edition 2007.

NC Cardinal UNC

About Floyd B. McKissick

African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties

Bolduc, Jean · 2016

Jean Bolduc's 2016 collection of interviews with African American residents of Durham and Orange counties, presented as short biographies. The subjects are Floyd McKissick (1922-1991), the first African American admitted to UNC's law school, Walter Jackson, Brenda Stephens, Nate Davis, poet Jaki Shelton Green, Jackie Wagstaff, Diane Wright and Michelle Johnson, with a closing chapter on the Ku Klux Klan. 125 pages with illustrations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Duke record: McKissick, Floyd B. -- 1922-1991 -- Interviews.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 BOLDUC Duke

African Americans of Durham and Orange counties : an oral history

Bolduc, Jean · 2016 · The History Press

Jean Bolduc's collection of oral history interviews with Black residents of Durham and Orange counties, published by The History Press in 2016, 125 pages with photographs and portraits. The narrators are the poet Jaki Shelton Green, civil rights lawyer Floyd McKissick, Walter Jackson, Nate Davis, Brenda Stephens, Diane Wright, Jackie Wagstaff and Michelle Johnson, and a closing chapter deals with the Ku Klux Klan. The interviews document Black life and race relations in the two counties across the twentieth century.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Durham record: McKissick, Floyd B. 1922-1991 -- Interviews.

NC Cardinal Duke Durham Wake Forest CH Historical Society UNC

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: McKissick, Floyd B. (Floyd Bixler), 1922-1991.

UNC

Department of City and Regional Planning of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill collection of Soul City (N.C.) materials, 1962-1991

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Department of City and Regional Planning · 1962

Material on Soul City, the new town in North Carolina promoted by Floyd B. McKissick, gathered between 1962 and 1991 by the Department of City and Regional Planning at UNC. Five linear feet, about 4,000 items, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 5469. Subjects include Eva M. Clayton, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, planning faculty including Edward J. Kaiser and David R. Godschalk, and African American business and civic leadership.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: McKissick, Floyd B. (Floyd Bixler), 1922-1991.

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: McKissick, Floyd B. (Floyd Bixler), 1922-1991.

UNC

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Foundational · NC 975.656 BOLDUC African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History Bolduc, Jean · 2016

    Jean Bolduc's 2016 collection of interviews with African American residents of Durham and Orange counties, presented as short biographies. The subjects are Floyd McKissick (1922-1991), the first African American admitted to UNC's law school, Walter Jackson, Brenda Stephens, Nate Davis, poet Jaki Shelton Green, Jackie Wagstaff, Diane Wright and Michelle Johnson, with a closing chapter on the Ku Klux Klan. 125 pages with illustrations.

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 2 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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