Desegregating the University of North Carolina, 1951–1955

In the chronology

Dated events connected with this event, earliest first. See these 18 dated events in the chronology →

1. December 14, 1938 UNC rejects Pauli Murray's graduate application Pauli Murray, who grew up in Durham and lived in New York, applied to UNC's graduate school in 1938 to study with Howard Odum and Guy B. Johnson. On December 14, two days after the Supreme Court's Gaines ruling, Dean W. W. Pierson rejected her because of her race, and her appeals to President Frank Porter Graham became national news. People: Frank Porter Graham, Pauli MurrayNational Humanities Center: Pauli Murray, "Members of Your Race Are Not Admitted" (Song in a Weary Throat, 1987, ch. 11)
2. October 1949–June 1951 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
3. April 24, 1951 UNC admits Edward O. Diggs, its first Black medical student UNC mailed Edward O. Diggs of Winston-Salem, a pre-medical student at A&T College in Greensboro, his letter of admission to the School of Medicine under the trustees' April 4, 1951 policy. He enrolled in the fall of 1951. People: W. Reece Berryhill, Gordon Gray, R. B. HouseDaily Tar Heel (DigitalNC): A&T Student Becomes First To Enter UNC, April 25, 1951
4. May to June 1951 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
5. June 1951 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
6. June 1952 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
7. 1955 Edward O. Diggs becomes UNC's first Black medical graduate Edward O. Diggs graduated from the UNC School of Medicine in 1955, the first African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine degree from the university. James Slade, the school's second Black student, had enrolled in 1953.The Carolina Story: First Black Graduate Students
8. September 19, 1955 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
9. September 1955 Moses C. Burt Jr. is one of the first three Black students admitted to UNC law as first-year students Moses C. Burt Jr., son of Orange County farm agent Moses Burt and Ridge Road principal Alethea Burt, entered the UNC School of Law in fall 1955 as one of the first three African American students admitted straight into its first-year class. Three other Black students who enrolled that fall transferred from other programs.NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 17
10. July 1, 1957–August 1964 William B. Aycock serves as chancellor of UNC at Chapel Hill Aycock, on the law faculty at Chapel Hill since 1948, was chief administrator of the university there from July 1, 1957 until August 1964. His records cover desegregation, the state's speaker ban law and the Dixie Classic betting scandal.Search the index · UNC Libraries: Office of Chancellor, William Brantley Aycock Records, 1957-1964 (finding aid)
11. 1960 The School of Public Health admits its first Black students For fifteen years the school had trained Black health educators through a separate program at North Carolina College in Durham. In 1960, with the civil rights movement pressing against segregation, those programs ended and Black students enrolled at Chapel Hill, at first in small numbers.Search the index · Robert Rodgers Korstad, Dreaming of a Time: The School of Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1939-1989 (1990), scan p. 63
12. December 14, 1963 Karen Parker is arrested at a sit-in at Leo's restaurant Parker, UNC's first Black woman undergraduate and a CORE member, went with other demonstrators to Leo's, a segregated restaurant in downtown Chapel Hill, where they were arrested and taken to jail. She described it in her diary entry of December 18.Search the index · UNC University Archives, History on the Hill: Karen Parker: A Woman to Remember