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White Cross School: merger votes, Black families’ transfers and the closing, 1958–1961

The western Orange school district that three times voted not to join the Chapel Hill schools: the merger elections, the long bus rides of its Black pupils, their families’ requests to attend White Cross School, and the county board’s decision to close it.

In briefAfter 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.

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In February 1958 the White Cross school committee asked for a vote on joining the Chapel Hill city school unit, and at the county board's request commissioners called a May 20 election for Carrboro and White Cross together, where the merger lost 916 to 565. White Cross residents petitioned for a new vote, and the Chapel Hill board waived tuition for a year for about 75 White Cross pupils, white and Black, if the area voted to join. White Cross rejected the merger again, 116 to 110, on August 11, 1959, and 70 of its Black pupils began riding to Central School in Hillsboro, 15 miles or more from home. A third vote failed on April 19, 1960, and that September Black parents asked Chapel Hill to take their children without tuition. In January 1961 parents of 23 Black children applied for the all-white White Cross School. The county board refused, and refused again after Durham attorney Floyd McKissick argued their case in March. On the advice of its attorney, A. H. Graham, the board voted on May 1 to close the school and move its 75 white pupils to Cameron Park School. It released some pupils to Alamance and Chapel Hill schools, refused nine Black children places at the closed school in July, and let an Alamance bus serve the old district.

In the chronology

Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 18 dated events in the chronology →

  1. The White Cross school committee asks for a vote on joining the Chapel Hill unit Meeting with the county Board of Education in Hillsborough, the White Cross district school committee voted unanimously to ask for an election on whether the White Cross district should join the Chapel Hill city administrative unit and its special tax district. Committee members did not predict that a majority of White Cross voters would favor the change.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 13, 1958, p. 1
  2. The county school board asks for a vote on joining Carrboro and White Cross to the Chapel Hill district Without dissent the Orange County Board of Education asked the county commissioners to call an election in the Carrboro and White Cross school attendance areas on joining the Chapel Hill special school tax district. The Chapel Hill school board had already endorsed the vote by polling its members, and a delegation from Carrboro's Citizens Committee for Schools pressed for an early date. People: G. Paul Carr, Charles W. StanfordThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 6, 1958, p. 1
  3. County commissioners call the May 20 Carrboro-White Cross school merger election On their third try at a legal description of the area, the commissioners adopted the resolution calling a May 20 election on enlarging the Chapel Hill city school unit to take in the Carrboro and White Cross school districts at the Chapel Hill school tax rate. They ordered a new registration of voters and set polling places in Carrboro and White Cross. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Dwight RayThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 10, 1958, p. 1
  4. Carrboro and White Cross voters reject joining the Chapel Hill school district In a special election that drew 1,494 of the 1,634 newly registered voters, the Carrboro and White Cross school areas voted 916 to 565 against enlarging the Chapel Hill city school unit to take them in at the Chapel Hill school tax rate. Carrboro voted 723 to 490 against; the News pointed to fear of losing Carrboro's identity, old ill will toward Chapel Hill and, in White Cross, the tax.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 22, 1958, p. 1
  5. White Cross residents petition for a new vote on joining the Chapel Hill school district At a meeting called by the White Cross School PTA, residents gave county school board chairman Charles W. Stanford petitions signed by at least 220 people asking for a new election on merging the White Cross area into the Chapel Hill school district and for tuition-free places in Chapel Hill schools meanwhile. Voters had rejected the merger by more than two to one on May 20. People: Charles W. StanfordThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 28, 1958, p. 1
  6. The Chapel Hill school board lets White Cross pupils attend without tuition The Chapel Hill school board voted to waive tuition for the coming year for about 75 white and Black pupils from the White Cross attendance area, on condition that White Cross hold another referendum and vote to join the Chapel Hill special tax district as soon as one could be called. People: Charles W. StanfordThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 4, 1958, p. 1
  7. White Cross voters turn down a merger with the Chapel Hill schools a second time White Cross voters defeated a merger of their school into the Chapel Hill city district, 116 to 110, a year after Carrboro had joined it; a first vote, held with Carrboro's on May 20, 1958, had failed 193 to 75. A third vote failed on April 19, 1960, and the county closed the school in 1961. The county board sold the White Cross property to Edmiston Realty Company for $14,900 in 1967.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 13, 1959, p. 1 (continued p. 7) · Also: DigitalNC: Irene Oliver Pender, A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983; The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 21, 1960, p. 3
  8. White Cross's Black pupils begin the long bus ride to Central School in Hillsboro With White Cross left outside the Chapel Hill schools after the August merger vote failed, and tuition now required to attend there, 70 Black pupils from the White Cross area, grades 1 through 12, opened the term at Central School in Hillsboro, 15 miles or more from home. White pupils from the area in grades 7 and 8 were bused to Hillsboro High, and at least two families picked up transfer application forms.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 3, 1959, p. 1
  9. White Cross voters reject joining the Chapel Hill school district a third time Voters in the White Cross school area turned down merger with the Chapel Hill district for the third time, about three to two, with 301 votes against and 507 of 538 registered voters taking part. The area stayed in the county system, so its pupils could attend Chapel Hill schools only by paying tuition, without bus service. People: G. Paul CarrSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 21, 1960, p. 3
  10. Black parents from White Cross ask the Chapel Hill schools to take their children A delegation of Black parents from the White Cross attendance area asked the Chapel Hill school board to let their children attend Northside School in Chapel Hill without the $50 out-of-district tuition. Their spokeswoman said that under the two boards' joint policy some of the children had ridden more than 100 miles a day by bus to Central School in Hillsboro since the year before.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 15, 1960, p. 7
  11. Black parents at White Cross ask to send their children to White Cross School The parents of 23 Black children living near White Cross applied to move them from the Hillsboro Negro elementary school, a long daily bus ride away, to the white school in their own community. Most of the children had gone to school in Chapel Hill until White Cross voters again turned down a merger with the Chapel Hill district in 1960.The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 28, 1961, year-in-review story on integration, p. 1
  12. The county school board refuses the White Cross transfer requests The Orange County Board of Education on February 6, 1961 turned down the Black families' requests for 23 children to attend the all-white White Cross elementary school, saying no reassignment had been asked for within ten days of the parents being notified of their children's school and that three of the children were below the age for starting school. The board said new requests made at the end of the school term would be considered.The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 28, 1961, year-in-review story on integration, p. 2 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 9, 1961, p. 3
Show all 18 dated events
  1. 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
  2. The school board's lawyer advises closing White Cross School rather than fight the case A. H. Graham, attorney for the county board, told it the transfer fight could not be won and recommended shutting White Cross School instead. People: Alexander H. "Sandy" GrahamThe Chapel Hill Weekly, December 28, 1961, year-in-review story on integration, p. 2
  3. The county board votes to close White Cross School and send its white pupils to Hillsborough Rather than admit the Black children, the Orange County school board decided to close White Cross School at the end of the school year and move its 75 white pupils to Cameron Park School in West Hillsboro, a step it tied to its ten-year building program.The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 28, 1961, year-in-review story on integration, p. 2
  4. After closing White Cross School, the county board lets its pupils go to Alamance and Chapel Hill schools At a stormy meeting the Orange County Board of Education released 25 White Cross area pupils to attend Eli Whitney School in Alamance County and ten to the Chapel Hill schools, if parents furnished transportation, and asked the state to fold the White Cross district into the Hillsboro district. It took under advisement petitions for a fourth vote on joining part of the area to the Chapel Hill school district.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 1, 1961, p. 8
  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. County school board lets an Alamance bus serve the former White Cross district For one year the Orange County board agreed to let an Alamance County school bus come into the former White Cross district as far as Strowd Road, the third road from the county line, after a request to carry White Cross-area pupils to Eli Whitney School.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 7, 1961, p. 22

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