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ALL ALONE & IS. M TOGETHER Fifty years ago, four black students P integrated the freshman class, the marching band and ACC sports. k They didn’t face protests or death . threats, but they had a tough time P r finding friends. by Cynthia Greenlee-Donnell n a sun-soaked afternoon in September 1956. a group of NC State freshmen as­ sembled for a three-day ori­ entation sponsored by the Ocampus YMCA. About 150 students were there—all young men. all with short hair and shirts tucked into belted pants. They attended a picnic, nightly sing-alongs and a series of talks on wholesome topics such as “Growing Religiously in a Technical College." They sized up one another, hop­ ing to make new friends to help them find their footing. Like most NC State students, Irwin Holmes ’60 was a North Carolina native who hadn't traveled far to attend college. Still, he was excited and nervous, and not just because he was starting a new school. He’d grown up in Durham, where he'd at­ tended an all-black high school and rarely had cause to interact with white people. He was the only black student in the crowd, and he was acutely aware that the white students there had grown up on the other side of segregation. He wasn’t en­ tirely sure what they’d make of him. and he didn't know yet what to make of them. In 1956, Elvis made his first gyrating appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show and Nat King Cole became the first black ce­ lebrity with his own TV variety show. Parents discussed polio vaccinations for p n their college-bound students, the "spread .ififtii of the Reds” and a series of court cases WWW.ALUMNI.NCSU.EDU NCState 29 Manuel Crockett (left) and Edward Carson pose for I a 1956 Associated Press photograph. The first four I black undergrads made headlines for the milestones comethey set. here But as theya test didn't case seekor anything." the attention. Walter “ IHolmes didn’t told an AP reporter. “I just want to get an education." below: Text from the back of the photo. f TOBr- ATOBB 1 B-A5U5 please csrorr (FCPKPS TOE STOUT SUTOAT OK TIP? CCT.35BA?ICS.) 28, WITH 1 H RAKLIP'S KlLXICa, THE QOIK? WAT ECISEMM! 3T1DWTS HAKUEL CROCSOT, JR., LEFT, A® ■MAID CAW08, BTTO frpshmek raw ralekh, h.c., swcm: DRAFT IRQ CLASS WITH WHJTE STCDK1W At MOKTH CAPOLIKA STl 001X851. THE SCBCCir IS CHE OP TWO BIUHCHPS OP ?HE(CTIt7 1 cp rows cakliha^Vhich have bkw takiib ijhb5pa?ioh n STRIDE—ns MAHK1D COWmST ' ME OTHHP IHSTITITIOHS 0 HIGHER LKARHIK IK THE 30OTI AH PWC* ENOD'IKTEPirc HOSTILITY, CKCKETT SATS, K 5 RECEIVED PHIEWLT CTO H WHITE STCDBHTS. KOIHIW5 APPROACHITG AN •IKCIDBST*' H REPOHTB) SINCE THE TJKV STEP TCWAHBS SHTEORATICH

that would bring an end to segregated ed­ aid came from Howard, he’d already con­ ucation. NC State had integrated its grad­ firmed his place at the Raleigh college. Later. Holmes would read what hap­ uate school three years earlier when two So Holmes was relieved when another pened at other Southern campuses as black students enrolled in engineering. student struck up a conversation at orien­ they integrated. At the University of Mis­ But the freshman class wasn’t open to tation. They chatted, learning each other’s sissippi, where James Meredith enrolled blacks until a 1955 court decision in the names and discussing their hometowns in 1962, there were death threats and jeer­ case Frasier v. the Board of Trustees of the and prospective majors. That simple ex­ ing mobs. Riots left two people dead. Hol­ University of North Carolina. Holmes ap­ change was the longest conversation he'd mes felt lucky: Most students at NC State plied to NC State and to Howard Univer­ ever had with a white person, and he was had been content to ignore him. and some sity, a historically black school, expecting surprised at how comfortable it felt. He had been kind. that NC State admissions officers would scanned the crowd at subsequent sessions, Nor would he have to go it alone. Three delay considering his application until it searching for the affable young man he'd other black undergraduates started their was too late to enroll. But that hadn’t hap­ spoken to before. “I couldn’t find him be­ engineering studies in 1956. including pened. By the time an offer of financial cause they all looked alike to me." his Hillside High School classmate Wal-

The UNC System 1 QQQ Classes begin at would be disbursed to any college .j Q C A The u,s‘ SuP,eme XVDJL decides black 1007 the NX. College that made distinctions between rulingsX y Jregarding Court blacks issues in severalhigher students are eligible for admission of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts statesstudents could on thecomply basis by of providing race. But education. One says that blacks into graduate programs. college(NX. A&M,’s roots now are NC in State). federal The legis ­ separate colleges for blacks and must be given access to programs lation signed by President Abraham whites. That provision led to the of study not available in histori­ Q|-*5 State College admits Lincoln. The Morrill Act of 1862 1891 establishment of what Is now cally black colleges. Another ruling two black graduate provided for the creation and fund­ NX. Agricultural & Technical State mandates that black students must students into the School of Engi­ ing of land-grant universities na­ University in Greensboro as an al­ be accorded equal protection and neering. Robert Clemons ’57 pree tionwide. A second Morrill Act-in ternative to offering blacks admis­ treatment under the law in state- would be the first black graduate 1890—required states to provide sion at NX. A&M. supported schools. These deci­ student.of the college Hardy in Liston 1957; ’the57. withdrewother technical education for blacks, too. sions open the door to integration and didn't complete his degree. In and said that no federal monies in higher education in North Caro­ the early 1950s, black extension lina and other states. agents attending university work­ 30 NCState autumn 2006 shops weren’t housed on campus. ter Holmes ’62. The son of Hillside’s re­ time,” qualified black students would be spected principal, Walter Holmes was a Laying the groundwork admitted. talented musician who struggled to bal­ n 1951, just after the U.S. Supreme Gray's pragmatism riled the segre­ ance his creative side with the need for a Court ruled in Swealt v. Painter gationist minority among the trustees. “practical" career. Then there was Edward that black students must be admit­ State College alumnus and Franklinville Carson ‘62. the gregarious student coun­ ted to programs of study not avail­ resident John W. Clark (1906) supported cil president at Raleigh's black Ligon High able at historically black colleges increasing taxes to build a black medi­ School, and i7-year-old Manuel Crockett Iand universities, Technician interruptedcal school rather than admit blacks to '60. a quiet, independent Ligon graduate its coverage of the perennial campus di­ UNC-Chapel Hill’s. He also offered to and the youngest of the bunch. lemmas of parking, student housing and show photographs of white women who Crockett and Carson were already getting tickets to the Carolina game to married black men, fanning fears about NC State veterans by the time the two Hol­ take on the “integration question." “racial mixing.” Trustee John Kerr Jr. of meses arrived; they’d enrolled in summer An editorial writer in the Feb. 16 issue Warrenton was quoted in newspapers say­ school. Earlier that spring, they'd skipped polled six students about whether they'd ing, “If you’re going to let ’em in graduate lunch and slipped out of the fence sur­ support desegregation. “To a man, the schools of North Carolina, you’re gonna rounding the Ligon campus to apply for students raised a vociferous NO! Most of let 'em in public schools. This is abso­ admission at NC State. When the duo them were true to the Old Southern Tradi­ lutely nothing but a wedge to get 'em in returned to campus, they landed in hot tion, 'Would You Let Your Daughter Marry public schools. Within five years, there water for playing hooky. Crockett hadn’t a Negro?’ Some said they wouldn’t room won’t be a Negro left at A&T College. . . . consulted his parents—who both worked with a negro; some said the fine parents If you want to maintain white supremacy, at the Garner Road School for the Blind of the South would take their children out this is your opportunity to do it.” and the Deaf, the "colored" sister school of State and send them elsewhere--But But most of the trustees rejected Kerr’s to the Governor Morehead School—about even the fiercest antagonist of the negro battle cry. They decided. 61-14. 10 allow his plans. His father, the Garner school’s situation must admit that the negro stu­ blacks into graduate and professional pro­ principal, vowed “he'd snatch me right up dent has a very good argument." A later grams not available at historically black out of there if there was any sign of trou­ editorial disputed the informal poll, say­ colleges. That decision chipped away at ble,” Crockett says. ing that the newspaper had received a segregation in North Carolina’s insti­ Crockett himself didn't anticipate any number of letters supporting desegrega­ tutions of higher learning; a black stu­ hostility—NC State’s proximity to home tion and thanking students for expressing dent was admitted to UNC-Chapel Hill’s was his chief criterion for selecting the their feelings by writing, not firebombing School of Medicine that spring, and three school—but the elder Crockett had ample Technician's office. black students were admitted to the law reason to worry about how his son would But the issue wasn’t for students to school a few months later. State College be received. The UNC System had resisted decide. Later that year, in a fiery April admitted two black graduate students. challenges to segregation in higher edu­ meeting of the UNC System's trustees. Robert L. Clemons '57 free and Hardy cation since the early 1930s, and though President Gordon Gray said he personally Liston '57. to the School of Engineering in a series of court cases asserted that blacks objected to allowing blacks in graduate 1953. (Liston later withdrew, but Clemons had the right to be there, many people and professional programs but that the completed his degree.) didn’t agree. trustees must concede that “from time to In 1954, Technician weighed in again,

The U.S. Supreme Court decides The • deal with the issue the landmark Brown v. Board of 1956f first four N.C. State, Raleigh, of race on campus. Visiting bas­ Education case. The doctrine black undergraduates ketball teams with black members educationof separate is but dead. equal in public withenroll Manuel at NC State, Crockett Gets 1st Undergrads torystay andtogether eat in In the Watauga cafeteria, dormi but­ in '60 and Ed Carson ’62 separate rooms with no other din­ -1 QCC ln Frasier v. the starting In summer ers present. It’s also mandated that thelyDD University Boardof North of Carolina,Trustees of school. Irwin Holmes Clemons-the only black student on the courts determine that under­ ’60 joins the school’s campus—must be served in snack graduate colleges and universities tennis team, making bars around campus and can attend should be open to blacks. Black teamit the infirst the integrated ACC. Wal­ all functions with his wife. freshmen enroll at UNC-Chapel Hill. ter Holmes joins the marching band. Irwin Holmes with his father or WHERE ARE THEY NOW? 3SB j^F VHV ' rRWIN win superfidsuperficial. "You have a campus within a discussed his NC State experience. “It was HOLMES.HOLMES, campus.campus, and that means you don't have to only in high school that we really heard 67, was talk to anyone you don't like," he says. that he was one of the first black students," ^U67.the first was black talk to ai she says. "It was and still is vague. But I studentthe first toblack fter graduating from N.C. Central, thought it would be neat to go to the same 3 bachelor’s degree from studentNC State. to He MANUELft CROCKETT joined the school that Dad did." wentearn aon bachelor to work’ sas degree a design from engir NC State. He Army,w where he stayed-interrupted Danielle, an executive assistant In the wentRCA_ and on.. tolater work -for as .IBM...... a design He retired engineer* from for_IBM > in iby_ a stintA as a teacher-for 20 years. After Atlanta area, decided that her initial plans 1984, after working there 25 years and man­ leaving the military, he worked for the N.C. to go to vet school weren't going to work aging an engineering team that designed Division of Motor Vehicles. He retired in out. But she was given a warm reception what was then one of the world's largest when she changed majors and added a for­ and fastest commercial computers. Today, at age 67, Crockett still lives in estry minor. "If I asked for any guidance, my Since retirement. Holmes has dabbled Raleigh with wife, Gloria. He helps out with instructors gave it to me,” she says. “Our In real estate development and today helps a family-run cleaning service, and he is a advisers were encouraging us because they manage a family-owned staffing business. frequent substitute teacher with the Wake wanted to see more women and more blacks He and his wife. Meredythe. have three chil­ County Public School System. He prefers to in our field and working for the U.S. Forest dren: Kimbertee, Sherri and Irwin. work with troubled students. Service. But the ratio of Caucasian to black Today, he lives in Durham, but stays con­ Crockett's memories of NC State are bit­ was really [disproportionatej; there were nected with his days at NC State. A painting tersweet. He sometimes wonders what only three black students that we knew of in by his Hillside High School classmate, ac­ would have happened had he ignored the forestry.” claimed sports artist Ernie Barnes (whose recreation department official who discour­ art appeared as the paintings of character aged him from changing majors and stayed. ALTER HOLMES returned to J.|. Evans on the 1970s sitcom Good Times). He’s also ambivalent about his role in NC State several years after leav­ hangs in his breakfast nook. Barnes created integrating NC State athletics. The introduc­ ing for UNC-Chapel Hill and then the painting—the first tennis-themed can­ tion of black players revolutionized colle­ Howard University in Washington, D.C. He vas he'd done-in honor of Holmes' achieve­ giate sports, he says, but it also has led to graduated in 1962 with a degree in me­ ment of becoming the first black athlete to the exploitation and undereducation of Afri­ chanical engineering and took a job as an wear the Wolfpack's red and white. can American athletes. engineer at RCA in New Jersey, where Irwin Holmes has also come back to campus But history has a way of coming around. Holmes worked. He worked for several other to speak about his experiences. He says In 1993, Crockett's identical twin daughters, companies before retiring to Durham. that the university has come a long way: in |yl "Angelita" Crockett '93 and Kim "Dani­ Holmes died in 2004 at age 62 and is sur­ his four years as a student, he saw about elle” Crockett Corson '93, accomplished vived by two daughters, Pamela Carter a dozen black students enroll on campus. what their father was discouraged from and Jennifer Holmes. Now, African Americans make up almost 10 doing. They graduated from NC State with oward carson lives in Raleigh. percent of the student body. But he thinks, degrees in parks, recreation and tourism He worked as an engineer for IBM for in part because of the campus' size, that management and minors In forestry. more than 30 years. NC Stole made interactions between black students and Angelita, who recently moved to Sweden Bmultiple attempts to contact him for this white students and professors still can be from Raleigh, says that her father rarely article but was unable to reach him.

*1 In April, student gov­ * Vivian Henderson. ernment passes a later president of resolution calling for racial integra­ historically black Clark College in tion of public facilities in Raleigh. Atlantather King and |r.. a joins friend the of economics Martin Lu­ Days later, at Shaw University, the department as a visiting lecturer Student Nonviolent Coordinating and becomes the campus' first Committeedevelop into (SNCC) a major is engineborn. It of will the black instructor. civil rights movement, organizing sit-ins, freedom rides and voter- .f Baxley’s on Hlllsbor- QI--J Crockett and Irwin registration programs throughout J. ✓ 03 ough Street becomes Xjfjf Holmes join the the South. In May. Irwin Holmes be­ the first restaurant on the main school’s track team. Walter Holmes comes the first black undergradu­ drag to serve blacks. Also, a memo joins the soccer team. ate to earn a degree at NC State. toreports Chancellor a segregated John T. Caldwell toilet facil ­ ity on campus. It is immediately 32 NC State autumn 2006 integrated. Some tennis players on other schools’ teams refused to compete against Irwin Holmes, who was the top-ranked NC State singles player his freshman year. by Green’s Restaurant on Wilmington An invisible beginning Street—which advertised a mouth-water­ t was especially easy to miss the ing special of ribeye steak, french fries, four students during their first se­ salad, all-you-could-eat rolls and coffee for mester on campus. They’d been Si in Technician throughout March 1957. offered campus housing, but none Just three Hillsborough Street eateries lived in dorms. Perhaps they’d were integrated by April 1963. Iseen the Chapel Hill approach the preBarred­ from many off-campus outlets vious year, where UNC’s first black un­ for socializing, the students sought ways dergraduates were assigned to a separate to get involved on campus. Music-loving floor in a university hall. Instead. Crock­ Walter Holmes successfully auditioned ett stayed at his childhood home and mo­ for the marching band in 1956 and was tored to school on a scooter. Since the one of three freshmen picked to play commute from Durham was impractical. the French horn in the mobile musical Walter and Irwin Holmes could not stay group. in their families’ homes. They boarded in Meanwhile, Irwin Holmes earned a private homes in Raleigh. spot on NC State's tennis team in fall Irwin Holmes' parents had convinced 1956, becoming the first black student- him not to stay on campus. His father, athlete to compete for the college in any who supervised Durham’s black recre­ sport and later the first African American ation department, trained as a chemist to win a varsity letter in the ACC. In a sport in response to the Brown v. Board of Edu­ but couldn’t find an employer that would then known for uniforms as lily-white as cation ruling: “There are two negroes al­ hire a black scientist. Though whites its rosters, he was sometimes called the ready here, doing graduate work in electri­ might not mind sharing classrooms with “Negro Netter" in news articles. cal engineering. They have been treated blacks, he felt, they might balk at sharing Tennis coach John Kenfield later wrote fairly enough and have caused no reac­ their bathrooms. in The News el Observer that Holmes, who tion on the part of the student body. . . . In the classroom, where the four stu­ started playing at 10. was the best player This integration can only come about on a dents were all taking the engineering cur­ on the team. But he didn’t always get to gradual basis. It might as well start now if riculum’s grueling introductory courses, it play. "Our first frosh match was with things aren’t pushed too fast." wasn't uncommon for others to pass them Goldsboro High School," Kenfield re­ It took another year—and a legal chal­ in the halls and pretend not to see them. called in the Feb. 24, 1963. issue of the lenge to the UNC Board of Trustees—be­ Walter Holmes and Irwin Holmes some­ newspaper. “When the Goldsboro coach fore the courts determined that the ruling times dined together in the university showed up with his team and saw Irwin in the Brown case should also apply to un­ cafeteria, but the other seats at their table on the courts warming up, he told me dergraduate admissions in the UNC Sys­ were usually empty. And while their pres­ word had got around that I had a Negro on tem. The result at NC State? Four black ence meant the campus was integrated, the team and that he had been instructed students out of more than 1,400 fresh­ the city of Raleigh was not. It wasn’t until not to let any of his boys play against Ir­ men. 1963, for example, that blacks were served win. I had anticipated this and said 1 was

•4 Q/l/i Two years after the 4 Q/^Q Black and white 1964,lyOO some area Civil landlords Rights Actwho of assemblel3?0 onO campus NC State after students the as ­ rent to students still refuse to offer sassination of Martin Luther King housing to blacks. The university |r. to denounce the murder, but a housing office excludes these land­ citywide curfew prevents them lords in its list of possible accom­ from marching to the State Capitol. modations. Norma Wright Garcia ’66 becomes the first black woman Alyoy Q/TQ forDemand black-studies rises to earn an undergraduate degree classes, but NC State students from NC State. must go to Shaw and St. Augus­ basketballtine’s for such scholarship courses. Theawarded first to an African American goes to AI Heartley *71. sorry that these were his orders, but since Of course, not all shared that sentiment. Each year during Irwin Holmes' tenure, this was the case, we would have to claim Just as some individual players refused to the NC State tennis team hosted squads forfeits for the No. i singles and doubles play Holmes in tennis, many colleges be­ from South Carolina, but did not travel matches." low the Mason-Dixon Line still routinely to the Palmetto State. But when Clemson Kenfield dreaded telling his young play­ set their athletic teams’ schedules accord­ University and South Carolina came to er the news. But Irwin took it with aplomb. ing to whether opposing squads had black Raleigh. Holmes threw himself into the His response: "Shucks, coach. That’s OK. players. Indeed, just a few years earlier, in matches, using smashes and well-aimed If I keep this up. I'll be undefeated.” 1951, NC State declined to host the Camp forehands to drive home his point: “I can Lejeune Leathernecks for a track meet play with you. and 1 can beat you. too." because the Marines had black runners. With a semester under their belts, Finding a place Southern universities might vie with Irwin Holmes moved into a Watauga Hall arly in 1957, Irwin Holmes multiracial clubs in Northern locations— room with Walter Holmes, an easygoing and Manuel Crockett desegre­ to make sure they weren't excluded from guy who loved the musician’s nightlife gated another sport when they tournament play—but inviting an inte­ and had a "do-it-my-way" attitude that at­ made the track team, both grated squad to home turf was treason tracted girls like bees to pollen. Irwin competing in several events, of the highest order. And in some places, Holmes used the opportunity to become Eincluding the 600-yard run on thelike indoor Birmingham. Ala., it was illegal for involved in intramural sports as well, track and the 440 outside. After the sea­ blacks and whites to play together. playing on the football teams organized son-opening statewide meet at Dorton Irwin Holmes' and Crockett’s pres­ around the dorms. Arena that spring, Crockett had barely ence on NC State teams didn’t change Crockett, meanwhile, was having sec­ crossed the finish line in third place in the those norms, though Walter Holmes did ond thoughts about his decision to attend 70-meter low hurdle when a reporter travel to the University of South Caro­ NC State. His routine was “going to class, came hunting a quote. Still huffing and lina with the marching band to play the going to track practice” and then going puffing from the race, Crockett uttered French horn at a football game at least home. The large college was a shock after one sentence: “It’s good to run for State.” once, causing a stir in the local papers. Ligon High School, where the entire stu-

4* Students form the «| Seven students found / \J university’s first ±7/ 1 NC State’s first black ““BLACK African American Cultural Center. fraternity, a chapter of Alpha Phi They use a space in the basement Alpha. of the campus YMCA. slated for A pamphlet./no demolition. JL 7 / ^ Black Perspective, talliesmunity: the 222 university students’s out black of >3.809 com­ and nine professors. It also lists courses that focus on black history and culture: two in political sci­ ence and a sociology course on race relations. 34 NCStdte AUTUMN 2006 ieft: Manuel Crockell and Irwin Holmes made the track team, center: Holmes, with his father, was the first black player in the ACC to letter in a varsity sport, right: In his senior year. Holmes dating them was out of the question in play intramural football for the Watauga- was elected co-captain of the tennis team. a society where the suggestion that 14- Tucker team. He and another black stu­ year-old Emmett Till had said something dent, Ronald Yokely '63. were among the dent body was smaller than the NC State “improper" to a white woman had got­ strongest players on the team and got lots freshman class. There, they used hand- ten him lynched in Mississippi in 1955. of playing time. (Yokely was an All-State me-down textbooks donated by white “1 don’t think I spoke to a white woman player at his High Point high school.) But schools and didn’t have enough money in four years, not even to say 'good morn­ the team captain couldn’t make one game for a track team. But they did have a tight- ing,’” Holmes says. The students were and the substitute captain benched them. knit community. He’d found his first two able to find dates at N.C. Central to at­ Yet such reminders that he was still semesters ‘‘overwhelming, in those mon­ tend NC State’s annual Engineers' Ball an outsider were coupled with new sig­ ster classrooms with more than 100 peo­ formal, one of the campus’ biggest social nals that he was finding a place. The ple." Plus, he adds, “electrical engineer­ events. They sipped punch and escorted usual team captain vowed that Holmes ing wasn’t what I thought il would be. 1 their swirly-skirted dates at the dance but wouldn’t be benched in future games, was exploring other majors, and I went to stayed apart from the crowds. and, in a later contest, his teammates ral­ the recreation department." But when he By the end of their sophomore year. lied around him when a white opponent approached an official there about switch­ Walter Holmes was wondering if he'd gunned for him. “I went up for a pass, and ing majors before the end of his freshman made a mistake by majoring in engineer­ this guy knocked me sky-high. The next year, the man “said that the department ing. He had other frustrations, as well; in play, they took that player off the field with 'wasn’t equipped for people like me.’ That the spring of 1958, he'd made NC State’s a broken leg." Holmes says. was a defining moment." He transferred varsity soccer team and started many of On the tennis team. too. Holmes had to N.C. Central University in Durham the the home games. But the coach wouldn’t found support among his teammates. “Be­ following fall, regretting that he didn’t let him travel to away games, a decision cause of Irwin's personality and behavior, tell the official what was on his mind: “To that cost Holmes playing time and. ulti­ it was easy to like him.” says his former hell with you. I’m here. Adapt.” mately. a varsity letter in the sport. teammate. Mickey Solomon ’59. “He was He transferred to UNC-Chapel Hill friendly, neither too proud nor too passive. in the fall to major in business. But that He was just him. And we (as a team] were Together but separate wasn’t the right fit either. He longed to able to get along because we had some free he other three students re­ move to a larger city with a bigger music spirits on the team and we had some play­ turned the next fall, but scene and broader recreational options for ers from up North” who thought nothing their social lives still largely African American students. He applied of close contact with black people. took place elsewhere. “On for admission to Howard University in Once, after a match in Chapel Hill, the Fridays, I got the bus off Washington, D.C., and transferred into its team drove to the Glen Lennox Dairy Bar. Tcampus down Oberlin Road toelectrical Highway engineering program in 1959. “We just wanted to go in somewhere and 70." Irwin Holmes says. "I hitchhiked By then, other black students had en­ get something cool," Solomon says. “But home and spent practically every week­ rolled on campus (there were at least 11 by they wouldn't serve Irwin. 1 didn’t make end at North Carolina Central.” i960), but Irwin Holmes still received reg­ a big deal out of it. 1 just said. 'Let’s all There were few women on NC State’s ular reminders that not everyone believed leave.’" campus, but even if there had been more, he belonged there. He had continued to The team walked out.

QO-7 Kevin Howell'88 The university has lyO/ is the first black bers17 but / aims H to17 haveblack 44 faculty by July mem ­ student body president. He's fol­ 1976. (By Aug. 31,1976. there were '90lowed in 1989-90,by six others: Bobby Brian johnson Nixon 18 full-time black faculty). '95 in 1994-95, Harold Pettigrew <| Q-7I" Ten women form *02 in 2000-01. Darryl Willie ’02 in ±y §0 the first black soror­ 2001- 02, Michael Anthony '03 in ity chapter on campus, Delta Sigma 2002- 03 and Tony Caravano '04. Theta. The university starts who served two consecutive terms Hubert Winston '70, '73 MS, '75 between 2003 and 2005. phd becomes first African Ameri­ for black studei can to earn a doctoral degree from <|lyyi 004 AmericanThe African Cultural engineering;NC State. His hedegree later is joins in chemical the 1986? Center opens. engineering faculty. tegralion while walking past a classroom In 1956. there were four. In The things worth remembering on his way to the YMCA. Through the 2006. there are more than n 1959. Irwin Holmes’ senior open door, he heard a facilitator say there'd 2,200. Black undergraduates at year. Kenfield urged his players lo been few problems, except for a female in- NC State can expect far differ­ elect Holmes team captain: "Now, struclor requesting she be relieved of her ent social and educational expe­ duties because she was uncomfortable riences than those of their coun­ teaching a black student. terparts 50 years ago. NC State II want you to remember that it's a fingering in the hallway, Irwin Holmes talked to a current African tradition to have a senior." He was realized that he was the student in ques­ American student to find out the squad's only senior, but even with that tion. what's changed. not-so-subtle hint. Holmes tied for co-cap­ But reclining in an armchair at his HEN the first black un­ tain. His selection to occupy that position, home 50 years later, Irwin Holmes shrugs dergraduate students just another first in a long line of achieve­ it off with a smile. Thai woman didn’t in­ Wstarted their studies ments, was noted, with a tiny mug shot, fluence his career. He remembers, much on the NC State campus in in Sports Illustrated. more fondly, William Stevenson, the engi­ 1956, they could barely fill a Although he still hadn't made close neering professor who pulled strings and cafeteria table. friends on campus, he no longer needed helped him secure his first job as an elec­ The landscape is different to scan the room for someone to talk to. In trical engineer at RCA in Camden, N.|„ today, says Deandra Duggans, his senior year, he was invited for the first where he met his wife. He recalls, with a 21-year-old senior majoring time to join a study group with four other feeling. Coach John Kenfield, who pushed in parks, recreation and tour­ upperclassmen. After cramming with his him toward his athletic milestones. Open­ ism management. The Wash­ new academic partners, his performance ing a scrapbook filled with yellowing ington. D.C., native chaired the in the core electrical engineering course newspaper clippings and his tg6o gradu­ Black Students Board—an organization jumped a full letter grade. ation program, he points to a congratula­ that celebrates black culture and hosts pro­ As a measure of how far he was outside tory handwritten note that Kenfield sent gramming for the campus community— the loop of campus life,him he upon hadn learning’t been of Holmes* marriage from fall 2004 to spring 2006. Each year, aware such study groupsto his existed, wife, Meredythe.just as it co-hosts the university’s Kwanzaa Cele­ X. C. State Elects he didn’t know that "Racism is everywhere." Holmes bration: the Pan-Afrikan Festival, a week- one of his instruc­ muses. "But there are a lot of good white long event that celebrates African Ameri­ Negro Co-captain tors begged off teach­ people who want to overcome it. And if can heritage; and the Martin Luther King (AP)RALEIGH, —A Negro N. youth,C„ April Irwin 1 ing duties when she the atmosphere allows it, they can, . . . )r. Commemoration, which brings well- Holmes, has been elected co­ discovered he was in Coach Kenfield could have said, 'That guy known speakers such as Desmond Tu­ Northcaptain Carolina of the tennisState College.team at her class. During his won't play Irwin, well sit Irwin down.' tu’s daughter, Naomi Tutu, to campus to He becomes the first Negro freshman year, his But he didn't." 1 evervarsity to team be co-captainin any sport of inn female math teacher honor King's life and legacy. 1 the Atlantic Coast Conference. was replaced, He Cynthia Greenlee-Donnell is a Durham-based Iree- In contrast to the lack of on-campus so­ '1 yearHolmes, on thenow team, playing was his elected third thought nothing of it lance writer who is researching racial violence in cial outlets for black students 50 years I in a secret ballot by squad until a year later, South Carolina from 1889 to 1995. ago, Duggans counts 26 groups that reach i members. when he overheard a discussion about in- ^ The administration For the fall semes- would recommend NC State to a 1/ \J U creates the position U D ter, 9 » percent of friend compared with 95 percent of of vice provost for diversity and NC State's almost 31.000 students white alumni. And 83 percent would African American affairs. One of the are African American. About 4 per­ choose NC State again compared stated goals is to Improve the expe­ cent of the university's full-time with 85 percent of whites. rience of black students and other Instructional faculty-/* out of minorities. 1,633-are black. AffairsSOURCES: records. African University American Archives; Student The • According to a survey Alice Reagan, North Carolina Slate Uni­ African American 2006 of alumni who had versity: A Narrative History: Technician. Student Advisory graduated between the summer sionvarious and issues; Involvement Nash N.of AfricanWinstead. Ameri Inclu­­ thatCouncil grade begins the university Issuing report on enroll cards­ of 2000 and the spring of 2003, cans at North Carolina State University. ment, retention and graduation black alumni and white alumni 1953-1993; Office of University Planning of black students. The report card felt equally positive about their and Analysis. gives NC State an F for recruiting experiences. Ninety-three percent 36 NC State AUTUMN 2006 black students. of black alumni from those years right: Deandra Duggans poses with a mural of famous black Americans ai the African American Cultural Center. Black students today have so many options, she says, that "our activities sometimes conflict." beiow: Students hold a campus vigil for Coretta Scott King in 2006. out to black students specifically. They exclude anyone from joining or attend­ range from the Society of African Ameri­ ing their programs because of race, she Pi can Corporate Leaders to historically black told him. In fact, many of them strive Greek organizations like Delta Sigma to cross boundaries and educate others Theta. Duggans' sorority. Taking advan­ about African American culture. When tage of the opportunities, like participat­ the student’s comments became increas­ ing in a peer mentoring program that ingly rude. Duggans walked away. That matches experienced students with in­ student was the exception, she says, not coming freshmen, made it easy for her to the norm. Mallette, associate vice provost and direc­ transition into college life, she says. Duggans is concerned, though, that tor of scholarships and financial aid. The Though her experience at NC State has too few' black students who start their university met 81 percent of the demon­ been positive. Duggans believes there’s studies at NC State actually graduate. strated need of all full-time undergradu­ room for uniting the black community on "The main problem is retention," she ate students in 2005-06, and 87 percent campus as well as improving interracial says. Graduation rates for black students of black students received a scholarship or relations and recruitment and retention are significantly better than in the past— grant. The average scholarship and grant of minority students. prior to 1999. fewer than 50 percent of package to full-time black students, not Today, she says, there are almost too black freshmen earned their degrees in including athletic aid. was $6,819. many organizations catering primarily six years. Still, the most recent data avail­ "The future of NC State includes a de­ to African Americans. “The biggest prob­ able—for students who started their finitive focus on diversity and inclusive­ lem is over-scheduling, and our activities studies in 1999—show that 59 percent ness,” says Chancellor James L. Oblinger. sometimes conflict,” she says. “We would of black freshmen graduated within six “We have made great strides in creating be so much more powerful if we came to­ years, compared with 72 percent of white programs and outreach activities that em­ gether, instead of being 26 separate orga­ students. brace and foster these goals. Pack Prom­ nizations." A more unified African Ameri­ Part of the problem, she thinks, is the ise, our student success plan, provided 316 can community would give black students shortage of black professors with whom students with 100 percent of their finan­ greater influence on campus policies and African American students can identify. cial aid needs—33.5 percent of our Pack politics, such as the disbursement of fees She’s had only three African American Promise Scholars are African American. to student groups, she says. instructors since entering NC State. Ac­ NC State will continue to take significant There’s also work to be done in build­ cording to the 2006 report card on Af­ steps in creating a campus climate that ing bridges among racial groups on cam­ rican American student issues issued by welcomes everyone." pus, she says—though as a sign of how NC State’s African American Advisory Ultimately, Duggans has a positive mes­ things have changed in 50 years, she’s Council, just 4 percent of full-time fac­ sage for prospective black students. "Ev­ experienced only one instance of hostil­ ulty members are black. But there are erybody I know seems to be comfortable ity. Several years ago, when she became signs of change. The number of black here,” she says. That doesn’t mean it will involved with the Black Students Board, faculty grew by m percent between 2002 be smooth sailing always, she cautions. a white student asked: “How would you and 2005. All students, regardless of race, will likely feel if we had a white culture club?" Dug­ Another issue is financial. Since 2001, experience some sort of problem while on gans replied that if he felt such a club was tuition has increased by 45 percent campus, whether it’s with a professor or warranted, he should start one. The Black to $2,391.50 per semester for in-state in a class. “But after being here a while. 1 Students Board and the other organiza­ undergraduates and by 28 percent to know the right people to go to." she says. tions geared toward black students don’t $8,490.50 per semester for out-of-state "And I can tell people where to go." students. Duggans pays her tuition bills —Cynthia Greenlee-Donnell with a combination of student loans and several scholarships from internal and NC State is hosting a yearlong series external sources. But she says that some of events honoring the 50th anniver­ of her peers—particularly those from out sary of the first African American of state—left after their first year because undergraduates, including panel dis­ they couldn’t afford to stay. cussions and commemorative celebra­ The university awards financial aid tions at Homecoming. For details, or ’ 1 * V,H funds based on each student’s demon­ to contribute toward the events, visit strated need and legally cannot aw'ard http://www.ncsu.edu/msa/golden aid on a race-exclusive basis, says Julie anniversary.php. WWW.AIUMNI.NCSU.EDU NCStatC 37