Race, Education, and the Struggle for Equality: School Desegregation in the Upper South

Scholars and others interested in the civil rights era will welcome these two new books on school desegregation in the South. The first is written by John E. Batchelor, a former teacher and administrator in the North Carolina public school system. Batchelor served as school superintendent in two predominantly African American districts during his long career in education. At the outset, he makes clear that he supports school integration and equal educational opportunities for all children. In addition to other benefits, Batchelor notes that diverse school settings—racially, culturally, and socioeconomically—allow children to “make informed perceptions based on individual qualities, rather than generalizations that are culturally ingrained” (p. xv).

Part of the “Making the Modern South” series, edited by David Goldfield, Race and Education in North Carolina examines the history of school desegregation in the Tar Heel state, focusing largely but not exclusively on the actions of state and local public officials. As Batchelor explains, his book “traces the evolution of case law and the interaction of law with policy, within constraints established by political and social history, along with the decisions, actions, and motivations of state leaders” (p. ix). Importantly, Batchelor also incorporates the views and actions of African American leaders in the state, mostly notably those associated with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the state’s preeminent black civil rights organization. The combination of black and white perspectives gives Race and Education in North Carolina a more comprehensive and inclusive feel, although the book focuses mainly on white officials and their school desegregation policies.

Batchelor begins his examination with the history of education in North Carolina prior to Brown v. Board of Education, highlighting the post–Civil War state constitution and state laws requiring segregation in the public schools. Of particular importance is the conservative backlash following the successes of North Carolina Populists in the 1890s and the expansion of Jim Crow that followed. Within this system, African American educational opportunities suffered. As it was throughout the South, segregated education in North Carolina was clearly separate but not equal.

Despite the discriminatory and inequitable nature of pre-Brown North Carolina, state officials generally viewed race relations as harmonious. Batchelor writes that racial violence was less common in North Carolina than in other Southern states and that the state “enjoyed a reputation for moderation” (p. 5). In addition, he points out that, in the early 1940s, North Carolina ranked second in the region in the percentage of voting-age African Americans who were registered to vote. Other signs of moderation in North Carolina, particularly when compared to states that embraced “massive resistance” or those in the Deep South, can be found throughout the text.

Despite North Carolina’s reputation for moderation, Batchelor questions whether this reputation matched reality. In particular, the author challenges the portrayal of civility in North Carolina during the civil rights era (pp. 28, 32, for instance). Whereas previous scholars have centered their analyses of the civil rights era in North Carolina on the notion of civility, Batchelor instead highlights the state’s strong commitment to segregation and the desire of its public officials to preserve the status quo. Throughout Race and Education in North Carolina, Batchelor highlights the power of segregationist leaders and organizations in North Carolina and the difficulties facing the proponents of school desegregation in the state. Broadly speaking, Race and Education in North Carolina offers a stinging assessment of North Carolina’s response to racial change during the civil rights era.

The majority of the book focuses on the era between the initial desegregation of North Carolina’s schools in 1957 to the accomplishment of system-wide desegregation in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Batchelor...