- Collection:
- Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement
- Title:
- Oral history interview with Julius L. Chambers, June 18, 1990
- Creator:
- Chambers, Julius L. (Julius LeVonne), 1936-
- Contributor to Resource:
- Link, William A.
Southern Oral History Program - Date of Original:
- 1990-06-18
- Subject:
- African American college administrators--North Carolina
College trustees--North Carolina
College integration--North Carolina
University of North Carolina (System)--Trials, litigation, etc.
Affirmative action programs in education--North Carolina
Higher education and state--North Carolina - People:
- Chambers, Julius L. (Julius LeVonne), 1936-2013
Friday, William C. (William Clyde) - Location:
- United States, North Carolina, 35.50069, -80.00032
- Medium:
- transcripts
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works) - Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- text/html
text/xml
audio/mpeg - Description:
- Julius Chambers discusses his involvement with the University of North Carolina's Board of Governors from 1972 to 1977 as a representative of his alma mater, North Carolina Central University. He explains that smaller North Carolina colleges and universities and traditionally underrepresented groups found a voice in post-secondary school decisions during this period. During this period, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) established a set of criteria for the desegregation of higher education institutions. While he felt the North Carolina college system had not complied with the court order to eliminate the inequalities of segregated schools, other board officials believed UNC had done enough and wanted the federal government to disengage itself from North Carolina affairs. Although university president William Friday also argued that the state's higher education system complied with the desegregation orders, Chambers favorably assesses Friday's leadership as UNC president and Board of Governors member. He contends that Friday built a consensus among board members on a middle-of-the-road political position. Nonetheless, because North Carolina delayed making meaningful changes in the desegregation of its post-secondary schools, HEW filed a desegregation lawsuit against UNC. The later reluctance of the Nixon and Ford administrations to support school desegregation and the endorsement of the Carter administration furthered the Office for Civil Rights' resolve to enforce the desegregation of North Carolina post-secondary schools. Chambers blames the retreat from desegregation initiatives on a conservative resurgence and on North Carolina's desire to end the ongoing debate on race in higher education.
The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata. - Metadata URL:
- http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/L-0127/menu.html
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 25, 2008).
Interview participants: Julius L. Chambers, interviewee; William Link, interviewer.
Duration: 00:56:18.
This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.
Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers. - Contributing Institution:
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)
- Rights:
-
