The Pearsall Plan & Statewide Disgrace, 1956: This Date in History

  • Thread starter Thread starter donbosco
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies: 1K
  • Views: 147K
  • Off-Topic 
What I remebered about Hardee's was that back in the day it was the preferred stop when dining out of town on a school or church trip. Armed with two quarters, you could get: (a) a burger, fries, and a Pepsi or (b) a burger and a milkshake. Two quarters would NOT get you a burger, fries, and a milkshake. That took two quarters and either a dime or a nickle, but I was never given (or had) more than two quarters.
 
Jerry Richardson and his partner, Charlie Bradshaw, got involved with Hardee’s very early and launched Spartan Foods, here in Spartanburg. They owned a whole bunch of the fast food restaurants and then Quincy’s steakhouses.

Richardson, of course, went on to bring the NFL to the Carolinas.

He also gave his alma mater, Wofford College, a pile of money, including for the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium, one of the finest mid-major basketball venues around. It was cool to see UNC play there in 2018.
 
IMG_0645.jpeg

On November 22, 1963 President Kennedy was shot and killed. I was 5 and I remember the funeral. It was broadcast live on TV. As I watched while seated on the floor of our #Bonlee den, the young African American woman that cared for me - her name was Luby Degraffenreaidt - ironed clothes and wept. This I remember. The funeral parade included a flag-draped casson followed by an unruly riderless horse. A pair of high boots were turned backwards in the stirrups. Luby ‘watched’ after me in those days. She was small even to little me and I cared for her and her tears distressed me. Soon afterward she left #DeepChatham — for Philadelphia I was always told. She was part of The Great Migration out of The South by some 6 million African Americans that took place during the middle third of the 20th century. John F. Kennedy was inspiring evidently - I’ve heard his voice - I must have heard it as a child. The effect on the adults and world around me of his violent death clearly made a lifelong impression on me.

In the years afterward assassins played a prominent role in my perception of the world. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And Bobby Kennedy both fell to the bullets of mad men. George Wallace was shot and survived, though he continued to spread hate from a wheelchair thereafter (some suggest a late life epiphany and divergence from that path - I know what he stood for in the 1960s). In those days I did not know of the many other assassinations of men who challenged the status quo like Medgar Evers and Malcolm X. We’ll likely never truly know how many murders actually occurred then, or since, assassinations of a kind, of men and women that stood against, and resisted, power and The Powerful.

Of course the assassination of Abraham Lincoln hangs over our nation still. Losing his vision in the closing days of our Civil War and being without it in the aftermath doubtless assured that those crucial historic moments would be badly bungled with repercussions down to the present. In September of 1975, within the span of 18 days there were two attempts at murdering President Gerald Ford. Our first, (and thus far only) unelected President, Ford followed the crimes and disgrace of Nixon. He pardoned Nixon as well, depriving the people of justice and setting a sorry precedent of elected criminals paying inadequate penance for deadly blows struck against the Constitution and the body politic. In an editorial, ‘The New York Times’ called the Nixon pardon a “profoundly unwise, divisive and unjust act" that also destroyed the new president's "credibility as a man of judgment, candor and competence.” Nixon damaged and sullied the office, lowering the bar to a subterranean level. Ford was apparently a good man with bad vision who took an expedient path for which we currently pay. When the opportunity presented itself to raise that bar back up he failed.

Perhaps the violence done before Nixon and Ford, depriving us of leadership in crucial times, has contributed to fostering an environment in which service is seen as coming at too big a price, making it far too attractive to few but those deeply driven by flawed ways of seeing, or worse still, the greedy men-without-a-country that only find the unfettered pursuit of profit to be the only worthy motivation. Granted, there are, at least I believe, people that serve who bring strong, essentially good, ideals to the table. Still, when bullets tore through aspiring heroes in the ‘60s it seems that the fabric of our national soul was also shot through with holes. Ethics have been the loser all around. When Luby Degraffenreaidt shed those tears with so many other Americans back in 1963 it seems a foretelling of the struggle ahead. And make no mistake, we are in the fight of our lives right here, right now. We go the way of the bullet and the pardon or we can tune in to justice. That time appears upon us. It may even have passed us by. [Originally composed in 2022 - Still, sadly, true]

#OTD (September 5) in 1975, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme attempted to assassinate President Ford in Sacramento, California. Remarks to Reporters Following Assassination Attempt in Sacramento | The American Presidency Project
 
From the account of President George T. Winston:

"The University had been closed for several years, the Campus was grown up in weeds, the buildings were without proper 'roofs, and much exposed not only to the weather but to all sorts of depredations; the libraries had been plundered of many valuable books, and the apparatus essential to the proper equipment of the scientific departments was largely ruined or stolen. The institution was without friends and heavy debts hung over it. lts revival seemed almost impossible. Our people bad not recovered from the effects of the war and a financial panic was adding distress to poverty. "Nothing daunted by these evils and inspired by a lifetime love of the University, Mr. Battle set vigorously to work and canvassed the State for funds. No other man would have undertaken the task, and certainly no other man could have accomplished it. He appealed to the alumni and to patriotic men not alumni, through the press, by letter and by personal interview. The result was $20,000 and the revival of the University." But funds were lacking for support of the institution as well as for its equipment. The faculty had to be paid and the laboratories provided with apparatus. The tuition fees were entirely inadequate to meet these expenses. With wise foresight, Mr. Battle had provided for this emergency. Upon his representation of the needs of the University, the General Assembly appropriated for its annual support $7,500, being the interest on the Land Scrip Fund of $125,000 donated to the State by the National Government." These two funds, both secured by Mr. Battle, enabled the institution to open its doors September 6, 1875 .. During the hundred years of its existence the University had never received more loving service nor more valuable aid than was rendered in 1875 by the Honorable Kemp P. Battle."

This is excerpted from Chapter 11 of The Battle Book: https://www.thebattlebook.com/Battl...Book_Chapter11_PresidentKempPlummerBattle.pdf

The entire Battle Book is here: The Battle Book Online
 
More on the Pearsall Plan at NCPEDIA

Pearsall Plan

See also: Pupil Assignment Act; Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. On 17 May 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Brown v. Board
www.ncpedia.org www.ncpedia.org
 
Smolensk has 325,000 plus people. It dates back to the 9th century.

It sits in what’s called the Smolensk Gate - an “easy” pathway between Eastern Europe and Russia. It’s on the land bridge between the Daugava (Dvina) and Dnieper Rivers.

The Daugava’s mouth is in Riga, Latvia. The Dnieper empties into the Black Sea.
The rivers are only 52 miles apart at the “land bridge.”

The two rivers and the land bridge have been part of a trade route between the Baltics and Scandinavia and the Middle East and Greece for centuries.

It sits at a strategic AND tactical location.
 
donbosco said:
More on the Pearsall Plan at NCPEDIA

Pearsall Plan

See also: Pupil Assignment Act; Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. On 17 May 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Brown v. Board
www.ncpedia.org www.ncpedia.org
Click to expand...
My recollection of integration in NC:
1. Freedom of Choice: In the 1963-4 school year, parents were granted "Freedom of Choice" to enroll their children in either the white or black school. Less than 10, maybe less than 5, black students enrolled in my 1st through 8th grade school. All were placed into "Special" education classes.
2. First real integration: In the 1966-7 school year, the entire 7th grade of the black school was transferred into the white junior high school, 7th & 8th grades. The idea was to contimue intergrate the two systems at the 7th grade level until everything was integrated. No further integration (other than "freedom of choice") occured for several years. The black school was just missing one entire year of students for a couple of years.
3. Finally inegrated: In the 1970-1971, the black schools were shut down and white schools were completely intergrated.
4. All while this was going on, a local, all white school system sponsored by the Southern Baptist Chuch gained enrollment. And a new private school, with "Country Day" in the name, was started and charged high tuition fees, thus siphoning off all the rich white kids. At the end of my junior year of high school, my Algebra 2 teacher told me he was leaving the public school system to teach at the "Country Day" school. When I expressed genuine surprise and disappointment at this development, he seemed sincerely embarrassed.
 
Last edited:
I asked my dad about it. He grew up in Mebane and went to East Alamance. He said they brought in black kids the first year and they were hand-picked as good athletes and good students. Said there were almost no issues and he couldn't remember any protests.
 
05C40 said:
My recollection of integration in NC:
1. Freedom of Choice: In the 1963-4 school year, parents were granted "Freedom of Choice" to enroll their children in either the white or black school. Less than 10, maybe less than 5, black students enrolled in my 1st through 8th grade school. All were placed into "Special" education classes.
2. First real integration: In the 1966-7 school year, the entire 7th grade of the black school was transferred into the white junior high school, 7th & 8th grades. The idea was to contimue intergrate the two systems at the 7th grade level until everything was integrated. No further integration (other than "freedom of choice") occured for several years. The black school was just missing one entire year of students for a couple of years.
3. Finally inegrated: In the 1970-1971, the black schools were shut down and white schools were completely intergrated.
4. All while this was going on, a local, all white school system sponsored by the Southern Baptist Chuch gained enrollment. And a new private school, with "Country Day" in the name, was started and charged high tuition fees, thus siphoning off all the rich white kids. At the end of my junior year of high school, my Algebra 2 teacher told me he was leaving the public school system to teach at the "Country Day" school. When I expressed genuine surprise and disappointment at this development, he seemed sincerely embarrassed.
Click to expand...

I think the Freedom of Choice plan went into effect in 1967 in Chatham County...into my class (third grade) came 5 AFAM kids (I'm not sure how many more but I suspect it was something along those lines in every grade). My brother was in high school and I remember there being some good athletes on the playing field at that time who were the transfers-in as well. We didn't get the entire transfer until 1971. That year there was some degree of tumult...I can remember white kids throwing rocks at the Segregated Buses that only carried the AFAM kids and shouting insults...one I remember very well. The bus was #82, and the white kids were yelling, "Number 82 -- Jiggaboo!) over and over. The teachers did very little as I recall but I might be misremembering. I do know that by that time there were also two or three AFAM teachers in the school as well (but no men, only women...of course there were only two male teachers anyway...both coaches and teaching 7-8th grade classes). Black schools were also converted at that time to integrated Middle Schools.

And yes...then came the birth of the so-called "Christian Schools" which remained all-white. I don't remember too many kids leaving from my school though as it was a good distance away and also not free.
 
I remember (Lol when MPAER says this)the early days of freedom of Choice at Estes Hills elementary and Guy B Phillips. As I age what strikes me is the AfAm kids that came in first were in large part like a casting out of Hollywood . From Civil rights leader families, smart, tall , couple were the star athletes, most went on the be great adult members of the Community.
And Confident . Tall and confident also meant you did not Fu%^ with them about petty racial stuff-nor did you Fu%^ with their friends who might not have been so tall........
 
From my recollections of those times of desegregation…

IMG_0709.jpeg


The house I grew up in stood on the edge of the woods. The yard was partly framed with a white fence. This was, at least in my mind, the boundary of #Bonlee. I spent a good amount of time “across the border” in those woods as a boy. My buddies and I roamed them like we were pioneers blazing trails. We played a lot of Daniel Boone, Bonanza, and Wagon Train out there. That stand of woods wasn’t really that big but to 10-year-olds distances are deceptive and the world seemed unfathomably big.

‘Arch Hausley Road’ marked the other border of that wild territory for us and frankly we heeded that property marking. Sometime when I was growing up - I can’t say exactly when - the roads in Chatham were named. How that happened I don’t recall but I do remember hearing talk of it in #BonleeHardware and when I was eavesdropping on my parents in the car (Remember: Little ‘pitchers’ have Big Ears). I suspect those namings have their own myriad stories.

Only African American families lived on “Arch Hausley Road.” I don’t know about these days. Arch Hausley himself came into the hardware store from time to time as he needed nails or seeds or the like. Just the same, when I started 1st grade at #BonleeElementary none of the children that lived on that road could go to school there since it was a ‘white’ school. I walked some mornings and almost always back home afterwards and “Arch Hausley Road,” while not a safe walk because country roads don’t have sidewalks, was still less than a mile from Bonlee Elementary. Nevertheless, in 1964 African American kids growing up in Bonlee and all across that part of the county were bussed 6 miles to a ‘colored’ school in Goldston.

So it was that I grew up during desegregation times in #DeepChatham. I remember very well the African American students who joined me at #BonleeElementary in 1967. I’ve heard from a couple of them in the past years and talked with another on the phone pretty regularly. One has gone on to a very effective career in higher education. I am sure all of their experiences were memorable and likely as not, often painful. Gradual integration began in the 3rd grade for me and those kids in Chatham County. During my childhood I was never called upon to show the kind of bravery as were those youngsters ‘switching’ schools.

Every.Single.Day. They have my eternal respect and admiration.

I am well-aware that despite dramatic differences in funding from the state related to the system of segregated schools - African Americans received tax monies in deplorably smaller increments compared to even the also historically under-funded ‘white’ schools. I’m also aware that so-called ‘colored’ schools most often did amazing work in educating children, so dedicated were the teachers, families, and communities. Much has been written about the monumental efforts made in overcoming discrimination in the days before ‘Brown v Board of Education.’ When I teach NC History we study the story of Charlotte’s Second Ward School and that town’s Brooklyn community. You can watch a short documentary here on that topic. It is worth the time:







While the experiences that my school mates and I had were rural in some ways they touched base with those in urban Charlotte - and in other ways they did not. I’ve often reflected that while bussing is so much associated with desegregation in Charlotte and other urban areas, that in the country, at least in some places, the demographics were such that the end of segregation also actually cut back on bussing. The African American students on ‘Arch Hausley Road,’ for example were eventually, after desegregation, going to a school only a mile distant rather than six miles away.

#OTD (September 4) in 1957 Dorothy Counts, 15, enrolled at Charlotte’s all-white Harding High School. She was the 1st African American student to do so. Three years earlier the Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision had come down from the Supreme Court. She was harassed and accosted by a mob then ignored by her teachers. The abuse from the white Charlotteans was more than the teen could endure and after a week she left Harding High and her family moved to Philadelphia. She returned for college at #JohnsonCSmithUniversity and as an adult became a local child care advocate. Dorothy Counts Enrolls at Charlotte’s Harding High School, 1957
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top