The Story of the Boycot in North Carolina

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Families in North Carolina refused to send their children to school if the two black schools were closed. Seven local churches became what were called movement schools, where retired teachers, college students and volunteers taught classes. By october of 19 68, about a month into the boycot, it was reported that there were more than 400 students attending classes at movement schools. Some black families were becoming so disillusioned that they sent their kids to live with relatives in other parts of the country. The boycott lasted for the entire school year.

15 years after the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, many schools across the South were still segregated. Some school districts actively blocked desegregation. North Carolina passed legislation authorizing tuition grants to white private schools, sometimes called "segregation academies." Members of the KKK held rallies in North Carolina, describing desegregation as "anti-Christian" and "communistic." When the Federal government pressured school boards to comply or lose their funding, many responded by shuttering Black schools and assigning Black students to formerly all-white schools. It was called "one-way desegregation."

In a very rural part of North Carolina, Black students and their families decided to fight back.

We speak with Dr. Dudley E. Flood about his work desegregating every school in North Carolina.

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