Educational Historic timeline
How the Gap Came to Be... A History Timeline
1825
North Carolina State Literary Fund created to finance primary education for white youths.
1830
Law passed in North Carolina making it illegal to teach an enslaved person to read or write.
1832
The Reverend Joseph Caldwell, first president of the UNC, advocated for education for white youths.
1835
North Carolina took away free Black people’s right to vote.
1839
North Carolina established free public schools for white youths.
1840
State public school system established.
1852
General Assembly attempted to divert resources from UNC to aid public schools.
1853
Orange County Public Schools developed.
1865
Equal Rights League established to ensure full citizenship and rights for Black North Carolinians.
1866
Freedman’s Convention in Raleigh.
1866
Quakers established a school in Chapel Hill.
1868
Wilson Caldwell, whose father was enslaved by UNC’s president, Joseph Caldwell, founded the Caldwell School for Negroes.
1869
Freedman’s School established in Hillsborough.
1871-1874
Conservatives gained control of the General Assembly.
1884
35 white schools and 31 Black schools present in Orange County.
1887
Hayes Tilden Compromise removes federal troops from the South and leaves Black people unprotected from terror.
1891-1892
Kemp Plummer Battle taught Biblical history and modern methods of research, such as developing “a logical view of the stream of human events and the evolution of races and nations.”
1870-1906
Statistical Record of the Progress of Public Education 1870-1906 was released.
1890
Quakers offered to donate building at St. Paul’s school if the town of Chapel Hill paid the teacher’s salaries.
1896
Plessey v. Ferguson
1898-1912
Dr. L.H. Hackney established chronically underfunded Hackney school for Black children in Chapel Hill.
1902
Chapel Hill Public School opened in Orange County for white children.
1909
Chapel Hill school district chartered by NC General Assembly.
1915
Stuart Willis gave speech “What can we do?“ and organized volunteers from UNC to develop Black school to teach them to be better servants.
1916
Orange County Training School opened for Black students in Orange County.
1921, 1922
Black Orange County residents raised more than half of the money to fund Cool Springs School north of Chapel Hill.
1922
OCTS destroyed by fire.
1924
Orange County added funding to expand school year.
1924
Henry Stroud donated land for OCTS.
1927
Chapel Hill School district was made training school of UNC’s school of education.
1929
Orange County refused to add additional funding for Black schools to expand school term from 6 to 8 months.
1930
Black Chapel Hill residents vote to increase their taxes and join Chapel Hill School district.
1933
New Deal legislation made available $120 billion dollars in loans (worth a trillion dollars today) for white people and created jobs designed to eradicate unemployment.
1934
The Federal Housing Act insured mortgages of lower-income Americans, helping white citizens acquire financing through private banks and other financial institutions.
1935
Social Security Act provided benefits to American workers except farm and domestic workers, the primary vocation of Black Orange County workers.
1938
Brick construction for Central High School (formerly Negro High School).
1939
Chapel Hill’s white community had paved roads.
1944
GI Bill sent $95 billion dollars of educational, housing and employment benefits to mostly white soldiers coming home from war 2,255,00 soldiers received this “leg up.”
1947
Because of the GI Bill, student enrollment at UNC increased from 4,100 to 7,250.
1947-1966
Chapel Hill High educated white students.
1948
OCTS name changed to Lincoln High to indicate more academic rigor.
1954
Brown v. Board of Education
1955
Pearsall Plan developed to offer school vouchers and delay school integration in North Carolina and all 100 counties voted in favor.
1959
Stanley Vickers Lawsuit initiated to force desegregation of the CHCCS system.
1960
Committee headed by UNC professor Harold Langenderfer to study curriculum and transfers.
1963
Chapel Hill transfers allowed Black citizens to attend white schools. Most Black citizens were reluctant to apply out of fear of retribution.
1964
School district lines redrawn.
1966
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools fully integrated.
1969
Disruptions at Chapel Hill High school over unfair treatment of newly integrated Black students result in Chapel Hill police, Orange County sheriff and riot-helmeted officers patrolling the school and injured Black high school students.
1970
United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare notified the UNC System it was in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to implement sufficient desegregation plans.
1978
Adams Criteria established to assist in creating programs to rectify past discrimination.
1981
UNC resolved consent decree from Adams v. Richardson in 1970 through an administrative proceeding, avoiding loss of $100 million of federal funds.
1982
NAACP Legal Defense Fund sought to re-open Adams lawsuit.
1990
Housekeepers threatened not to join the NAACP; the largest education advocacy organization in Chapel Hill.
1994
Leandro v. State of North Carolina lawsuit filed by five school districts in low wealth communities to ensure family wealth and residence should not be barriers to achieving a sound education.
1996
Controversy erupts over desire to open new high school, East Chapel Hill, in affluent neighborhood.
1997
N.C. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that access to a sound basic education is a constitutional right.
2000
North Carolina Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against requiring schools to be racially balanced.
2002
N.C. lower court found North Carolina to be in violation of providing a sound basic education for all students.
2004
N.C. Supreme Court upheld ruling that access to a sound basic education is a constitutional right.
2017
Governor Roy Cooper created Commission on Access to Sound Basic Education.
2018
The Governor’s commission hired WestEd, an independent consultant group, to study and recommend a plan to remedy the constitutional violation of basic education for students.
2019
WestEd released findings in 287-page action plan to target educational inequity.