Exploration Topic:

The Desegregation of North Carolina

Public Schools
Standards: 8.H.2.2 Summarize how leadership
and citizen actions influenced the outcome of
key conflicts in North Carolina and the United
States.
Era Representative: Dorothy Counts
Essential Question: Segregated schools were
the cultural norm in the United States up until
the 1960s, so how has Dorothy Counts bravery
impacted our current education system, and
post-Civil Rights movement era?

Romance- On a crisp September Monday following the Labor Day holiday in 1957, school children from
all over North Carolina embarked on a new school year. This year, unlike any other was particularly
different. On that day in North Carolina history, the unthinkable had occurred, integration1. No longer
where the faces of black school children found solely in their isolated school buildings, on that day
fourteen African-Americans students across the great state of North Carolina were permitted to attend
previously white-only schools.
To capture the attention of the students, and give them a personal connection, they will be asked to
imagine their school experience without any racial diversity. They will then be asked to write down five
things that they thought about and form groups of four.
Students will get into groups of four and write down their ideas of segregated schools on post-it notes
and place them on the board in the format of a KWL chart. The board will be broken into three sections:
know, want to know, and learn. Students can pose questions, make statements, and state things that
they would like to leave this unit knowing.
Precision- Students will return to their groups and use their iPads or laptops to watch the YouTube clip
A Walk of Faith. This will be an introduction to Dorothy Counts. Ms. Counts desegregated the
formerly all-white Harding High in Charlotte, NC. She is one of the trailblazers for NC desegregation and
faced a plethora of unnecessary obstacles as she tried to gain access to Harding High. After the viewing
they will read an article from the Charlotte Observer, in celebration of 57 years of desegregation in
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Video Clip- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7DUuAYK1RM
Article- http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/community/article9123869.html

Significance of Dorothy Counts

o
o
o
o
o
o

o
o

o
o

o
o

Charlotte-Mecklenburg prepared to integrate its schools on September 4, 1957

The culmination of the crisis occurred shortly after 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday September 4th at
Harding High School.
15-year old Dorothy Counts left her parents' home on Beatties Ford Road just across from
Johnson C. Smith University, where her father taught theology.
She was driven to Harding that late summer morning by Dr. Edwin Tompkins, also a member of
the Johnson C. Smith faculty
Dorothy Counts walked up the sidewalk that led to the front door. Hoots and catcalls filled the
air.
Dorothy Counts remained stoical throughout this electrifying encounter. She said nothing, even
though some young whites threw trash and rocks toward her, most landing at her feet. "I do
remember something hitting me in the back," she told a newspaper reporter, "but I don't think
they were throwing at me, just in front and at my feet."
Dorothy Counts exhibited remarkable poise that day. When asked if any whites spat upon her,
Counts answered: "Yes. Many. A good many times, mostly on the back."
Dorothy Counts soon succumbed to the harassment and scorn she experienced. "The students
were pushing, shoving, spitting in my food," she explained many years later. "But the first time I
was afraid was when I saw my brother in the car and students broke a window."
Counts withdrew from Harding High School after attending for only four days and transferred to
a school in Pennsylvania, but the other three African Americans who had enrolled with little or
no fanfare at other schools on September 4th remained for the entire year.
Gus Roberts would eventually graduate from Central High School.
Indeed, the contributions of Gus Roberts, Girvaud Roberts, and Delores Huntley to the
advancement of integrated schools were more substantial, if less confrontational, than those
made by Counts.
The number of blacks attending integrated classrooms increased but only gradually. Charlotte
remained mostly a segregated city.
The greatest legacy of the stirring events that had transpired at Harding High School on
September 4, 1957, was the determination of Charlotte's business leaders that such events
would never happen again.
Photographs of Dorothy Counts walking demurely through a throng of screaming and spitting
students had appeared in newspapers across the United States, including the New York Times.

Lesson Implementation
Around the room, students will be given directions to visit six posters with names of different
students that helped desegregate Charlotte schools. There will be facts on the posters, and a place
for students to write their opinions about the person and their story. Members from the largest
counties in North Carolina will be on the posters.
After all groups have visited the posters, each group will take one poster to share with the class.
Students will be able to ask questions and discuss the facts and opinions on the paper. This activity
will be student led and facilitated.

Discussion/Generalization:
o
o
o

What would life have been like for students during the 1950s and 1960s?
Do you think having segregated schools benefited students?
How do you think Dorothy Counts felt as she walked into the school, if you were her, how would
you have handled the situation?

Activity:
o

Students will be asked to journal throughout this unit about their feelings and reactions to the
content. They can draw concept maps, write, draw pictures, or whatever they would like to
show their thought process as we progress through the unit.
Homework:
o

Students will be asked to read the Pledge of Allegiance and annotate the text. Afterwards, they
will write down five original thoughts about what the pledge means. They will also write about
how the pledge applied to students in the 1950s and 1960s when everyone was not free and
students of color received a low quality education.

Lesson #2
The Reason behind Dorothys Perseverance
Romance: As students enter the class they will be given different stickers. The stickers will separate the
groups into three categories: white, black and other. The students with the same stickers will sit
together and throughout the lesson, they will have a different experience based on their group
assignment. (Simulation on racial segregation)
Conditions for Students of Color: The Separate but Equal verdict of the 1895 Plessy v. Ferguson case
allowed for the separation and the unequal treatment of minorities. The United States, a religiously
founded country that takes great pride in its traditions and customs; and has historically faced internal
battles among its citizens during periods of great change. So the United States white citizens were not
accepting of the desegregation movement in the public school system, but it had to be done.
During the section of the lesson, it will be clear that some students are being favored over others. This
will cause students to ask why and think critically. If students can draw the connections between the
injustices in the classroom, to the injustices faced by people of color during the 50s and 60s, then this
lesson has been effective. We will conclude this part of the lesson with a five minute quick write about
the simulation and how it made certain students feel.

Activity: Students will read the poem below and annotate the text.

"Separate but Equal"

Aren't they supposed to be people, too?
Pigment is really that important?
They are not dirty!
A separate restaurant,
Drinking fountain,
Theater,
Bench,
Everything!
Because you can deal with "different" people.
They had "rights,"
But if they were considered people, the segregation would not have happened. They
had no choice.
The conditions were worse.
How is that fair?
Hardly any jobs were open to them.
And I know you know exactly what I am
Talking about, but I never said once

That almost everyone called them that one despicable word:

N****r.
To discuss the poem, students will break into groups of four and engage in a teacher-led activity. At each
group workstation, there will be a set of 10 pictures and guided questions about the reading. Students
will have assigned tasks in the group: recorder, reader, facilitator, and time keeper. The reader will read
off the questions from the sheet provided all students must choose a picture to describe how they think
Dorothy would feel. In this activity, we want students to learn how to empathize with others and try and
understand the perspective of someone else.

Precision:

o Charlottes school system began with humble beginnings in 1790 when its first public
school building opened in Mecklenburg County. The school was situated on the corner
of
o North Tryon and Sugar Creek road and was named Sugar Creek School House, a
parochial school. Following the opening of the school in 1882 the first public school
system in Charlotte was organized and offered grades first through tenth grade and
eventually twelfth in 1925. Two segregated schools were then formed-South School, the
first known white school and Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools.
o Myers Street School the first known black school. These schools were governed by two
different education systems and the white school system was favored and received
more money and supplies than the black school system. South School was headed by
the Mecklenburg County schools system and Myers Street by Charlotte City schools.
Students at
o South School was provided with all the modern teaching equipment and were even
provided with buses. These buses would go to the ends of the city to bus students from
the rural areas of Charlotte to South School.
o Within the Charlotte area the news of the Brown v. Board of Education decision evoked
strong emotion from both white parents and black parents, but Charlottes school
systems remained segregated, even after the Brown decision.
o

These two school systems survived until the 1959-1960 school year when the two
boards decided 2:1 in favor of unifying the systems and becoming one governing school
system.

o On July 1, 1960 the Charlotte Mecklenburg School system emerged as the only
governing power over Charlotte area public schools.
o

The pressure from the predominately black schools and the portion of the community
that supported integration were the driving force behind the convergence of the two
school systems.

o There was much division within the school system and blacks had little to no governing
authority; whatsoever, but the mere convergence ultimately led to the formation of a
strong school system that would eventually integrate schools and support both the
black community while still somewhat appeasing the white Charlotteans.
Generalization
After receiving some background information on the Charlotte Mecklenburg School system, the
students will go over the differences between the Plessy v. Ferguson case and the Brown v. Board case.
They will have a document with key points in the courts cases.
http://billofrightsinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Brown_v_Board_of_Ed_1954.pdf

Next, they will watch the following video and complete a think, pair, share graphic organizer.
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/supremecourtcases/p/brown_v_board.htm

Homework- Students will complete a 3-2-1 reading response as their journal entry. They will talk about
three things that they learned, 2 things that they will take away from this lesson and 1 concept that they
have not fully grasped.

Lesson #3- Stanislavski Method

Busing, the Solution to the Integration Problem

Quick Write Prompt

Quick! Grab your pencil and write for five minutes without picking your pencil up from the paper. Write
about your feeling and thoughts regarding our unit.
Romance
Students will be given the boundary lines for our school district, and they will also be given a map that
shows the racial make-up of certain areas in our school district. Students will be asked to individually
devise a plan to integrate the schools. They will have the first twenty minutes of class to weigh the pros
and cons before they find a partner. Students will connect with this assignment because it will directly
influence them. They will get to see how challenging it is for school board members and superintendents
to draw school lines and divide up students.

Introductory Activity:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=1960s+busing+in+north+carolina
Students will watch the above clip after designing their school zones. They will get to see how busing
was problematic, but effective.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article9160829.html
Then students will read this article by the Charlotte Observer about how CMS schools have become
segregated again, not that they are no longer busing.
Precision
http://carolinahistory.web.unc.edu/charlotte-nc-birthplace-and-place-of-death-of-integration-inpublic-schools/
This article will be the culminating piece of text to help us tie up the loose ends about segregation.
Students will get a chance to think critically about the opinions in this article and will participate in a
Socratic seminar to discuss whether or not the argument in this article is valid. All students must be
involved in the discussion and they will be graded on the quality of their responses, not the quantity.

http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/296/entry/

Psychosocial Stage:
During the Socratic seminar, students will be introduced to the Swann v. CMS case. We will pause the
discussion to introduce this topic and then resume the lesson. This will give students a curve ball and an
additional piece if information for them to rely on and use as a basis of evidence either for or against
their argument. Dorothy Counts and other students that integrated CMS, endured great strife to ensure
that the students that would come inevitably come behind them would attend racially integrated
schools. The purpose of this activity/reading is to make students think about the social, intellectual,
economic, and personal impacts that the Swann case on CMS.

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-postwar/6018
This article contains a list of pros and cons for busing in Charlotte. Students will be asked to review the
list and modify the statements so that they agree with what is written.

Empathetic Phase:
Culminating Project/ Field Trip
If possible, I would like to take students to the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, NC. This
museum walks students from the era of slavery to modern day in Charlotte. It shows quite eloquently
how well Charlotte has kept up with the times, and it also shows how North Carolina was just as harsh to
folks of color. The museum has several artifacts dating back to slavery to the present day. This part of
the
If allowed to travel to the museum, I would have guided notes for students to sue while they were at the
museum. These questions would be thought provoking and hard to answer. They would make students
think critically and view the material with a social justice lens.

Sources
http://carolinahistory.web.unc.edu/charlotte-nc-birthplace-and-place-of-death-of-integration-inpublic-schools/
http://www.museumofthenewsouth.org/exhibits
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-postwar/6018

Unit Rationale
Race and equality have always been two things that weve struggled with in the history of North
Carolina. We can be a progressive state, but we often times lean on our traditional, conservative views
to help us make decisions. This lesson was intended to show students that access to a quality education
for people of color has not always been easy, or obtainable. This unit walks students through the issues
and offers solutions and suggestions to the problem. It covers the major court cases that shaped our
current education system, while showing how some of those cases could be considered
counterproductive. Overall, this unit highlighted a woman with great bravery! One that did not back
down easily when things became too tough. Dorothy paved the way for future CMS students to enjoy a
quality education with a diverse group of students.