Chatham country, like other North Carolina counties, had little money and resources dedicated to advancing the education of African Americans. After the supreme court decision on Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, no integration efforts were made for more than 10 years. However, in the same year of the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 a “freedom-of-choice’ plan was proposed as a response to the pressure from the federal government. This plan was merely a stall to delay integration efforts. It was not until 1968 when an “11-point” program was implemented because Washington has threatened to cut federal funding provided to the school systems in the county. Finally, in 1970 Chatham County achieved full school integration [1]. The timeline below shows the progress of the desegregation of the school systems in Chatham County.
References:
- Pyle, J. (2009). A Brief History of the Schools of Chatham County. Retrieved from https://chathamhistory.org/pdfs/ABriefHistoryoftheSchoolsofChathamCounty.pdf