By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
CARRBORO – In the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, where the importance of diversity is taught in classrooms and celebrated across campuses, it’s difficult to imagine a time when all students weren’t treated equally. But a short 50 years ago, when a 10-year-old black boy wanted to attend Carrboro Elementary School, then an all-white school, the school board denied his request, simply because of the color of his skin.
Aug. 4 marked the 50th anniversary of the landmark decision in the Vickers v. Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools case, and on Monday community members, elected officials and Stanley Vickers – that 10-year-old boy – came together to celebrate and commemorate the decision, in which U.S. District Court Judge Edwin Stanley ruled that Vickers was entitled to admission to a previously all-white school.
“The whole idea of having this celebration or commemoration … is to make sure that we don’t forget,†said Eddie Davis, chair of Inclusive North Carolina and organizer of the gathering.
In 1959, Vickers’ parents requested that he be allowed to attend Carrboro Elementary, which was closer to the family’s Carrboro residence than the all-black Northside Elementary School. The school board voted 4-2 to deny the Vickers family’s application, with UNC School of Law Dean Henry Brandis and First Baptist Church Rev. John Manley dissenting. Brandis later resigned from the board in protest.
Durham lawyers Conrad Pearson and William Marsh, along with Thurgood Marshall, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the Vickers family, and Stanley’s decision came down in 1961, paving the road for integration across the southeastern United States.
That fall, Vickers, along with fellow black student Ted Stone, entered a previously all-white junior high school, while Sheila Bynum – now Sheila Bynum Florence – became the first black student at Chapel Hill High School.
“When most of this was going on, I was pretty young, and I didn’t understand the significance of it,†Vickers said. “I really had the easy job in it. My parents said, ‘Here’s where you go to school – just go there and don’t embarrass yourself.’â€
But Vickers’ job – along with that of Stone and Florence and integration pioneers across the country – certainly wasn’t easy.
“It was the children who had to be most brave, who had to be on the front lines, who had to put their physical well-being on the line,†Mayor Mark Chilton said.
Vickers admitted that he did have a tough time, but that there were bright spots.
“When we went to that school, not everyone was our friend, but not everyone was our enemy,†Vickers said. “Maybe they weren’t our friends, but they didn’t abuse us and they didn’t mistreat us when they had the opportunity.â€
As the lone black student at Chapel Hill High School, Florence shared Vickers’ experience.
“It was exciting,†Florence said. “It was so hard getting there.â€
Despite the excitement, the road wasn’t easy for her at CHHS.
“I felt very alone, scared,†Florence said. “I didn’t know what to expect.â€
“At lunchtime, I had to sit alone,†she said. In biology class, “I was the last one to get picked for a lab partner.â€
But she continued to go to school. “I made my mom proud because she had worked so hard to get me in,†she said.
Florence said eventually, her mother called women she knew with daughters at Chapel Hill High and asked them if their daughters would be friends with her.
“After a while, things got better,†she said. By the time she graduated in 1965, other black students had joined her as the first integrated graduating class at Chapel Hill High.
Robert Campbell, a leader in the local black community, commended the pioneers for their actions.
“To actually have been a part of that struggle as we began, and to see where we are today … because a young man had a desire to venture out to bring forth changes that would benefit not just himself but a whole community, you have to commend him and his family for the work they have done,†Campbell said.
Vickers said he was humbled.
“People can make the way for you, but you’ve got to walk the path,†he said. “Heroes are ordinary people who take one more step.”