Pearsall Plan facts for kids

The Pearsall Plan to Save Our Schools, often called just the Pearsall Plan, was North Carolina's way of dealing with school integration in 1956. This plan came about after the U.S. Supreme Court said that separating students by race in public schools was against the law. This big decision was made in a case called Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Many states in the South faced challenges because many people did not want schools to mix races.

North Carolina chose a more careful approach. They knew that school integration would happen eventually. Instead of fighting it directly, like states such as Alabama and Virginia, North Carolina wanted to find a moderate solution. To do this, the North Carolina Advisory Committee on Education created the Pearsall Committee. This committee was named after its leader, Thomas J. Pearsall, who was a well-known person from Rocky Mount. The Pearsall Committee then created the Pearsall Plan. This plan was meant to slowly integrate North Carolina's public schools. Some people believe this plan actually slowed down the fight for equal education for students across the state for many years. Others think the plan helped society get used to the big changes that came with school integration.

What Was the Pearsall Plan?

Instead of the North Carolina State Board of Education deciding how fast schools would integrate, the Pearsall Plan gave this power to local school boards. These local boards were mostly controlled by white people. This was because most Black people could not vote or run for office at that time, due to an old law from 1900.

The Pearsall Plan also said that if a child was put into a mixed-race school against their parents' wishes, the parents could get money to send their child to a private school.

Under the Pearsall Plan, many school districts kept schools separate by race. They often said no when Black students asked to transfer to white schools. The plan also said that if a child was placed in a mixed public school and couldn't get into a private school, they would not be forced to attend the mixed school. Communities could also vote to close down any school they thought was "intolerable." This meant that a neighborhood with mostly white families could vote to close a mixed school if they felt it was not right for their children to share classrooms there.

The Pearsall Committee said their plan was about building a "new school system on a new foundation." This meant no more legal segregation by race. Instead, students would be assigned based on "natural racial preference" and what was best for each child. The Committee believed that separating schools by race was natural and that students could do well without new laws. However, Black schools and other facilities often received less money because Black people were not well-represented in government. This showed that white students often had more opportunities. The struggle for integrated schools in North Carolina went on for another 20 years until schools finally became integrated.

Was the Plan Defying the Government?

Many critics say that the way the Pearsall Plan was written showed it was trying to go against the Supreme Court, not help with desegregation. They felt that calling it "the Pearsall Plan to Save our Schools" suggested the Supreme Court was destroying the public school system with its ruling. These critics thought the plan was meant to question the Supreme Court's decision, not to follow it.

Suggesting that integration would make schools "intolerable" seemed to show that the Pearsall Plan wanted to stop integration, not just slow it down. The plan's own question-and-answer section said it was not defying the Supreme Court. Instead, it claimed it was "an attempt to stay within that decision, even though a great majority of our citizens disapprove of the Supreme Court's ruling." The Pearsall Committee believed the ruling was not what the "community" wanted. So, they made a plan that reduced the ruling's effects. The plan also claimed the Supreme Court had overstepped its power by ruling on public education, which many believed belonged to the states.

Why Was the Plan Considered Necessary?

The Pearsall Committee knew that school integration was going to happen and would bring big social changes. The committee, especially Thomas Pearsall, felt they needed a plan to help the state get ready for these changes. Pearsall's son, Mack, said his father expected a "very tension filled environment." He thought there would be major changes in how people lived and behaved. The committee tried to create a plan that would only allow as much change as the people of North Carolina wanted. They believed that rushing into big changes all at once would cause chaos.

Chaos was avoided, but in many places, nothing changed for years after the Pearsall Plan was released. This was because communities were allowed not to make any changes. The Committee had tried to find the right balance between taking action and causing chaos.

Political Reasons for the Plan

From a political point of view, the Pearsall Plan gave decision-making power to the local school boards. This also helped elected politicians avoid being caught in the middle of the integration fight. By giving responsibility to the school boards, politicians could stay out of the spotlight. They could appear neutral on school desegregation. One person said that the state's decision to let local town boards decide was to "make it clear that the state itself, from Raleigh, is not masterminding or trying to assure a particular result." This way, the state school board also avoided making a controversial decision that would likely be criticized by both sides.

Criticisms of the Plan

The African-American community criticized the Pearsall Plan. They felt it helped white students but offered few or no benefits to Black students. Critics pointed out that the Pearsall Committee itself was not balanced. It had sixteen white members and only three Black members. They believed such a committee could not fairly represent everyone in society.

The rules of the Plan made it hard for Black students, and even some white students, to challenge their school assignments. A student who wanted to change schools had to contact their local school board directly. There were no independent groups checking all the complaints to see how school boards were doing overall. The process to appeal a decision required filling out detailed forms that were hard for parents who had not received much education to understand. If the appeals were not filled out perfectly, the school boards would reject them.

Because of these problems, "most school boards denied every request filed by a black student to transfer from an assigned black school to a white school" until the early 1960s. Only one family ever received money for being placed in an integrated school. North Carolina was slower than states like Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia in getting Black students into integrated schools. Many African Americans in North Carolina were disappointed. They had hoped the Brown ruling would quickly lead to school integration.

Reactions to the Plan

Many people supported the idea of integrating schools. However, they were worried about what would happen if social changes happened too quickly. The Pearsall Plan seemed to reject any fast social change. A survey in February 1956 showed that 47% of African Americans in the South did not support the Brown ruling. They feared their children would be rejected and not get a fair education from white teachers. At the same time, they did not support the Pearsall Plan because it could stop any progress toward change.

Benjamin L. Smith, the white superintendent of Greensboro schools, wrote, "After careful deliberation it is my opinion that desegregation is an idea whose hour has arrived." He believed North Carolina and the U.S. were ready for desegregation to begin. But he also warned against moving too fast. He said, "Three hundred years of social distinctions have established customs and traditions that cannot and ought not be overthrown over night."

Impact on Charlotte

While feelings about the Pearsall Plan were similar across North Carolina, the city of Charlotte felt the effects of school integration more strongly. Since the early 1900s, Charlotte was completely segregated, not just in schools but in the whole city's culture. There were even separate areas where Black and white people lived. So, when the Brown ruling happened, the effort to desegregate Charlotte was about a complete culture change, not just a change in schools.

The NAACP played a key role in helping Black students try to attend the mostly white schools, which had better resources. However, there was strong criticism of the idea that schools could simply integrate because there was such a huge difference in the students' cultures. Most of the students who tried to switch to better-funded schools were rejected, and segregation continued in the city.

Finally, in the summer of 1957, the Charlotte School Board agreed to allow voluntary desegregation. They did this to avoid more orders from the state or national government. This effort was not very successful at first. Protesters at Harry Harding High School gained national attention for protesting the enrollment of Dorothy Counts. This embarrassed the city leaders. The protesters crowded around the school doors to stop Dorothy from entering, leading to two arrests. However, this bad behavior actually led to a series of successful and peaceful desegregation efforts. Black and white people worked together to improve the city's reputation and end segregation throughout Charlotte.

Thomas Pearsall's Regret

Thomas J. Pearsall, who is most known for the Pearsall Plan, later regretted leading such an important and controversial decision about school integration. After he became ill with lymphoma, Pearsall thought about how the committee's actions had affected everyone. His wife noticed that in his final days, Pearsall felt more strained when interacting with Black people. He felt he had done wrong to them. He was quoted saying, "I don't want to go to my grave feeling that I haven't done the best I could for the blacks."

Even though others told him he did everything possible to please everyone, evidence shows he didn't fully believe this himself. This might be because by the time he died in 1981, most schools in North Carolina had been forced to integrate, often leading to clashes between races.

Despite the great guilt he felt, Pearsall's reputation remained fairly good. He is highly respected for his work with the Pearsall Plan, even though it delayed school integration in North Carolina for several years. This suggests that people did not blame Pearsall himself. Instead, they blamed the local prejudices that ultimately made it harder for everyone to have equal opportunities. His son, Mack Pearsall, said his father spent part of his life working for equality for all people. He struggled when creating the Pearsall Plan because he feared he would be remembered as an enemy of the Black community. While Pearsall's actions did slow down equal educational opportunities for Black people, many still say his actions were necessary to prevent chaos after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.