When jazz great Louis Armstrong performed at UNC - Chapel Hill in May of 1954, he was an admired, popular entertainer - but he couldn't have legally attended class at the largely segregated University. By the time of his 1955 visit, the U. S. Supreme Court had ruled for integration, and when Armstrong returned to UNC in 1957, student leaders from Florida were visiting campus to see what had made integration of the first token minority students a success at Chapel Hill. From stories in the Daily Tar Heel, the winning elements seemed to be a combination of faculty and student effort that allowed the change to occur quietly.

Part of the May, 1954, post-concert interview with Armstrong went like this:

Interviewer: "What did you think of the audience today, how did it stack up with..."

Armstrong: "Just wonderful... You want to thank everyone of 'em for myself and the All Stars."

Interviewer: "If they had their way, you'd be down here going to school with us."

Armstrong (laughs): "That'd be wonderful, at that."

Part of the audience at Armstrong's UNC concert, May, 1954 (1955 Yakkety Yak)

At the time, the U.S. Supreme Court was still hearing arguments on the "separate but equal" doctrine of school segregation. Admission or graduation of an African-American was front page news in the Daily Tar Heel the previous school year when a January 25, 1953, front-page story announced that the University's "second Negro graduate yesterday entered the Greensboro City Council race."

"J. Kenneth Lee, 29, a Greensboro attorney who last summer graduated from the Law School here, is the third candidate to file for the race," the story said. "Lee was admitted to the University following a long drawn-out legal battle in June of 1951 when the Supreme Court refused to review a lower court decision which opened the Law School to Negro students." ("Negro Seeks Public Office; Is UNC Grad," p. 1, Jan. 25, 1953, The Daily Tar Heel)

Things seemed more tense in nearby states. For example, the campus paper reported the play "South Pacific" was seen as racial propaganda that was offensive and repugnant to people of the South, according to two Georgia legislators, Rep. David Jones and Sen. John Shepard. The two criticized the city of Atlanta for "permitting such propaganda to be foisted upon Southern men and women under the pretense of theatrical art." ("'South Pacific' Lyric Branded Race Propaganda in Georgia," March 4, 1953, ibid)

Admissions at nearby institutions continued to make news. The September 20, 1953, Daily Tar Heel noted that North Carolina State College "enrolled two Negro students in the graduate school of engineering." The primary reason for admission, the story said, was "that there be no graduate facilities avaiable for them in their special fields at existing Negro institutions in the state..." ("State College Accepts First Negro Students," p. 8, Sept. 20, 1953, ibid)

Campus editors in neighboring Athens, Georgia, found support for African-American students to be a tough assignment. The December 6, 1953, Daily Tar Heel reported that for "the second time in three days the University of Georgia student newspaper, the Red and Black, lost a set of editors as a result of the dispute arising because of an editorial in the paper favoring the admission of Negroes to Georgia colleges."

The editors, the story said, "...resigned after a threat of reprisal from a prominent Georgia political figure, Roy V. Harris, a member of the state board of regents." Said the disputed Athens article, "With Communism knocking at the Negro's back door, we cannot afford to let educational segregation barriers stand." ("Second Set of Editors Quit at Ga., Red And Black Staff Protests Censorship," Dec. 6, 1953, ibid)

On January 9, 1954, the Daily Tar Heel noted that the challenge to separate but equal education had arrived at the U.S. Supreme Court. Dr. William Jenkins, professor of political science at UNC, "provided a collection of early state records on microfilm, used in preparing briefs in the case before the Supreme Court on segregation." Jenkins also wrote "Pro-Slavery Thought in the Old South," used in the case preparation. ("Prof's Microfilm Used in Segregation Case," p. 1, Jan. 9, 1954, ibid)

Some faculty appeared unconcerned. An April 21, 1954, edition of the Daily Tar Heel reported that political science professor Dr. David Monroe told the Faculty Club, speaking on the topic, "The Schools and the Courts" that "most people...don't think there will be a great influx of Negro students to white schools,even if segregation is abolished." The story calculated the Supreme Court's decision was due sometime the following month. ("No Negro Influx In Schools Even If Segregation Goes, Says Monroe" by Louis Kraar, p. 1, April 21, 1954, ibid)

On May 12, 1954, just after Armstrong's visit, the Daily Tar Heel reported that a new publication, The Negro and the Schools, a new book prepared by 45 scholars "to give an impartial look at the whole picture of educational segregation in the United States...will be published by the University Press on Sunday." ("New Book On Negro & Schools," p. 1, May 12, 1954, ibid)

Getting admitted as a grad student didn't mean other conditions necessarily improved. An October 5, 1954, headline noted empty rooms next to two graduate UNC African-American students living in a campus dorm. James Slade and Romallus Murphy were pictured in the paper. Murphy thought it was "just a coincidence" and Slade said "I didn't give segregation a thought. I was thinking about all the big assignments we'd have in med school." ("Two UNC Negro Students Living in Segregated Steele Dorm Room," and "Segregation Didn't Worry Two Negroes," p. 1, Oct. 5, 1954, ibid)

The March 24, 1955 Daily Tar Heel reported two of the three student body presidential candidates had taken stands on the question of segregation. The paper reported that candidate Manning Muntzing said, "The Supreme Court has ruled on the issue of segregation, and it is now the law of the land. It is a matter which is delicate in nature and one which must be handled with complete diplomacy, so that as few hard feelings as possible will be aroused. At the moment, to my knowledge, it is not a problem which faces the University; this is not to say that it will not be a problem. At such time as this matter and the admission of Negroes does arise, I hope that the student body and student government will work together to meet the situation..." ("Two Prexy Candidates Take Stands on Negro Question," p. 1, March 24, 1955, ibid)

The challenge was not long in coming. A May 12, 1955, headline announced "Three Negro Students Said Planning To Start Undergraduate Work Here Next Fall; NAACP Backing Them."

Representatives of the UNC student body publicly urged the University trustees to permit integration. On February 9, 1957, a headline asserted "Integration at UNC Termed a Success," describing the visit of a student leader from the University of Florida to learn what made integration work well at the institution.

Ahead lay the ferment of the 1960s and Daily Tar Heel stories such as Dr. Martin Luther King's speech at Hill Hall advocating integration, in which King declared, "It is either non-violence or non-existence." ("Non-Violence Only Answer to U.S. Race Problem, Dr. King Declares," by Wayne King, p. 1, May 10, 1960, ibid)