Item Information
Title
Letter from Frank Porter Graham to Pauli Murray
Creator
Frank Porter Graham (1886-1972)
Source
Records of the Office of the President, Frank Porter Graham, University Archives (#40007)
Date
February 3, 1939
Rights
https://rightsstatements.org/page/CNE/1.0/?language=en
Text
Miss Pauli Murray
225 W. 110 Street
Apartment 5
New York City
My dear Miss Murray:
I wish to thank you for your letter and the spirit which runs through it. I have been on a night and day schedule in connection with the proposed budget for the University of North Carolina, which, if carried through would heavily damage this institution. I am just now taking time off from the legislative sessions to catch up with my correspondence.
I am aware of the inequities which you point out. Many months before the Gaines decision, the wise Governor of the state appointed a Commission to study the whole question of Negro education in general and professional and graduate work for Negroes in North Carolina. This Commission, of which ex-Senator Noel of Person County is chairman, and Mr. N. C. Newbold is secretary, has made its report and the Legislature has set up a committee to consider the recommendations made in the report of the Governor's Commission. This Committee, in a very serious way is now considering the whole question of graduate and professional work for Negroes in North Carolina as a clear responsibility of the Legislature of the state. Mr. Victor S. Bryant, representative from Durham County, is chairman of the committee considering the matter for the Legislature. Mr. Walter Murphy, of Rowen, as a member of Mr. Bryant’s committee, is working on a bill with Mr. Bryant. The Legislature will make its decision within the next month or six weeks. The legislative committee, as I understand it, is taking into account the following facts:
1. The provision in the Constitution of North Carolina requiring the separation of the races in public education;
2. The decision of the Supreme Court that the state must make substantially equal provision for graduate and professional work in the separate Negro institutions
or admit Negroes to the state university;
3. The Constitution of the state prevails up to the point where it is overruled by the Constitution of the United States as interpreted by the Supreme Court;
4. The only way to obey both the state Constitution and the United States Constitution is to make adequate provision in the separate Negro institutions;
5. If the state Constitution is not over-ruled by the United States Constitution then the only way to change a provision in the state Constitution is by referendum of the people.
The Negro leaders in this state and the white leaders who have been the friends of the Negroes in the struggle for justice are strongly of the opinion that the most unfortunate thing that could happen at this time would be a popular referendum on the race issue. The possibilities of an inter-racial throwback do not have to be emphasized in our present world.
The hundred years progress of the Southern Negro is perhaps without parallel in history. A study of the advances made by North Carolina toward more equal provision for Negroes in the public school and in the state colleges is encouraging. A comparison of appropriations both for maintenance and for buildings clearly shows that we are moving ahead in North Carolina in this very basic matter of fairer treatment of our Negro fellow citizens. We must move forward. We must not be unwise in the present critical situation and cause a throwback to a darker time with losses all along the line. It is the millions who suffer in such a throwback.
You realize that inter-racial inequalities are not confined to the Southern part of the United States. In the northern universities, though not under the prohibition of the law, there are, I understand, no Negro professors. It seems that the only career open to the Negro professor in institutions of higher learning is in the Negro colleges of the South.
Taking account of the Constitution of North Carolina, the decision of the United States Supreme Court and the clear intent of the Legislature of North Carolina I have pledged as far as my lawful responsibility permits, the cooperation of the University of North Carolina with the North Carolina College for Negroes and the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College for Negroes toward a more adequate provision for Negroes in the public schools, higher standard Negro undergraduate colleges, and a substantial beginning in the provision of graduate and professional work. This may seem to you to be an inadequate and minimum program, but it is going to take the cooperation and the struggle of us all to bring it to pass. The present alternative is a throwback against whose consequences we must unceasingly be on guard in the best interests of both races, who after all go up or down together.
As you may know, I am under very bitter attack in some parts of North Carolina and the lower South for what little I have tried to do on behalf of Negro people, organized and unorganized workers and other underprivileged groups. I realize I am also subject to attack because I understand the limitations under which we must work in order to make the next possible advance.
With kindest regards to you, I am
Sincerely yours.
Frank P. Graham
President
225 W. 110 Street
Apartment 5
New York City
My dear Miss Murray:
I wish to thank you for your letter and the spirit which runs through it. I have been on a night and day schedule in connection with the proposed budget for the University of North Carolina, which, if carried through would heavily damage this institution. I am just now taking time off from the legislative sessions to catch up with my correspondence.
I am aware of the inequities which you point out. Many months before the Gaines decision, the wise Governor of the state appointed a Commission to study the whole question of Negro education in general and professional and graduate work for Negroes in North Carolina. This Commission, of which ex-Senator Noel of Person County is chairman, and Mr. N. C. Newbold is secretary, has made its report and the Legislature has set up a committee to consider the recommendations made in the report of the Governor's Commission. This Committee, in a very serious way is now considering the whole question of graduate and professional work for Negroes in North Carolina as a clear responsibility of the Legislature of the state. Mr. Victor S. Bryant, representative from Durham County, is chairman of the committee considering the matter for the Legislature. Mr. Walter Murphy, of Rowen, as a member of Mr. Bryant’s committee, is working on a bill with Mr. Bryant. The Legislature will make its decision within the next month or six weeks. The legislative committee, as I understand it, is taking into account the following facts:
1. The provision in the Constitution of North Carolina requiring the separation of the races in public education;
2. The decision of the Supreme Court that the state must make substantially equal provision for graduate and professional work in the separate Negro institutions
or admit Negroes to the state university;
3. The Constitution of the state prevails up to the point where it is overruled by the Constitution of the United States as interpreted by the Supreme Court;
4. The only way to obey both the state Constitution and the United States Constitution is to make adequate provision in the separate Negro institutions;
5. If the state Constitution is not over-ruled by the United States Constitution then the only way to change a provision in the state Constitution is by referendum of the people.
The Negro leaders in this state and the white leaders who have been the friends of the Negroes in the struggle for justice are strongly of the opinion that the most unfortunate thing that could happen at this time would be a popular referendum on the race issue. The possibilities of an inter-racial throwback do not have to be emphasized in our present world.
The hundred years progress of the Southern Negro is perhaps without parallel in history. A study of the advances made by North Carolina toward more equal provision for Negroes in the public school and in the state colleges is encouraging. A comparison of appropriations both for maintenance and for buildings clearly shows that we are moving ahead in North Carolina in this very basic matter of fairer treatment of our Negro fellow citizens. We must move forward. We must not be unwise in the present critical situation and cause a throwback to a darker time with losses all along the line. It is the millions who suffer in such a throwback.
You realize that inter-racial inequalities are not confined to the Southern part of the United States. In the northern universities, though not under the prohibition of the law, there are, I understand, no Negro professors. It seems that the only career open to the Negro professor in institutions of higher learning is in the Negro colleges of the South.
Taking account of the Constitution of North Carolina, the decision of the United States Supreme Court and the clear intent of the Legislature of North Carolina I have pledged as far as my lawful responsibility permits, the cooperation of the University of North Carolina with the North Carolina College for Negroes and the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College for Negroes toward a more adequate provision for Negroes in the public schools, higher standard Negro undergraduate colleges, and a substantial beginning in the provision of graduate and professional work. This may seem to you to be an inadequate and minimum program, but it is going to take the cooperation and the struggle of us all to bring it to pass. The present alternative is a throwback against whose consequences we must unceasingly be on guard in the best interests of both races, who after all go up or down together.
As you may know, I am under very bitter attack in some parts of North Carolina and the lower South for what little I have tried to do on behalf of Negro people, organized and unorganized workers and other underprivileged groups. I realize I am also subject to attack because I understand the limitations under which we must work in order to make the next possible advance.
With kindest regards to you, I am
Sincerely yours.
Frank P. Graham
President