Editing Caswell County, North Carolina (section)

===Civil rights movement===
In the 20th century, during the era of [[school segregation in the United States]], many African American students in Caswell County attended [[Caswell County Training School]], which was renamed Caswell County High School in the 1960s.<ref name="auto88"/> [[Vanessa Siddle Walker]]'s 1996 book, ''[[Their Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South]]'', provides detailed insights into this school, now a designated site on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Caswell County, North Carolina|National Register of Historic Places in Caswell County]].

By the end of the 1960s, Caswell County's public schools were beginning to fully [[school integration|integrate]]. A decade and a half earlier in 1954, the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled in [[Brown v. Board of Education]] that [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]] in public schools was unconstitutional. In a later decision by the Court in May 1955 known as ''Brown II'', school districts were given the ambiguous order to desegregate "with all deliberate speed."<ref>{{cite web|title=Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka|date=August 15, 2016
|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2004/spring/brown-v-board-1.html
|access-date=July 11, 2021}}</ref> Like many school boards in [[Southern United States|the South]] at the time, the Caswell County Board of Education interpreted the Court's ambiguity in a manner that served to delay, obstruct, and slow the process of racially integrating its schools.<ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis55.htm#1955ads The "Brown II," "All Deliberate Speed" Decision] ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive</ref><ref name="ncpedia">{{cite web|title=The Pupil Assignment Act: North Carolina's Response to Brown v. Board of Education|url=https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/pupil-reassignment-act-north-carolina|access-date=August 12, 2021}}</ref>

The Board of Education's resistance to integration had already been emboldened by North Carolina's passage of the Pupil Assignment Act in April 1955. The legislation gave county school boards full school placement authority.<ref name="ncpedia"/> Driven by the act's power, the [[Pearsall Plan|Pearshall Plan's]] passage, and the prevailing anti-integration sentiment of the white community, the school district kept assigning children to schools in a segregated manner.<ref name="auto2">{{cite web|title=Caswell County History, Web Log – Caswell County, North Carolina: School Integration|url=https://ncccha.org/index.html#contents|publisher=NCCCHA.org|access-date=July 26, 2021}}</ref>

In response to these developments, fifteen local African American parents presented a petition to the school district in August 1956 calling for the abolition of segregation, which the board refused to consider. Undeterred, the parents organized protests that included the [[NAACP]]. A [[Federal judiciary of the United States|federal]] lawsuit was subsequently filed in December 1956 asking for the immediate desegregation of Caswell County and North Carolina schools.<ref>"Desegregation Action is Filed," ''[[The News & Observer]]'' (Raleigh, NC), December 11, 1956, p1</ref>

In August 1957, 43 local students, many of whom were plaintiffs via their parents in the federal court case, applied for admission to public schools that were closer to their homes than the segregated ones they had been assigned.<ref>"43 Negroes Seek Entry into Schools," ''[[The Charlotte Observer]]'' (Charlotte, NC), August 6, 1957, p4-A</ref> The school board denied their applications and continued to reject them through 1962.<ref name="auto2"/> Nevertheless, the federal lawsuit kept moving forward.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jeffers v. Whitley, 197 F. Supp. 84 (M.D.N.C. 1961) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/197/84/1419662/ |access-date=November 11, 2022 |website=Justia Law |language=en}}</ref>

In December 1961, [[U.S. District Court]] Judge [[Edwin M. Stanley]] ruled that two brothers, Charlie and Fred Saunders, could promptly attend Archibald Murphey Elementary School, a now-closed, formerly all-white school near [[Milton, North Carolina|Milton]]. However, when the new semester began in January, they did not enroll. The [[Ku Klux Klan#Third Klan|Ku Klux Klan]] had sent a threatening letter to the Saunders family previously.<ref name="auto9">"Caswell Negroes' Appeal Step Taken," ''The Charlotte Observer'' (Charlotte, NC), January 31, 1962, p12-A</ref> 

According to an affidavit submitted by the children's father, C.H. Saunders Sr., the KKK's threats caused him to miss a school board reassignment hearing ordered by the judge in August 1961, prior to his final judgment. Saunders also stated that he would be agreeable to transferring schools if his children's protection at Murphey Elementary could be assured.<ref name="auto9"/>
 
A year after the Saunders decision, Stanley ruled that the school district had been improperly administering the Pupil Assignment Act. In December 1962, he told the school boards of Caswell County and the city of [[Durham, North Carolina|Durham]] to allow every schoolchild complete freedom of choice regarding school placement.<ref>"Judge Rules on School Integration," ''The Charlotte Observer'' (Charlotte, NC), December 22, 1962, p1</ref> On January 22, 1963, sixteen African American schoolchildren enrolled in four of the county's previously all-white schools.<ref name="auto2"/>

On their first day of school, a group of white men harassed and threatened one of the parents, Jasper Brown, who was a local [[American civil rights movement|civil rights]] leader and farmer. As Brown drove home, the men pursued and menaced him. Following a rear-end collision, the driver of the other vehicle exited with a firearm. Fearing for his life, Brown exchanged gunfire with the men, wounding two of them, before turning himself in to the police.<ref>"Two Area Men Wounded: Caswell Scene Now Calm," ''The Daily Times-News'' (Burlington, NC), January 23, 1963, p1</ref><ref name="auto2"/> The incident was soon reported to Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]] due to its gravity.<ref>"Two White Men Wounded in Caswell Integration," ''The News & Observer'' (Raleigh, NC), January 23, 1963, p1</ref>

Several months later, Brown was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and served 90 days in jail. While awaiting trial, white men bombed his yard.{{sfn|Brown|2004|pp=53-57,78-79}} His four children and the 12 others who integrated the county's schools were physically threatened and emotionally abused throughout the semester. Despite requests from the NAACP and concerned families, no police protection was provided. Furthermore, the Board of Education refused to arrange school bus transportation.<ref>"Suit Claims Pupil Abuse in Caswell," ''The News & Observer'' (Raleigh, NC), March 19, 1963, p9</ref><ref name="auto2"/>

By late 1967, only 57 African American children out of a Black student population of approximately 3,000 were attending integrated public schools in Caswell County.<ref>"Caswell Hearing Recessed," ''The News & Observer'' (Raleigh, NC), August 17, 1966, p3</ref><ref name="auto2"/> While there had been some faculty integration, the less than two percent enrollment rate effectively upheld segregation. The school district's integration plan had not fostered sufficient desegregation.<ref name="auto1">"Caswell Answers Questions on School Desegregation," ''[[Danville Register & Bee|The Danville Register]]'' (Danville, VA), December 21, 1966, p1</ref> Its  "[[Freedom of Choice (schools)|freedom of choice]]" plan placed the burden of integration on individual African American students and parents, requiring them to cross the color line voluntarily.<ref name="auto1"/> If they did so, they faced [[social stigma]], severe discrimination, and other hardships. Consequently, many families, though supportive of integration efforts, chose to keep their children safe in valued [[Black schools]] such as Caswell County High School.<ref name="auto88">{{cite web| title=Caswell County Training School,1933–1969: Relationships between Community and School|url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ad0d247af209613040b9ceb/t/5d45d0afd73cd50001170896/1564856499519/haer.63.2.ejr4135v5t426533.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726175006/https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ad0d247af209613040b9ceb/t/5d45d0afd73cd50001170896/1564856499519/haer.63.2.ejr4135v5t426533.pdf |archive-date=July 26, 2020 |url-status=live| publisher=Harvard Educational Review| access-date=July 26, 2020}}</ref><ref name="auto2"/>

The school district's low integration rate resulted in the [[U.S. Office of Education]] citing the county in 1966 as one of seven in the state that were not in compliance with its civil rights [[Civil Rights Act of 1964|Title IV]] guidelines. The bureau began taking steps to cut off federal funding.<ref>"Caswell Notified Compliance Lacking for U.S. Funds," ''The Danville Register'' (Danville, VA), December 6, 1966, p1</ref> The school district was not in full compliance with federal integration standards until 1969.<ref name="auto">"Judge Rules Caswell in Compliance," ''The News & Observer'' (Raleigh, NC), April 11, 1969, p3</ref> In that year, the Caswell County Board of Education implemented a plan for complete desegregation after Judge Stanley ordered the school district in August 1968 to integrate starting in the 1969–1970 school year.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=0fEeU3FD9nUC&dq=%22on+29+august+1968%22&pg=PA192 ''Their Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South''] by Vanessa Siddle Walker (University of North Carolina Press, 1996) p192</ref><ref>"Caswell Ordered To Integrate," ''The Daily Times-News'' (Burlington, NC), August 24, 1968, p1</ref><ref name="auto2"/>

When school integration and consolidation subsequently occurred, [[Bartlett Yancey High School]] in Yanceyville became the only public high school in the county after Caswell County High School's closure in 1969.<ref>{{cite web| title=Caswell County High School|date=August 21, 2010|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/ncccha/sets/72157594494649484/| publisher=Flickr| access-date=July 23, 2020}}</ref> The closed high school building's educational use was promptly reconfigured. The new integrated school was named N.L. Dillard Junior High School in honor of the former high school's principal. Integrated elementary schools were established based on [[zoning]].<ref name="auto"/>