1960s
Irwin Holmes, 1960
The 1960s were the first years that Black students were present on campus. The first four Black undergraduate students at NC State graduated in 1960, Ed Carson, Manuel Crockett, Walter Holmes, and Irwin Holmes.
Protest against Racial Segregation, 1963
The first record of a protest against racial segregation took place in 1963, when a group of NC State students joined with students from Shaw University to protest racial segregation policies in effect at the State Theater on Salisbury Street.
Solidarity Rally, 1968
The next known demonstration took place several years later, following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1968, when a group of faculty members and students from NC State initiated a march against racism.
SAAC Forms, 1968
The Society of Afro-American Culture (SAAC) was chartered with sixty-three members in 1968 as the first Black campus organization open to all students and faculty members of North Carolina State University.
SAAC and the Group Rally, 1968
On February 28, 1969, SAAC and The Group organized a rally in solidarity with Eddie Davis, a Black janitorial worker at NC State, who was “active in organizing the Physical Plant workers [into a labor union] and seeking improved janitorial service."
"When there was racism, it was quiet and subtle."