North Carolina Central University - Eagle Yearbook (Durham, NC)

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HIS DREAM BECOMES A REALITY The school, known as the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua, was established in 1910 on a 25 acre tract, forming part of the present site. The land was a gift largely of white people of Durham. By 1912, 10 buildings had been erected. Private donations and student fees were the institution ' s only support, and the latter had to be kept at a minimum. Board and room cost $7.00 per month; tuition $1.00 for the same period. A teacher or professor earned $500 to $1,000.00 a year. Designed as a college, it was found necessary to include a high school course, so the institution, at first combined a high school, 4 year college, training school for country ministers, commercial school, and home economics school. The history of the early days of Dr. Shepard ' s enterprise is a story of adventure and faith. There were years when he had to borrow money to keep the school open to pay the teachers. His wife, Mrs. Annie Day Shepard, went to the kitchen and cooked for teachers and students in the early hard days. So far behind in payments of one school ' s obligation had he gotten. Dr. Shepard did not come into Durham. In 1915 the financial difficulties became so great that the school had to be sold and reorganized. In this second stage of its development, the institution was known as the National Training School. During the crisis. Dr. Shepard met one of his associates, C. C. Amey, later business manager of the school in a drug store on Mangum Street. They were opening mail, and out of one envelope fell a check, from a plain folding book. They noticed $25 on it and some zeros following it, but they couldn ' t imagine anyone sending $250. Close examination showed that it was for $25,000 from Mrs. Russell Sage of New York. This money made it possible for the property to be bought back. The gift saved the day. The school had begun to attract the attention of observers throughout the South, when the First World War dumped it into another financial depression. To insure the survival of the school THE LOG CABIN WAS USED AS A RECREATIONAL FACILITY DURING THE EARLY YEARS OF NCCU

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NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE FOR NEGROES two plans were considered. One was to turn over the control of the school to one of the several interested denominational boards. The other plan, which was adopted, was to give the property to the State as a public institution. Accordingly, in 1923, the National Training School became the Durham State Normal School. In 1925 the school experienced two notable events. A fire destroyed three important buildings— the administration building, the classroom building and men ' s dormitory. These were im- mediately replaced; but of more importance that same year. Dr. Shepard, with a brand new Doctorate of Literature from Howard University, was successful in a legislative campaign to make the school the Nation ' s first state-supported black liberal arts college. In 1925, the school became North Carolina College for Negroes. A new crisis arose in 1929, when the legislature considered the consolidation of the North Carolina College for Negroes and A T College at Greensboro. Protests from citizens of Durham resulted in the appointment by the Governor (at that time) Max Gardner of a fact finding com- mission, whose unanimous recommendation that the college be continued at Durham was adopted. During the remaining years of Dr. Shepard ' s life, he was markedly successful in securing appropriations from the North Carolina General Assembly ruled that the name of the school should be North Carolina College at Durham. Dr. Alfonso Elder assumed the presidency in 1948. His tasks included new approaches to the College ' s internal organization and expanding the faculty and curriculum to meet new changes demanded of education at the med-point of the twentieth century. By expanding the institution ' s research facilities, bringing into fruition the building program blueprint of his predecessor, pur- chasing additional land, renovating the physical plant and keeping open the avenues of good human relations between the campus and the community. Dr. Elder provided strong leadership during the late 40 ' s and 50 ' s and expanded the influence of the College both regionally and nationally. In 1963, Dr. Samuel P. Massie assumed the presidency, coming from Washington, D. C. where he was Associate Program Director for Undergraduate Science Education of the National Science Foundation and Chairman of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Howard University. On July 1, 1967, Dr. Albert N. Whiting, Dean of Faculty at Morgan State College, was inaugurated forth president of the institution. Under his vigorous leadership, the physical facilities expanded to over forty buildings, including expanded library facilities, a multi-million dollar communications building, a new science building, and expansion of the stadium facilities. Dr. Whiting has attracted some of the nation ' s finest faculty to the institution, nurtured the expanding cultural outreach of the campus and bolstered the economic foundation of the school through numerous corporation grants and endowments. In 1969, the State Legislature again changed the name of the institution to North Carolina Central University. On July 1, 1972, NCCU became a constituent member of the University of North Carolina. Throughout the difficulty period of the late 60 ' s and early 70 ' s the Whiting Administration has never lost sight of Dr. Shepard ' s original dream — to build and maintain an institution of the first rank where man may honor his past and celebrate his future, where wisdom may be cherished and the truth may set man free.