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

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Women ' s Residences B i$V%. Baynes Hall is one of the twin nine-story high-rise dormi- tories located on the south side of the campus. Because it is one of the largest women ' s residences on campus, it can house 400 students, 50 per floor. There are wash rooms and study rooms on each floor, and a kitchenette, lounges and concession areas on the main floor. Baynes was named in honor of the late Bascom T. Baynes, trustee of NCCU from 1947 through 1957. The present supervisors are Ms. Goodson and Mrs. Poole. Rush Hall IS a honors dormitoy located near the center of the campus. Rush offers study areas, laundry room, kitch- en facilities, concession room and recreational area for its 84 residents. Named in honor of a former Dean of Women, Mrs. Ruth G. Rush. This building was constructed in 1937 and reopened for occupancy in 1979 after being closed for one year for complete renovations. The present supervi- sors are Mr. Cox and Ms. Scott. H o m e A w a y F r o m H o m e Eagleson Hall is also one of the twin nine-story high rise dormitories located on the south side of the campus. It is also equiped with the same facilities as its twin Baynes Hall. Eagleson was opened November 7, 1965. This dorm was named in honor of Mrs. Frances Eagleson, former registrar, dietitian and instructor at N.C. Central University. The present supervisors are Ms. Dempsey and Ms. Me- bane. Shepard Hall was built in 1930 and dedicated in 1939, an annex was added in 1952. It has three main floors and four annex floors for its female occupants. It is equiped with three small parlors, a reception area, a conference room and a large laundry room in the basement. The dorm is located at the center of campus and was named in honor of Mrs. Annie Day Shepard, wife of the founder. Dr. James E. Shepard. The present supervisors are Ms. Williams and Ms. Jackson.

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school of Library Science and School of Law. As interpreted from the meaning of the Gaines case, North Carolina Col- lege for Negroes was granted the right to offer graduate and professional de- grees for segregation purposes; keep- ing black students out of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Al- though the law school was estab- lished officially by an act to the Gen- eral Assembly in 1939, the first law student did not enter until the fall of 1940 and though there was one appli- cant for the law school in the year 1939. M.T. Van Hecke became the first ad- ministrator of the law school. The ear- liest faculty was compromises of Van Hecke, a few law professors from Duke, but primarily, law faculty from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and other schools. By 1929, the college had embarked upon a major construction program. In that year the first girl ' s dormitory was built. Several buildings were erected in 1935 and 1937; a gymnasi- um, six cottages for faculty members in 1937, a dormitory for one hundred students in 1937, a library of a sixty- seven thousand volume capacity in 1937, and in 1937, an auditorium which would seat nine hundred. By his death in 1947 Shepard had devel- oped from a tra sh pile, a modern col- lege for blacks, with an estimated an- nual budget of $3,500,000.00 On October 6, 1947, Dr. James E. Shepard died. He was interred in Beechwood Cemetery, Durham, North Carolina. In addition to his above-mentioned achievements, he was Grand Patron of the Eastern Star of the State of North Carolina, Fi- nance Secretary of the Knights of Pythias of North Carolina, one of the members of the Board of Directors of the Mechanics and Farmers Bank (a financially solvent all-black bank) in Durham, and president of the North Carolina Teachers Association, the only organization for black teachers in the history of North Carolina to 1971. As a final tribute to Dr. Shepard, the term Negro was dropped from the name of the college in the same year of his death. Henceforth, the institu- tion was known as North Carolina College at Durham. On January 20, 1948, Dr. Alfonso E. Elder succeeded Dr. Shepard. Elder ' s title was Presi- dent of North Carolina College at Dur- ham. Alfonso E. Elder was born February 26, 1898. and he died on August 7, 1974. Elder was born in Sanderson- ville, Georgia. Dr. Elder received his early education from the Thomas J. Elder High Industrial School. When he was twenty-three years of age, Alfonso Elder was graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. from Atlanta University. Also in that year he began his teaching career at an all- black college in Greensboro, North Carolina, Bennett. During the aca- demic year 1922-23, he taught math- ematics at what is now Elizabeth City State University, an all-black four- year teacher education oriented insti- tution in Elizabeth City, North Caroli- na. In 1924, he earned an M.A. from the Teacher ' s college of Columbia University. By 1938, Elder had re- ceived his Doctorage of Education Degree (Ed. D) from the Columbia University, after having completed a post-Master ' s level of study at the University of Chicago during the sum- mers of 1 930 and 1 93 1 . From 1 924 to 1943, Dr. Elder served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at North Carolina College for Negroes. But even before this administrative appointment, in the year 1924, he was given the rank of Professor of Education at North Carolina College for Negroes, Dr. Elder completed some post-doctoral study at the Un- viersity of Cambridge, England. By 1947, he had become Dean of the Graduate School of Education at At- lanta University. On June 4, 1949, Alfonso Elder was inaugurated as the second President of the North Carolina College at Dur- ham. During Elder ' s administration he openly admitted that he wanted to carry out and extend the dreams of Dr. James Edward Shepard. In one publication he said his entire adminis- tration would be dedicated to THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE. Elder ' s most obvious contribution to North Carolina College at Durham was the increase in the number of buildings on the campus from twenty-one when he assumed the presidency to thirty- eight when he retired. Because of that, the institution was valued at five times as much as it had been during the period of Shepard ' s administra- tion. Before his retirement. Dr. Elder requested (some felt that he pre- vailed) that the state legislature ap- propriate four million dollars to con- struct six buildings, including a student union, the cafeteria and two dormitories, all of which were erected by 1970. Dr. Elder increased the num- ber of faculty positions on the campus and by the end of his fifteen-year ad- ministration more than 50% of the faculty members possessed terminal degrees. Very often Dr. Elder spoke proudly of the fact that in 1957, be- cause of excellent progress of the col- lege since the death of Dr. Shepard, the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools accredited North Carolina College at Durham. In the academic year 1962-63 the teacher education program at North Carolina College gained its approval from the National Council of Accredi- tation of Teacher Education. Dr. Elder adopted and many felt carried out the motto EXCELLENCE WITHOUT EX- CUSE. At the commencement exer- cises in June, 1963, Dr. Elder was giv- en the honorary Doctorate of Laws (LLD.) degree and elected President Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. Elder served as President of North Carolina College at Durham from 1948-1963, and before his death on August 7, 1974, he had taught math- ematics at North Carolina College at Durham. Dr., Elder was funeralized at the St. Titus Episcopal Church in Durham and Buried at the Beechwood Ceme- tary, Durham, North Carolina. To suc- ceed Dr. Elder on August 9, 1963, the Board of Trustees of North Carolina College at Durham elected as its third president Dr. Samuel Proctor Massey. Dr. Massey was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1919, where he received his elementary and secondary educa- tion. He finished high school at the age of thirteen. He then went to Dum- bar Junior College in Little Rock where he became president of the student council. Dr. Massey also at- tended the Agricultural Mechanical and Normal College of Pine Bluff, Ar- kansas, (Arkansas A.M. and N.), presently the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, where he graduated summa cum laude with a major in chemistry at the age of eighteen. He received his Master ' s Degree in chem- istry from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1940. After returning to Arkansas A.M. and N. College for a year, Massey then went to Iowa State University where he received the Ph.D degree in Organic Chemistry in 1946. After a brief period of two and half years of military.

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NCCU ' s Board Of Trustees