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Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History

Julius L. Chambers (1936- ) Chancellor of North Carolina Central University, 1991-2000, and current Director, Civil Rights Center, UNC School of Law

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited federal funding for colleges that practiced racial discrimination. Because the new consolidated university system included five traditionally black institutions, Friday faced the difficulty of balancing the call for desegregation with the black colleges' desire to retain their historic identities. The Civil Rights Act included no clear guidelines for this problem, but the federal case of Adams v. Richardson (1972) called for immediate desegregation and seemed to require the end of predominantly "black" and "white" schools. After years of negotiations with the federal government, Friday and his staff reached an agreement with the federal government that preserved the identities of historically black, state-supported colleges.