William Alligood
The University honored seven alumni for being the first black students to attend N.C. State in a ceremony Wednesday in Stewart Theatre.
The event marked the beginning of a year-long celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of the admission of the first black undergraduates to the University.
The former students included Edward Carson, Manuel Crockett Jr., Walter Holmes and Irwin Holmes Jr., the first black undergraduates; Hardy Liston Jr. and Robert Lee Clemons, the first black graduate students; Norma Wright Garcia, the first black female to attend the University.
The event included a historical overview, a tribute to the seven students and a panel discussion featuring Carson, Crockett, Irwin Holmes Jr., Liston and Garcia.
Larry Monteith, former chancellor and classmate of the first black undergraduates, and Ron Butler, former vice chancellor of student affairs, joined the panel.
The panelists shared some of their experiences as students at the University and discussed some changes that need to be made to further improve the community.
Carson and Crockett came to the University during the summer of 1956 and in the fall semester, Irwin Holmes Jr. and Walter Holmes, joined them. All four were engineering majors.
Carson said people worried about the campus community’s reaction when he first came to the University but said the concerns were unfounded.
“I talked with (former professor) Dr. Rabb several times about what could be expected from the student body,” Carson said. “Fortunately, none of that happened. The atmosphere here at NCSU was nothing like what I had read about at other southern universities.”
According to the event planners, the first students not only attended the University but became heavily involved in it as well.
“These students were not just here to take classes, they also came to engage in student activities,” Felicia Baity, co-chair of the commemoration task force, said.
Crockett Jr. and Holmes Jr. were the first black students to participate in Atlantic Coast Conference athletics when they joined the track team in 1957, while Holmes was the first black member of the marching band and the tennis team at NCSU.
Students who attended the event said that the legacy of the first black undergraduates is still very important today.
“I’m an African-American, and being as this is a predominantly white school, I feel it is important to honor the first African-Americans to enroll and graduate, because at that time it was very hard for them,” Shavonna Barrow, a sophomore in accounting, said. “They paved the way for a lot of us who are here today.”