Charles Fisher Carroll

Image Source: Charlotte Observer, August 9, 1952, p. 1.

With the expiration of Thomas Jennings Hackney’s (1889–1971) term in 1949, Governor W. Kerr Scott (1896–1958) appointed Charles Fisher Carroll, then superintendent of the High Point City Schools, to serve as a trustee on the ECTC board. Carroll’s appointment came two years prior to the state legislature’s move to reconceptualize East Carolina’s mission as a four-year liberal arts college, indicated in its newly abbreviated name, East Carolina College (ECC). This upgrade in mission and standing in part grew out of the nation’s WWII experience and its realization that national strength in the form of an effective military required a well-educated citizenry. As both a WWI veteran and a professional educator, Carroll had the necessary background to help guide East Carolina forward into its newly expanded role.

Following the death of the state superintendent of public instruction, Clyde A. Erwin (1897–1952), Gov. Scott turned to Carroll once more, this time to serve as the state superintendent. Shortly after being appointed, Carroll was elected to the position in the general election of 1952, marking the beginning of his 16-year tenure, from 1952 to 1968, as state superintendent. In that capacity, Carroll served ex officio as chair of the East Carolina board of trustees until a change in state law in 1955 allowed the school’s trustees to elect, from their membership, their chair. Thereupon, Arthur Lynwood Tyler (1896–1978) of Rocky Mount was elected to that position. Carroll continued as an ECC trustee until 1957, when his term expired.

East Carolina earned, along the way, a trusted friend in the highest echelons of the mid-twentieth century educational world of North Carolina just as the school, the state, and the nation embarked on an often challenging and surely monumental transformation. The 1954 Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional catalyzed, first of all, efforts to desegregate America’s public schools, and then, later, their complete and immediate integration. In complying with the Supreme Court’s decision, East Carolina, originally chartered as a white school, was challenged to open its doors to non-white students. Although Carroll did not welcome desegregation — he sided with the ECC board throughout the 1950s as they appealed to the school’s segregationist charter as an excuse for not considering African American applicants for admission — he did recognize, ultimately, that East Carolina had no choice but to comply with the federal government and its decisions regarding the unconstitutionality of Jim Crow segregation.

While many states publicly resisted the Supreme Court decision, North Carolina, led by Carroll, took a more measured and civil, yet surely evasive approach, first supporting, in the 1950s, the Pearsall Plan allowing school districts to close their schools and provide families with vouchers for their children’s private education, and that in the interest of minimum disruption in education. Then later, in the 1960s, Carroll led North Carolina in gradual compliance through the so-called “freedom of choice” option, allowing parents the freedom to choose the public schools they wished their children to attend. As the limitations of the latter strategy became increasingly evident and critics at all levels called for immediate integration, Carroll, then 68 and still affirming his preference for gradual evolution rather than federally-forced compliance, announced, in early 1968, that he would not seek reelection as state superintendent.

On other counts, Carroll was a progressive if slow-moving superintendent of public education. For example, he supported inclusion of kindergarten in the required state curriculum, ample resources for special education in public schools, and statewide expansion of the community college system. Carroll also advocated increases in teacher pay and lower teacher-student ratios in the classroom. Recognizing that North Carolina ranked near the bottom nationally in the percentage of high school graduates enrolling in colleges and universities, Carroll supported expanded opportunities for all institutions of higher education.

Carroll was born in Warsaw, Duplin County, and attended public schools there before enrolling in a private school, Trinity Park School, in Durham, a preparatory school for Trinity College (now Duke University). After serving in WWI, he completed a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College, Class of 1921, and then a master’s degree in 1930 from Duke University (formerly Trinity College, renamed in 1924). The same year he completed his bachelor’s degree, Carroll began teaching at the Vance County Farm Life School in Middleburg. He later served as a principal in Henderson, Newport, and Pender County before being hired as superintendent of Swain County Schools and then High Point City Schools from 1937–1952.

In addition to serving on the ECC board, Carroll served on the boards of the Consolidated University of North Carolina and High Point College. In his last year as state superintendent, Carroll was the featured commencement speaker at ECU in the spring of 1968. Earlier, in March 1955, Carroll attended the 48th anniversary celebration at ECC and dedicated two new buildings, James Yadkin Joyner Library and Clyde Atkinson Erwin Hall, named after the two previous superintendents of public education who, like Carroll, had served as ex officio chairs of the school’s board of trustees. In addition to ample recognition for his service to the state, Carroll received honorary LL.D. degrees from Duke and High Point College (now, High Point University). Also, a middle school in Raleigh was named in his honor.

Sources

• “All N. C. School Compliance Statements Rejected.” Herald-Sun (Durham). April 10, 1965. P. 1.
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• “East Carolina College Board of Trustees minutes, August 9, 1957.” University Archives # UA01.01.01.01.04. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/10260
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• “East Carolina College Board of Trustees minutes May 22, 1954.” University Archives # UA01.01.01.01.04. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/10268
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• “Guidelines Reply Said Nothing New.” Durham Morning Herald. May 27, 1966. P. 12B.
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• “Looking back on school days.” News and Observer. March 22, 1981. P. 3-IV.
• Marks, Robert. “Personality Profile: Dr. Charles F. Carroll, High Pointer of the Week.” High Point Enterprise. December 15, 1968. P. 5A.
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• “NC Solons Attend ECC Dedication.” Robesonian. March 9, 1955. P. 1.
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• Parker, Jr., Roy. “Carroll Charges Boards Harassed.” News and Observer. August 31, 1966. Pp. 1, 2.
• “Program of the Fifty-Ninth Annual Commencement of East Carolina University.” May 26, 1968. University Archives # UA50.06.59.01. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/22469
• Records of the Chancellor: Records of John Decatur Messick, 1947-1959. University Archives # UA02-05. Box 6: Carroll, Charles F., Member of the Board of Trustees, 1949-1953. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C.
• “School Folks Back Pearsall Plan.” Rocky Mount Telegram. August 26, 1956. P. 2B.
• Swofford, Stan. “Carroll Urges Social Knowledge; Superintendents Back Report.” Durham Morning Herald. December 12, 1968. P. 1C.
• White, Tanika. “C. F. Carroll dies; he left mark on the state’s public schools.” News and Observer. June 16, 1995. Pp. 1B, 7B.

Related Materials

Image Source: “Charles Fisher Carroll, Jr,” Chanticleer (Trinity College) for 1921, p. 48.

Image Source: Charlotte Observer, May 28, 1968, p. 4.

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