Elizabeth “Lizzie” Stewart Bennett

Image Source: "Board of Trustees." 1961. ECU University Archives #UA55.01.1404.

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Stewart Bennett was appointed to the board by Governor Luther H. Hodges (1898–1974) in 1959 for a four-year term, expiring in 1963. Although brief, Bennett’s tenure as a trustee was momentous coinciding with the abrupt resignation of President John D. Messick (1897–1993) in the fall of 1959, the quick appointment of Dr. Leo W. Jenkins (1913–1989) as interim president, and then, in 1960, Jenkins’ selection as the new president of the college. The following year, ECC hosted a campaign rally featuring Sen. John F. Kennedy, then the Democratic nominee for the presidency. Bennett’s tenure also coincided with the drive to build a new stadium, James S. Ficklen Memorial Stadium (later, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium), and then its dedication in September of 1963, shortly after Bennett’s term expired.

The most consequential development, however, was the enrollment of African American students in the summer sessions of 1961 and 1962. Earlier East Asian students had crossed the color line effectively desegregating the campus, but from the perspective of many including the federal government, East Carolina’s continued exclusion of African American students meant that the campus was not desegregated and in violation of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court. What happened in the summers of 1961 and 1962, then, was surely historic by any measure, especially given the school’s first fifty years as a Jim Crow institution. A letter written to Bennett by Pres. Leo Jenkins reveals much about the mentality operative as the East Carolina reluctantly yet inevitably came into fuller compliance with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring segregation unconstitutional.

A native of Rocky Mount, Bennett was born Elizabeth Mabel Stewart. Known as “Lizzie” on campus, she was one of East Carolina’s earliest graduates, Class of 1917. Active in student affairs and apparently well-liked, Bennett served as president of her class during her junior year. After graduation she taught at the elementary level in Louisburg, and then later moved to High Point where she continued teaching. It was there that she met and eventually, in 1930, married Berry Monroe Bennett, a graduate of Elon College. After he passed away in 1948, she continued her dedication to classroom instruction.

Bennett became a legendary alumna, attending without exception forty consecutive Annual Alumni Days. In addition, she was active in recruiting good students for her alma mater and securing scholarships for those in need. By the year of her appointment as a trustee, she had, even while remaining in service as a teacher, already taught for forty-two years, exemplifying East Carolina’s motto and its signature contribution to the educational uplift of the state.

In addition to teaching in the public schools, Bennett taught an adult dance class. She was a charter member of the Foot and Fiddle Club, a Burlington dance club, and often attended dance camps in Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky, Colorado, and North Carolina, studying with some of the leading figures in the field of adult dance. Bennett was also active in the North Carolina Square and Folk Dance Federation and served as its secretary for two years.

A letter to Bennett dated May 3, 1961, written by President Jenkins, apparently in response to one Bennett had sent earlier, offers insights into how desegregation happened at East Carolina. In it, Jenkins discusses a sensitive matter on the agenda for the upcoming May 27, 1961, board meeting: consideration of applications from “highly qualified Negro students,” some of whom had, according to Jenkins, the highest level of teaching certificate in North Carolina. Per the board’s earlier decision at its meetings of August 9 and November 12, 1957, Jenkins was expected to call a meeting of the board when qualified African Americans applied for admission.

Jenkins informed Bennett that some board members including Robert Morgan (1925–2016), Henry Belk (1898–1972), Herbert Waldrop (1895–1966), Henry Oglesby (1908–1985), and Charles H. Larkins (1906–1975), as well as “the Vice President of the University of Tennessee and some of our government officials in the state,” had advised that “the only thing we can do is to admit them without a lot of fanfare, making the procedure as routine as possible and explain to the students that their cooperation will be needed.” Jenkins further noted that “the only alternative … is that of throwing it to the courts, with the accompanying publicity and losing the case in short order.”

Jenkins shunned the confrontational course, fearing that it would prompt those pushing desegregation “to send large numbers of Negroes here after they won a victory.” Jenkins acknowledged that he would “carry out the wishes of the board in this matter,” but suggested that East Carolina “follow the first proposal, admitting only a few highly qualified applicants, without publicity.” Jenkins added that “it may be wise not to discuss this with anyone, for I am most anxious to have no newspaper hassle and no discussions of this until the board has an opportunity to discuss it and make a decision.”

Jenkins’ advice — which incidentally, echoed that of Henry Belk as communicated to Jenkins in a May 2, 1961 letter, and that of Dr. Andrew A. Best conveyed to Jenkins in conversations of about the same time — prevailed. The summer of 1961, East Carolina enrolled its first African American students.

Jenkins’ strategy of quietly desegregating the campus was so effective that word of it only appeared in the press the following year. In June 1962, newspapers throughout the state reported that ECC had enrolled “Negro students” for the summer session. The reports added that the summer before, in 1961, a “handful” of African American students had enrolled in a two-week workshop on campus. The reports did not single out the 1961 enrollment as the historic first in East Carolina’s history, but instead complied with East Carolina’s wish to desegregate quietly and without fanfare, simply noting that enrollment by African American students had occurred. The ECC registrar’s office did not identify the African American students, leaving them anonymous to history, explaining that enrollment records provided no such information because they did not include a question about racial identity.

At the May 27, 1961 meeting, Bennett, along with the other trustees on the board, concurred regarding East Carolina’s best response to “highly qualified” African American students, thus contributing to a fuller and more diverse expression of desegregation than had previously been realized on campus. Bennett’s support for this approach was perhaps one of her most significant contributions to the business of the board during her tenure as a trustee.

Sources

• “12 Negro Pupils Sign to Attend Classes at ECC.” Charlotte Observer. June 13, 1962. P. 9.
• “Assembly Confirms School Trustees.” Durham Morning Herald. May 4, 1961. P. 10A.
• Belk, Henry. “Henry Belk correspondence [to Dr. Leo Jenkins] about ECC Integration, 1961.” Records of the Chancellor: Records of Leo Warren Jenkins. University Archives # UA02.06.10.35. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/62371
• Best, Andrew A. Oral History Interview with Andrew Best, April 19, 1997. Interview R-0011. Karen Kruse Thomas, interviewer. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007). Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection. Wilson Library. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/R-0011/excerpts/excerpt_7154.html
• “Board of Trustees.” University Archives # UA55.01.1404. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23084
• “Commencement of 1917.” Training School Quarterly. July, August, September 1917. P. 148. University Archives # UA50.03.04.02. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37016
• “Dance Class Slated for Haw River.” Burlington Daily Times-News. October 7, 1964. P. 3B.
• East Carolina College Board of Trustees minutes, November 12, 1957. University Archives # UA01.01.01.01.04. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/10262
• 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
• “ECC Trustees Visit New Stadium Site.” Durham Morning Herald. June 11, 1962. P. 7A.
• “ECC Board Votes Against Inclusion In UNC System.” News and Observer. October 27, 1962. P. 3.
• Jenkins, Leo W. “Letter from Leo Jenkins to Elizabeth Bennett.” May 3, 1961. ECU Digital Collections. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23530
• “Mrs. Elizabeth S. Bennett Honors Retiring Teachers.” Burlington Daily Times-News. June 10, 1964. P. 5C.
• “Negro Students Register Quietly at East Carolina.” Greensboro Record. June 13, 1962. P. 15.
• “Ridenhour Named Trustee of East Carolina College.” Durham Sun. August 31, 1959. P. 1B.
• “School Activities.” Training School Quarterly. April, May, June 1916. P. 86. University Archives # UA50.03.03.01. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37011
• “The 12 Members of EC’s Governing Body.” East Carolinian. May 11, 1961. P. 3. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38699

Related Materials

Image Source: East Carolinian, May 11, 1961, P. 3. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38699

Image Source: Bennett at Jenkins' Inauguration (from left, Bill Friday, Leo Jenkins, Elizabeth Bennett, Robert Morgan). State Archives of North Carolina. News and Observer Negative Collection. “Installation of a new President at ECC.” May 14, 1960.

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