SR_DPI_DNE_Special_Subject_File_B1F15_Equalization_Education_Opportunities_022

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eight months, and the corresponding salary for a Megro teacher was $70,000.

All of these were harsh, almost violent changes, all enacted into law within a
period of sixty to ninety days. However, the people of the state endured the shock.
The State treasury had little money. The Legislature "cut the garment according to
the cloth." Arrangements were made to pay the teachers when their small montly
allowances came due, and so, the state met its obligations, paid the teachers, all
the teachers, the pittances they were promised and when they were promised, without
asking the National government to help. The United States did assist in the purchase
of about 600 busses.

While the salaries for all teachers of all races were pitifully low, the comparative
salaries of Negro teachers ranked nearer to the top standard for white
teachers than ever before. That step perhaps was one aid to the beginning of equalization
of salaries, which has since taken place.

As a result of the Legislature's appropriations (bond issues 1921-1927*) for
consolidating school districts, it is true in 1945 to state that most white rural
schools have been consolidated and provided with adequate bus transportation. That
is true only in part for Negro schools. The action of the General Assembly in 1933
in requiring the re-districting of all school distrists into large units for administration
has stimulated consolidation of Negro schools. In some counties this task has already
been completed, approximately 600 or more one- and two-teacher Negro schools have
passed out of the picture since 1933, while large consolidated schools have been provided.

Prior to 1933 only about 42.5 per cent of Negro rural children had a term
longer than six months. In reverse, that means about 57.5 per cent had only six
months of school. When school reports for 1933-1034, one year after legilative
action establishing a term of eight months throughout the state, came in, it was found
that around 92.5 per cent of all Negro children that year attended school eight months. Thus
one half, (50 per cent) of all Negro children in North Carolina for the first time