John Lewis Brandon, one of the first African-American students at UNC, dies

John Lewis Brandon, a key challenger of racial segregation at UNC-Chapel Hill, died on Jan. 22 in Houston after complications from cancer. He was 80 years old. His death came less than a month after the death of his classmate LeRoy Frasier, who died on Dec. 29. 

This loss is a difficult one, especially for the people of this generation who had to take these heroic steps, said Joseph Jordan, director of UNC’s Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History. 

“Then also understanding that we’ve never really given them the credit that they deserve for changing the way that we operate, not only at UNC, but at other universities across the country,” Jordan said. 

Brandon's road to UNC-CH wasn’t an easy one. Brandon and brothers LeRoy and Ralph Frasier were students at Durham’s all-black Hillside High School. They were denied by UNC-CH's Board of Trustees based on the students’ ability to attend a black college in the state at the time. 

Filing a lawsuit against the board, the three said that segregated colleges were unconstitutional based on the rulings of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education. The students won the case.

In the fall of 1955, Brandon attended his first class at UNC-CH, making him one of the first black undergraduates admitted to the University. Alongside the Frasiers, he would be one of the key figures that led to the desegregation of UNC-CH and other universities across the country. 

According to the Associated Press, Ralph Frasier, a retired attorney, recalled the separation between white and black students at the time. Their dormitory rooms were on a separate floor, and instead of sitting with the other students at football games, they had to sit with the primarily black custodial staff. 

“There were pockets of hostility among students primarily,” said Ralph Frasier to AP. “But some of the administrators were less than welcoming. Some faculty were less than welcoming.”

While the students faced hostility, Brandon described the culture of Chapel Hill as different than other places at the time. 

"We didn't have that large a problem in Chapel Hill," Brandon said. "In my classes, I never had negative-type behaviors shown at me."

While battling racial tension, Brandon said students weren’t taught proper study skills at Hillside High School, leading him to drop out after his third year as a chemistry major. He later earned his master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Houston-Clear Lake. 

According to ABC11, Christopher Brandon, Brandon's son, said his father didn’t talk about his time at UNC-CH often. While he didn’t share much about his experience, his son said he could tell his father was thankful for the dinner UNC-CH held in honor of him and the Frasier brothers. He said his father enjoyed going back to North Carolina.

“He has a very strong love of home,” Brandon said to ABC11. 

Brandon, alongside LeRoy Frasier, will be greatly missed, Jordan said. 

“I think it’s really appropriate to take a moment and sit back and really try to understand how difficult their task was, and why for so many, many years they didn’t talk about their experiences,” Jordan said. “And how fortunate we are that later in his life, he decided to come back and demonstrate that he had a great store of goodwill that he could share with us.”

@MyahWard

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