'The kids parted like the Red Sea': A look into Orange County Schools' desegregation process

On the first day of sixth grade in 1966, Horace Johnson Jr. and his father Horace Johnson, the first Black mayor of Hillsborough, drove past Central High School — the all-Black school Horace Johnson Jr. attended until fifth grade. 

“I figured we were going downtown to a store or something, but we pulled up to the white school,” Horace Johnson Jr. said. “Dad got out of the car first, and then he came and let me out and the kids parted like [the] Red Sea.” 

Orange County did not fully integrate until 1970, Sarah Waugh, the adult programs librarian of the Southern Branch of the Orange County Public Library, said in an email.

Waugh said that after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, some Black residents began advocating for integration. However, the Orange County school board didn't make any changes until they approved Tonya and Narviar Cathcart’s petition to attend Orange High School — one of the all-white schools at the time — in 1963. Three more Black students enrolled after them in 1964.

By 1965, the district approved a plan allowing parents to choose which school their children would attend, whether Black or white, but this approach at first failed to meet the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare standards for integration. After a few modifications, the HEW approved the plan shortly after in September.

After learning that Black students had to walk to Hillsborough Township High School, another one of the all-white schools, to eat lunch because of a broken cafeteria at Central High School, Horace Johnson applied to the Orange County Board of Education to enroll his son in Hillsborough Township High School, making Horace Johnson Jr. the first Black student in the sixth grade there. 

“After that day, it went on every day,” Horace Johnson Jr. said. “I was called names, and every test I took, I failed.” 

A white classmate noticed Horace Johnson Jr.’s failing grades and took one of his test papers home. The classmate’s mother compared their two tests and realized that while Horace Johnson Jr.’s answers were better, he had received an "F" and her son had received an "A." She shared this with Horace Johnson Jr.’s father, who later confronted the school principal about the unfair treatment.

“After that, my test grades got better,” Horace Johnson Jr. said. “I will say, I tried to give her credit because she hadn't worked with children of color — as I got older, I had to stop trying to give her credit because she was a teacher. Teachers are supposed to raise and nourish children.” 

By 1968, Waugh said the integration process had almost been completed, as all Central High School’s students had to transfer to Orange High School.

Iris Chapman, a retired professor from Elon University and an alumna of Central High School, said Central High School became Hillsborough Elementary School in 1996. Many all-Black schools in the South did not survive their original names, she said, becoming either junior high schools or elementary schools.

In the documentary she directed about the history and legacy of Central High School, Chapman included subheadings next to its alumni she interviewed detailing their education and careers.

“Look at where they are,” she said. “Look at what they are doing. I want you to see what these Black children that you said couldn't learn and didn't want in your school — look at where they are. I wanted people to see that they must not have been so bad.” 

 Courtney Smith, Orange County Historical Museum exhibits and programs coordinator, said that instead of combining the student populations of Central High School and Orange High School, Central High School was closed down.

“All of those teachers and administrators lost their jobs, and that was incredibly harmful for several reasons,” she said. “One being the loss of role models and the guidance that was needed, and [two] the message being sent that ‘you aren't good enough.’”

Smith said the South has not recovered in the number of administrators and teachers who are people of color.

Before the full integration and closure of Central High School, Chapman said 200 students were kicked out of Orange High School after a walkout protesting an integration plan to transfer only 10th grade students from Central High School to Orange High School. While most students graduated on time, she said nine were permanently expelled. 

“Could it have been done another way?” Chapman said. “I think that's what bothers me every time I see it or work with it. I just wonder because people were hurt — Black and white children were hurt badly through that process.” 

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CORRECTION: A previous version of this story previously stated that 200 students were kicked out of Orange High School after a walkout protesting an integration plan to transfer only 10th grade students from Central High School to Orange High School.

The walkout protesting the integration plan between Central High School and Orange High School occurred separately from the Orange High School Walkout that resulted in the explosion of 200 students.