A classic struggle over integrating a university
Everybody was worried. North Carolina University officials did not want their school to become the first state university system ever to lose federal funding in a desegregation dispute with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. HEW Secretary Joseph Califano did not want voters in tobacco country to become even angrier at him (and at the President) in the wake of his antismoking campaign. Besides, a legal row with the state could slow school integration.
Califano telephoned an invitation to North Carolina's Governor James Hunt: How about a last-minute meeting to work out a compromise?...