If you step into the hallways of Enloe during a class change, you will see a remarkably diverse group of students. This is no surprise given our 64% minority enrollment. Throughout the school year, you can find prominent displays of student culture all around: the Black Student Union Showcase, the Asian Student Association Showcase, and Culture Week, to name a few. However, Enloe wasn’t always like this. Just 60 years ago, most schools in North Carolina were still racially segregated, so how did Enloe overcome the Jim Crow era and become what it is today?

Let’s start back in the 1800s with a quick history refresh: 

• 1883: The Supreme Court rules that the 1875 Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional, allowing states to continue passing Jim Crow laws and extending segregation
• 1896: The Supreme Court upholds the “separate but equal” doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson
• 1954: The Supreme Court rules that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education

After Brown v. Board of Education was passed, many Southern states passed laws to stall integration. The NC General Assembly passed the “Pupil Assignment Act,” which put the responsibility of integration onto local school boards, rather than the state. The Wake County School System and Raleigh City Schools began a program called “Freedom of Choice,” which allowed students to transfer to schools where their race was the minority, but applications for Black students to attend all-white schools were typically denied.

Finally, in 1962, William G. Enloe High School was born. Enloe did not have a senior class in its first year. Its oldest class was comprised of 160 juniors. Of those students, two were African American. Although it was small, Enloe became the first integrated high school south of the Mason-Dixon Line. These students’ names were Bernice Johnson and Ben McCollum. 

Enloe’s principal at the time, George Kahdy, made the inclusion of these students a top priority. The two were involved in many extracurricular activities, like most students at the time. 

While these students were actively included in school activities, it was not easy to be the only African American student in a Southern high school. Racial tensions continued rising across the state, and many whites were unhappy with Enloe’s integration. 

After Enloe’s integration, the courts ruled in Godwin v. Johnston County Board of Education that the state of North Carolina would be responsible for integrating schools, not the school boards. Both African American and white people took issue with statewide integration. For African Americans, schools were a pillar of community and culture, and integration posed a threat to the voices and desires of African American students, teachers, and families. 

In 1976, the NC General Assembly began to merge the Wake County School System (majority white), with Raleigh City schools (majority black). The two systems merged into what we now know as the Wake County Public School System and magnet schools began opening up around the state.

The goal of magnet schools was to attract white students to inner-city schools by offering unique academic opportunities that would not be available in a non-magnet, suburban school. Magnet schools were a key part of North Carolina’s integration, and the state is generally considered to be a national model for creating racially diverse schools through the magnet program. 

Enloe has been a magnet school for almost 45 years, and looking at our student body, it’s clear that magnet schools work for their intended purpose. While WCPSS no longer integrates schools based on race, it now looks at socioeconomic status to continue promoting diversity in schools.

It is vital that we keep these meaningful stories alive and remember and honor the valiant black students who uprooted their lives for the sake of equality and progress. The fight for racial equality is ongoing and we should continue to remind ourselves of past injustices and continue to push for social progress and reform in all facets of American life.

Big thank you to Ms. Thompson, Mr. Landesman, and Mrs. Carr for helping with this article!

Works Cited

“About Our School.” Wcpss.net, www.wcpss.net/domain/7665.

Neff, Joseph. “Enloe High’s First Graduates Mark 50 Years.” Raleigh News & Observer, Raleigh News & Observer, 4 Oct. 2014, www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article10084130.html. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.

“Quotannis [1964].” North Carolina Yearbooks, Taylor Publishing Company., 2025, lib.digitalnc.org/record/239416?ln=en&v=uv#?xywh=661%2C2445%2C2274%2C1319&cv=171. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.