Thomas Pearsall's later guilt over the Pearsall Plan
Pearsall reveals that her husband had misgivings about his role in hampering progress toward integrated schools. Thomas Pearsall crafted the Pearsall Plan after the <cite>Brown</cite> decision. The Plan, approved by the North Carolina General Assembly, included a moderate approach to school desegregation by granting local school boards the option to desegregate their schools. Pearsall contends that Thomas's motives were pure and not intended to cause racial strife between whites and blacks.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Elizabeth Pearsall, May 25, 1988. Interview C-0056. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- WALTER CAMPBELL:
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So, do you think he saw his activities with this plan as one of the major
achievements of his life? Would you think that he would say that, that
that was one of the major things he was proud of?
- ELIZABETH PEARSALL:
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Yes, I think as he grew older, he worried that maybe the blacks felt that
he hadn't done quite—I remember once, he felt that
some of the blacks thought he hadn't done enough or
something. I don't know what it was. After he became ill,
this is so hard for me to go back to all this.
- WALTER CAMPBELL:
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I'm sure.
- ELIZABETH PEARSALL:
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But you see he developed lymphoma almost a year, it was just about a year
before his death, and we went to Duke for treatment. The doctors told
him, in the beginning they did a biopsy, and the doctor came in and told
him the next morning there was a 30% chance that he would live. But I
remember before the biopsy that night, the doctor came in to tell him
everything was in order. And Tom held out his hand, and said,
"Well, doctor," the doctor was Jewish, "We
both believe in the same God." And those things nearly killed
me, you know. But then the chemotherapy wasn't effective. The
radiation wasn't. But he said to me one
day that he worried. He loved the blacks so much. He felt so keenly, he
said so many times, "They've been so much more
patient than I would have been." He meant over the generations.
He had that deep feeling for them. So when he said at the hospital one
day that he hoped that the blacks felt that he had done the best he
could for them, it worried me. So I wrote a letter to Governor Hunt and
told him the circumstances. That this seemed to be on Tom's
mind, and I asked him if he knew any outstanding black person who could
come and talk to him and give him comfort. So the governor did, and that
man—I wish I had followed it up, I had gone down for
lunch—and that man came and he left his card. The nurse was
there. But I didn't follow it up. I was so distraught. But
Tom felt a lot better after that conversation. Apparently that was some
highly regarded person in the community. Then I also wrote to Bill
Friday and to Paul Johnson and told them that that was how Tom felt. So
they came over together, and I remember Tom said, "I
don't want to go to my grave feeling that I
haven't done the best I could for the blacks." And
they assured him that nobody could have done any more. But that was the
measure of his sympathy for them. I guess that's one of the
reasons that he was successful in his plan. His motives were right. And
I believe right will prevail, don't you?