The challenge of enforcing desegregation
Enforcing desegregation is quite difficult, Gerry explains this this excerpt. In trying to build an integrated veterinary school, Gerry experienced institutional obstacles in addition to a gradualist approach from the assistant attorney general at the time.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Martin Gerry, August 28, 1991. Interview L-0157. 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
- WILLIAM LINK:
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But in the case of North Carolina thatߞyour handling of the
vet school case was sort of related to that kind of approach, in other
words ߞ
- MARTIN GERRY:
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Yeah.
- WILLIAM LINK:
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Yeah.
- MARTIN GERRY:
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Well, mainly because, you know, once they made the decision and did it,
you can never undo these things.
- WILLIAM LINK:
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Right.
- MARTIN GERRY:
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So you had a kind of enforcement problem. Part of the problem is that
administrative enforcement is an incredibly slow process. So if, you
know, if you're going to create this veterinary school and I
tell you, "Well, I'm going to withhold your Title VI
money if you do that," by the time you get a final decision on
the administrative report, you'll have three graduating
classes.
- WILLIAM LINK:
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Right.
- MARTIN GERRY:
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And you'll keep running the school because I can't
hold up your money while the hearings are going on.
- WILLIAM LINK:
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Right.
- MARTIN GERRY:
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That was a very good example of where the judicial approach and the
enforcement approach was aߞperhaps even aߞI was very
strongly in favor of some kind of an injunction. You know, where you go
to court quickly before somebody does that and says, "Look,
before you locate this veterinary school, judge, let's talk
about it." That's one of the real weaknesses of the
Title VI process, is that rarely can you do that.
- WILLIAM LINK:
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Yeah, especially so with regard to universities.
- MARTIN GERRY:
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Well, I don't know. My problem was that the assistant
attorney general at the time was Stan Pottenger.
- WILLIAM LINK:
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Oh, yeah.
- MARTIN GERRY:
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Who had a whole history with North Carolina of his own. So, Stan was
certainly not interested in doing that.
- WILLIAM LINK:
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What was his history with North Carolina?
- MARTIN GERRY:
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Well, he had been director of OCR, you know, before Peter.
- WILLIAM LINK:
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Right.
- MARTIN GERRY:
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So, you know, I don't know what exactly with North Carolina,
but Stan was part and parcel of the whole, you know, "play it
out over a long period of time approach." Peter and I had
considerablyߞconsiderably closer in our opinions of the higher
education system than Stan Pottenger and I ever were. Stan represents
much moreߞwell, frankly, I don't
wantߞwell, it is critical. Stan was looked at it, I think,
much more politically. He wanted to get through it, you know, get all
the way through it. So, as a result, of course, none of it ever got
resolved.