Manuscripts Department
The Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#4300
THOMAS JENKINS PEARSALL PAPERS
Inventory
Abstract: Thomas J. Pearsall (1901-1981) was an attorney of
Rocky Mount, N.C., who was the chief author of the
1954 Pearsall Plan for school integration in North
Carolina and chair of the board of the Roanoke Island
Historical Association, 1975-1981.
Correspondence concerning school integration,
higher education (especially the University of North
Carolina), and the Roanoke Island Historical
Association; committee reports; speeches; clippings;
and other items documenting the public career of
Thomas Jenkins Pearsall. Correspondence includes
letters from North Carolinians reacting to the Supreme
Court's 1954 school desegregation decision and letters
from southern governors, state attorneys-general, and
others about school desegregation in the 1950s.
Online Catalog Terms:
Education, Higher--North Carolina.
Pearsall, Thomas Jenkins, 1903-1981.
Roanoke Island Historical Association, Inc.
School integration--Law and legislation--United States.
School integration--North Carolina.
Segregation in education--Law and legislation--United States.
United States. Supreme Court.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--History.
Size: About 1500 items (2.5 feet).
Provenance: Received from Mack B. Pearsall of Rocky Mount, North
Carolina, in March 1982.
Access: No restrictions.
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers,
or their descendants, as stipulated by United
States copyright law.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Biographical Note
Collection Overview
Series Descriptions
Series 1. Education Committees
Series 2. Roanoke Island Historical Association
Series 3. Miscellaneous Papers
Series 4. Pictures
Shelf List
INTRODUCTION
Biographical Note
Thomas Jenkins Pearsall was born on 11 February 1903 in Rocky
Mount, North Carolina. He married Elizabeth Braswell and lived
in Rocky Mount for most of his life. The couple had two sons,
Thomas J. Pearsall, Jr., and Mack B. Pearsall.
Thomas Pearsall was a lawyer and businessman, and held farming
interests in Nash, Edgecombe, and Halifax counties. During most
of his life Pearsall was active in Democratic Party politics. He
served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1941
to 1947, and was Speaker of the House in 1947.
After leaving the legislature in 1947, Pearsall continued an
active public career. In 1954, Governor William B. Umstead
appointed him chairman of the Governor's Advisory Committee on
Education, whose purpose was to study school desegregation and
make recommendations to the governor and the legislature. In
1955, Governor Luther Hodges appointed a similar committee, the
North Carolina Advisory Committee on Education, to continue to
study desegregation, and Pearsall again served as chairman.
Based on the work of these two committees, Pearsall wrote the
1956 school desegregation legislation known as the Pearsall Plan.
This plan shifted the responsibility for student assignments,
student busing, and the power to close the public schools from
the state to local school boards. The North Carolina legislature
adopted the plan in 1956.
Pearsall served on three other educational committees in North
Carolina: the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of
the University of North Carolina; the Governor's Commission on
Education Beyond the High School; and the Special Committee of
the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina. As
chairman of the latter committee, Pearsall guided the
reorganization of the consolidated UNC system and the expansion
of the state's community colleges.
In 1975, Pearsall became chairman of the board of the Roanoke
Island Historical Association. He served in that capacity until
his death on 5 May 1981.
Collection Overview
The collection consists primarily of files concerning
Pearsall's service on various North Carolina educational
committees, and his tenure as chairman of the board of the
Roanoke Island Historical Association. The majority of the files
consist of correspondence and reports. The papers provide no
coverage of Pearsall's career in the state legislature, and
contain a limited amount of material on the Pearsall Plan. The
small size of this collection results at least partly from the
fact that many of Pearsall's papers were destroyed in 1979.
This collection contains several noteworthy items. Among them
are a 1959 letter to Pearsall from Adlai Stevenson; letters
expressing reactions of the people of North Carolina to the
Supreme Court's 1954 decision on desegregation; a letter to
Pearsall from Thurgood Marshall; letters from southern governors
and attorney generals about school desegregation; and letters
from North Carolinians expressing their opinions on the
reorganization of the University of North Carolina system.
Another item of note is a letter from I. Beverly Lake (assistant
to the N. C. attorney general in 1954) to Pearsall, criticizing
moderate approaches that had been suggested for school
desegregation.
The arrangement of the collection is as follows:
Series 1. Education Committees (folders 1-29)
Series 2. Roanoke Island Historical Association
(folders 30-41)
Series 3. Miscellaneous Papers (folders 42-45)
For more detailed information, see the series descriptions
which follow.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1. Education Committees
1954-1963. About 655 items.
Arrangement: by committee, then alphabetical or chronological.
Chiefly letters to Pearsall from North Carolina citizens and
state government leaders expressing opinions relating to the work
of education and UNC committees on which Pearsall served. Also
included are committee reports, a few of Pearsall's speeches, and
newspaper clippings.
Governor's Advisory Committee on Education, 1954
Correspondence
Folder 1 A-B
2 C-D
3 E
4 F-G
5 H-J
6 K-L
7 M
8 P
9 R-S
10 T-V
11 W
12 Reports
North Carolina Advisory Committee on Education
13-14 1956
15 1958
16-17 1959
18 1960
19 1960-1961
20 Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of UNC,
1958
Governor's Commission on Education Beyond the High
School
21 1961-1962
22 1963
Special Committee of the Board of Trustees of UNC
23-30 June-Dec. 1962
31-32 Jan.-Feb. 1963
Series 2. Roanoke Island Historical Association
1974-1979. About 870 items.
Arrangement: chronological
Correspondence, memoranda, reports, promotional documents, and
other material relating to the management of the Roanoke Island
Historical Association.
Folder 33 1974
34 1975
35-35 1976
37-38 1977
39-40 1978
41-43 1979
44 Lost Colony TV Documentary, 1979
Series 3. Miscellaneous Papers
1959-1979. About 70 items.
Folder 45 "An Exercise of Choice: North Carolina's Approach
to the Segregation-Integration Crisis in Public
Education," by Charles Dunn, M.A. theses, UNC,
1959
46 Pearsall's UNC Honorary Degree, Correspondence:
1961
47 Southern Oral History Program Notes and
Correspondence: 1975-1979
48 TV interview with Pearsall, transcript, 1979
Series 4. Pictures
P-4300/1. Thomas Jenkins Pearsall (with others) presenting
an award on behalf of the Roanoke Island
Historical Association. 4 November 1975.
Photo.: 19 x 25 cm.
P-4300/2. TJP as newly elected chairman of the Roanoke
Island Historical Association. November 1975.
(Nine proof photos on one sheet)
Photo.: 19 x 25 cm.
P-4300/3-6. TJP and others on the occasion of the Roanoke
Island Historical Association's receiving the
G. Lynn Nisbet Award for 1978. 27 February 1979.
Photos.: 19 x 25 cm.
P-4300/7. TJP and others. January 1963.
Photo.: 19 x 25 cm.
SHELF LIST
Box 1. Series 1. Education Committees (folders 1-32)
Box 2. Series 2. Roanoke Island Historical Association
(folders 33-42)
Box 3. Series 2. Roanoke Island Historical Association
(folders 43-44)
Series 3. Miscellaneous Papers (folders 45-48)
Items separated:
P-4300/1-7