SR_DPI_DNE_Special_Subject_File_B1F15_Equalization_Education_Opportunities_045

Gentlemen of the General Assembly of North Carolina
We, the Negro teachers in North Carolina respect-
fully request that the now existing differential between
the salaries of white and Negro teachers in the State be
eliminated.

Leaders in the State believe in the
principle of equalized salaries.
In June, 1934, Governnor Ehringhaus appointed a Com-
mission of 100 persons, fifty whites and fifty Negroes,
to study the whole problem of Negro education in the
State. In January, 1935, the Commission made its report.
On the slary question the report stated:

We believe in the principle of equal pay for
equal training and equal service. In order to put
this principle into effect in North Carolina, we re-
commend the following:

1. That the differentials in teachers salaries
between white and Negro teachers, now in
existence in North Carolina, be reduced ap-
proximately 50 per cent in 1935.

2. That the remainiing differentials after 1935
be eliminated as rapidly as possible within
a period of three to five years.

Former members of the House and Senate
of the General Assembly believed in the
principle, although the State up to the
present time has no been able to finance
a program of complete equalization of
salaries.
The last legislature, within the limits of the
ability of the State to pay, appropriated funds for the
reduction of the differential between white and Negro
teachers' salaries.