NCSB Journal Spring 2026

ments. In mid-20th-century North Carolina, legally mandated segregation— central to Black disenfranchisement and white supremacy—dominated public and private life. Virtually every aspect of life, from public schools to businesses, enforced a racial divide that denied African Americans their full citizenship rights. The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, declaring seg regation unconstitutional, shocked many. The state’s leaders, who had designed poli cies to delay compliance with the ruling, never confronted the injustices of Jim Crow. Amid this, Irving Carlyle, not previously an outspoken advocate for racial change, affirmed his belief in the role of law in socie ty. In his speech to the State Democratic Party following Brown , and in many others that followed, Carlyle urged his colleagues to respect the law, despite its challenge to the societal norms they had long accepted. In the decades that followed, a few prominent North Carolina lawyers and judges, including Carlyle, were compelled to uphold a broader sense of justice. Judge James B. McMillan, a conservative Republican, was one such figure. He faith fully interpreted the law in the Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg case in the 1960s, 50 supported by African American lawyers like Julius Chambers. Chambers had witnessed the dire conditions of segregated education in Montgomery County, where Black stu dents were denied a proper education. He later led the successful litigation to dismantle the Pearsall Plan in 1965, which had sought to delay integration. 51 Looking back, the courage of Carlyle, McMillan, and Chambers might seem unre markable in a world that has since changed, though it remains imperfect. They faced fierce opposition and earned respect only after a fairer world gradually emerged. n David L. Neal is a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), where he focuses on climate, energy, and envi ronmental justice matters. Prior to joining SELC, he represented indigent criminal and capital defendants on appeal and post-convic tion. David is a 2001 graduate of UNC School of Law. James E. Williams Jr. is retired chief public defender for Orange and Chatham Counties. He serves of counsel with the Center For Death Penalty Litigation and is a public historian. James is a 1979 graduate of Duke Law School.

347 U.S. 483, 495 (1954). 2. Author’s telephone interview with Mrs. Mary Irving Campbell (Nov. 1, 2024). 3. Mrs. Carlyle Calls for Respect for Supreme Court Decision , undated newspaper clipping in Irving E. Carlyle Papers, Wake Forest University, Box 9, folder 622, Newspaper clippings, announcements, reactions, edi torials (1954-1955). 4. Id ., Woodrow Price, Reference to Court Decision Receives Big Hand; 3,000 at Convention (undated newspaper clipping). 5. Id . 6. Interview with Mary Irving Campbell. 7. Michael Dayton wrote a useful summary of those

John Charles (“Jack”) Boger is a retired member of the UNC School of Law, where he taught constitutional, educational, and civil rights law for 27 years and served as dean for nine years. Prior to 1990, he served for 12 years as assistant counsel with the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. in New York. Jack is a 1974 graduate of UNC School of Law. Endnotes 1. Brown v. Bd. of Ed. of Topeka, Shawnee Cnty., Kan. ,

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THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE BAR JOURNAL