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In the 1880s, large numbers of North Carolina's citizens
were moving off the farm to the small towns dotting the state,
looking for jobs in the burgeoning tobacco,
textile, and furniture industries.
At the time, children were educated in locally funded and controlled
schoolhouses with one room for all ages and skill levels.
But for industry to grow and attract investment,
mill owners and state leaders needed a more educated workforce.
A new concept emerged: build schools with unified curricula
where students would progress from grade to grade
as they achieved educational benchmarks.
The creation of these graded schools was driven, in part,
by a generation of young men coming out of UNC-Chapel Hill,
among them educator Charles McIver.
McIver saw that the state's young women were a great,
untapped resource for staffing graded schools, and in 1892,
he worked to establish the Normal and Industrial School —
now the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
At a time when most women were only expected
to marry and run a household,
many took hold of the opportunity to have a career.
The graded school concept became a movement.
In 1902, a group of these women established
the Women's Association for the Betterment of Public Schools.
They raised funds to build and renovate schoolhouses,
buy books and supplies, and lead a variety of health initiatives.
At the same time, Governor Charles B. Aycock was pushing
to provide funding for construction of new school buildings,
and to centralize the state's educational system.
Aycock funded educational initiatives for all races,
but his process revealed the reality of the era: white schools
were much better funded and equipped
than the African-American graded schools.
Despite the challenges, the North Carolina that emerged
as a national manufacturing hub in the years leading up
to World War Two could not have been possible
without these early educational investments and reforms.