Conversation with Dr. Dudley Flood on Racism in the Church & Beyond

Dudley E. Flood is a former educator and administrator in the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and was instrumental in desegregating North Carolina schools. While working for the Department of Public Instruction, Flood, along with Gene Causby, was tasked with helping local communities desegregate their schools. The two men traveled across the state meeting with elected officials, community activists, and parents in order to ensure desegregation. One of the toughest challenges they faced was in Hyde County, NC. In Hyde County, there had been a school boycott that had lasted almost a full year and Flood and Causby were given the task to get children back to school. They held a contentious community wide discussion where “... everyone from students, parents and teachers to the Black Panthers and Ku Klux Klan was expected to show up”. The result of the meeting; a decision to reopen the schools as one integrated school. This was just one example of the efforts undertaken by Flood during this time.