In 1963, almost a quarter of North Carolinians were living in poverty.
Governor Terry Sanford and his political associates decided it was time to get creative about building a strategy for eradicating poverty in the state. And with that, the North Carolina Fund was born. The Fund was a way to sponsor community organizing initiatives in local communities across the state, particularly by getting poor people involved directly.
Howard Fuller, professor of education at Marquette University, and Rubye Gattis are former organizers with the North Carolina Fund; and Bob Korstad is a professor of history and public policy at Duke University, and the co-author of “To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America” (UNC Press, 2010). They all join Host Frank Stasio to talk about the history of the North Carolina Fund.