36 Facts About Floyd McKissick

Floyd Bixler McKissick was an American lawyer and civil rights activist.

Floyd McKissick became the first African-American student at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

In 1968, McKissick left CORE to found Soul City in Warren County, North Carolina.

Floyd McKissick was an active Republican and endorsed Richard Nixon for president that year, and the federal government, under President Nixon, supported Soul City.

Floyd McKissick became a state district court judge in 1990 and died on April 28,1991.

Floyd McKissick was the only son and one of four children of Ernest Boyce and Magnolia Thompson McKissick.

Floyd McKissick was named for a friend of his father, Floyd S Bixler.

When he was 13 years of age, Floyd McKissick was a member of a Boy Scout troop.

The troop sponsored a skating tournament on a street in Asheville, and Floyd McKissick was assigned to look after the younger participants.

When one of the children strayed into an adjacent street, Floyd McKissick followed him and brought him back to the starting line.

Floyd McKissick continued trying to explain what had occurred, and when the officer attempted to strike him with his nightstick, McKissick deflected the blow with his skates, knocking the stick out of the officer's hands.

Floyd McKissick was arrested and put on trial two weeks later.

Floyd McKissick's father lied to the judge, telling him he had punished his son for his behavior, and the case was dismissed.

Floyd McKissick graduated from high school in 1939, and in 1940 went to Atlanta to attend Morehouse College.

Floyd McKissick returned home from his service oversees inspired by postwar reconstruction efforts in Europe and increasingly aggrieved by blacks' lack of standing in American society, despite their contribution to the war effort.

Floyd McKissick participated in the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, an attempt by activists to integrate interstate bus travel in the South.

Floyd McKissick returned to his native state North Carolina, and applied to the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Floyd McKissick was denied admission because of his race.

At the time of the ruling, Floyd McKissick had nearly finished his law degree from NCC, but he took courses at UNC School of Law during the summer of 1951.

Floyd McKissick was in the first group of black students to be admitted at UNC School of Law.

Floyd McKissick handled a variety of cases, including property and insurance disputes and criminal law, but focused on civil rights litigation.

Floyd McKissick's clients included the first black undergraduates to attend UNC-Chapel Hill in 1955.

Floyd McKissick successfully defended sit-in protesters of the Durham's Royal Ice Cream Parlor in 1957, and the families who integrated Durham's city school system in 1959.

Floyd McKissick pressed to have black workers admitted to the skilled scale without loss of their seniority rating.

CORE executive director James Farmer was under arrest at the time of the 1963 civil rights March on Washington for participating in protests in Louisiana, so Floyd McKissick attended the demonstration on his behalf.

Floyd McKissick replaced Farmer as head of CORE on January 3,1966.

Floyd McKissick who had recently been elected head of CORE, promised to support Meredith in his journey.

Floyd McKissick stood aboard a truck and attempted to rally the protestors to continue their demonstration, the police attacked, firing tear gas canisters and striking the protestors as they fled.

Floyd McKissick became more strident in his rejection of nonviolence after Martin Luther King Jr.

Floyd McKissick stressed the importance of black economic autonomy from white society, arguing that, "Unless the Black Man attains economic independence, any 'political independence' will be an illusion".

Floyd McKissick promoted involvement in business as a means of enriching American blacks, which he termed "black entrepreneurship" and "black socialism".

Floyd McKissick launched a plan to build a new community, Soul City, in Warren County, North Carolina, on 500 acres of farmland.

In exchange, Floyd McKissick agreed to drop a lawsuit brought to block HUD from shutting down the project.

In June 1990, Floyd McKissick was appointed a state district court judge in the Ninth Judicial District in North Carolina, by Republican Governor James G Martin.

Less than a year after being appointed, while working as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Soul City, Floyd McKissick died of lung cancer at the age 69 on April 28,1991.

Floyd McKissick was survived by his wife, the former Evelyn Williams, whom he married in 1942; a son, Floyd McKissick, Jr; and three daughters, Joycelyn, Andree, and Charmaine.