Wake Schools plans celebrations for 50th anniversary of school system merger

The Wake County Public School System plans celebrations throughout the year for the 50th anniversary of the merger of the county's two once-segregated school systems.

The merger of Wake County Schools and Raleigh City Schools in 1976, facing federal pressure, marked a major step toward racial integration of the county's schools.

The county's first magnet school opened the next year, the first of many such schools originally designed to draw white students from outside of Raleigh into the mostly Black Raleigh schools.

Over the past several decades, the vast majority of city and county school systems across North Carolina merged into countywide systems.

School system officials discussed their plans for the next year during a school board work session Tuesday afternoon.

Those plans so far consist of events, media and storytelling campaigns, encouraging schools to do service projects, and fundraising for its schools meals Angel Fund and student needs and programming.

The celebrations will focus around July 1, 1976, as the day the merger became official.

The district will launch a website, which board members said they hoped include maps of all of the schools in 1976 and photos of the principals.

Board Member Tyler Swanson suggested engaging and highlighting people who were around when the systems merged, letting them talk about their experiences.