The race issues that William Friday faced as a youngster growing up in rural North Carolina would resonate with him throughout his school years, in the military and even later during his University presidency. Growing up in the segregated South, Friday admits there were unspoken "rules" in his relationships with his African American counterparts.

When Friday was 14 years old in Dallas, NC he experienced his first taste of racial segregation on the baseball field. "Some of the best friends I have and had [are African American]. But there was a line that nobody would cross, and you knew it, you felt it, you knew it was wrong, but it was not in the culture at that time to absorb a change. But you know it when you are that young, and you know that it is doing something that has to change…Sometimes we are more motivated by what we feel than by what we know," says Friday.

From the 1880s into the 1960s, a majority of American states enforced segregation through Jim Crow laws. From Delaware to California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states could impose legal punishments for consorting with members of another race. The most common types of these laws forbade intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to keep their black and white clientele separated.

This segregation followed Friday into wartime. Because the Navy had long been segregated upon Friday's arrival at the Naval Ammunitions Depot at St. Julien's Creek in Norfolk, VA, Friday faced a similar discomfort with the incongruity in treatment between the white servicemen and those of other color. Because of his engineering degree, he was quickly promoted to plant operations manager, forcing him into the tense role of constantly supervising a dangerous environment for both himself and his men of all races.
Friday says of this time: "I tried never to take advantage because I was white. I was always trying to pull people in. Pull them up, lift them up."

Shortly after the war ended, in response to the Brown vs. Board of Education case, the Supreme Court rules that "separate but equal" has no place in education and is unconstitutional in 1954. Two years later, Friday would become acting President of the University System and face three decades of racial issues.

Friday reflects, "after World War II and the minute the Brown decision occurred I knew that part of life was over. I think our part of the country has probably dealt with that issue much more wisely than any other part of the United States. They didn't expect it to happen that way but it did. I think that is to the credit of thoughtfulness."

In December of 1968, the newly formed Black Student Movement presented a list of demands to the UNC administration. Ultimately the students staged a sit-in at Lenoir Hall, and Governor Bob Scott offered to intervene, a proposal, which Friday rejected. However, the next day, Friday came to campus to find state troopers on campus. Friday described his reaction to their presence and the ultimate resolution of the protest as "the only time that [the Governor] and I ever really had a confrontation."

After a meteoric rise to the presidency of the university system, Friday 's experiences both growing up and in service motivated him towards creating racial equities. From 1969-1981, Friday worked diligently with university affairs to desegregate the universities while maintaining the traditionally black colleges. During this racially-charged time, Friday's opinions were both unpopular and sparked much criticism, but he maintains that the balance in education helped both to improve the educational environment in all schools, while helping historically-black colleges to keep their sense of culture. Of this time Friday says, "that was eleven years of a controversy that should have never have taken place in the first place."

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