Chris Folk papers

Chris Evans Folk was born on April 6, 1930 in Charlotte, North Carolina. After moving to Statesville in his youth, Chris returned to Charlotte to attend Central High School, where he graudated as valedictorian of his class in 1948. He then went on to study at Duke University where he received a BA degree in English and Education in 1952. Upon receipt of his Master of Education Degree in 1953 from the University of Texas, he began to serve as an English teacher, Counselor and Administrative Assistant to the Principal at Robert Driscoll Junior High School in Corpus Christi, Texas. He then went on to the US Army where he spent time in the Medical Field Service School. After returning home in 1955, Folk began his 37 year career with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System as a teacher of English and Journalism at his alma mater, Central High School. After taking a short leave of absence to earn his Doctor of Education from Columbia University, Folk returned to Charlotte and began his administrative career in the school system. Over a period of 16 years from 1960-1976, Folk served in the office of School-Community Relations, Principal of Windsor Park Elementary School, Assistant to the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of Communications. In 1976 he was promoted to the position he would hold for the remainder of his career, Associate Superintendent of Communications. Folk faithfully filled this position from 1976 until his retirement in 1992.

Folk's time at CMS was filled with momentous change and great challenges for both the schools and the community. In 1960, his first year in the School-Community Relations office, Charlotte City Schools and Mecklenburg County Schools consolidated to form the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system. Then in 1965, African-Americans Vera and Darius Swann filed suit against CMS on behalf of their son James who was denied entrance to integrated Seversville Elementary and instead sent to the all-black Biddleville Elementary School, despite the fact that Seversville was closer to his home. The case wound its way up to the Supreme Court who ruled in 1971 that CMS must use all means necessary, including busing, to achieve complete racial balance in its school district. During this tense period, Folk made sure the public had all of the information they needed about the upcoming changes and went to great lengths to answer all questions they had. He worked with the School Board to develop policies to implement desegregation, organized central office staff to provide assistance related to desegregation, provided workshops for school and office personnel for desegregation problems, set up a hotline to respond to parents' questions and concerns and worked with the school board attorney in responding to legal issues. Busing ultimately became a great success in CMS and the district was held up as a model of peaceful integration throughout the nation. After Folk's retirement in 1992, he continued to be involved with the school system, reading at Highland Renaissance Academy, answering parent e-mails and giving talks about the history of CMS. Folk played a major role in guiding the school system and the city through the second half of the twentieth century and left his mark on thousands of colleagues and students who passed through the doors of the system's many schools over the past fifty years.