Sitting before a group of more than 100 students at Cary Academy Thursday afternoon, Joe Holt Jr. had no idea what was in store for him. He thought he was simply fielding questions from the students about his parents' years-long battle that would have made him the first black student to attend a whites-only school in Raleigh.

Unbeknownst to Holt, but fully known to his daughter, Deborah Holt Noel, and school officials, he had come that day for more than just a presentation of his family’s fight to end segregation at the local level. The school’s Committee on Multicultural Initiatives and Diversity had chosen Holt Jr. as the first recipient of its newly created Courage Award.

The award will be given each year to an individual who displays “unwavering courage in their efforts to promote diversity, multiculturalism, equity and justice to overcome racial barriers in education,” said Shani Barrax-Moore, director of diversity at the school. The language is displayed on the award Holt Jr. proudly received last week on his family’s behalf.

“I’m humbled to receive this,” Holt Jr. said. “It places me in some distinguished company I don’t really think I belong in. I will always treasure this.”

Holt’s story began more than 50 years ago in the summer of 1956 — about two years after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. His parents, Elwyna and Joe Holt Sr., wanted to send their son to a neighborhood school, in the capital city’s historic Oberlin community, known then as Josephus Daniels Junior High School.

But the Holts immediately faced opposition. Daniels was a whites-only school even then, and neither local residents nor the Raleigh school board were keen on seeing that change. The Holts’ application to admit Joe into the school was stonewalled for more than a year and in August 1957 was denied.

The story — and the Holts’ fight — could have ended there. But it didn’t; the Holts dared instead to sue the state, asking a state court to defend the Supreme Court’s decision.

It was a move the family didn’t take lightly. “We made a decision at the beginning as a family that we were going to see this through,” Holt Jr. said in response to a student who asked if his family ever considered giving up. “There was this understanding that there were so many people who had gone before us ...”

Decades later, in 1995, Holt Noel took on the task of chronicling her father’s story in a documentary titled “Exhausted Remedies: Joe Holt’s Story.” The film, which Cary Academy students watched last week, goes on to chronicle the state’s efforts to keep schools segregated against the Holts’ resolve.

Although the Holts were not successful in their bid to integrate Raleigh schools, their efforts paved the way for William Campbell, who in September 1960 became the first black student to attend the all-white Murphey High School in Raleigh.

While Holt Jr. and his daughter certainly don’t deride the Campbells for their own place in Raleigh’s history, they say it’s been important for them to spread their own story. After capturing headlines during their fight to attend Daniels and later Broughton High, Holt Jr. said his story was largely forgotten until his daughter made her documentary.

“It seems like newspapers since then have always talked about integration and yet never talk about our family,” he said. “I thought, how can you talk about integration in this area and not talk about where it began?”

That the family’s perserverance has finally earned her father the recognition Holt Noel said he and his parents deserve made receipt of the Courage Award that much more meaningful.

“I’m extremely happy for Dad because for so long, he carried with him the weight of believing it was their fault schools didn’t get integrated until they did,” she said. “He’s been carrying this weight ever since he was a boy. I can’t imagine living with that burden.”

Holt said that the acknowledgment of his family’s role in Raleigh’s history has renewed his spirits. “It’s like being reborn, like coming out of a dungeon into the fresh air and bright sunshine,” he said.

Officials at Cary Academy said it was equally important to them that students hear stories of the foot soldiers who pioneered history on the local level. “We want kids to not only experience living history, but at Cary Academy we really value diversity and multiculturalism,” Barrax-Moore said. “This is our way of identifying local heroes who have displayed courage, and it’s a way to help students see the value of multicultralism and diversity and the impact it has on the community.”