I. Beverly Lake, Sr.

1960 campaign for governor After the Supreme Court handed down its decision insisting on the dismantling of the state's segregated school system, Lake attacked the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in a speech in Asheboro, accusing it of agitating the state's African-American population. Lake's speech established him as a leader of the state's segregationists, some of whom suggested that he should run for governor. Now in private practice, Lake remained coy but continued to assist segregationist efforts, attacking the sitting governor, Luther Hodges, for caving in to national pressure to adopt a moderate course and preparing a bill for the North Carolina General Assembly that would have amended the state's constitution to remove the requirement for a system of publicly funded schools.

Yet, as the 1960 North Carolina gubernatorial election approached, Lake initially announced that he would not be a candidate for governor due to a lack of funds. The entry of the state's moderate attorney-general, Malcolm Seawell, into the race, along with the start of the lunch-counter demonstrations in Greensboro caused Lake to change his mind, and he announced his candidacy for the office. In one advertisement, he wrote "The mixing of our two great races in the classroom and then in the home is not inevitable and is not to be tolerated." Lake made segregation the dominant issue of his campaign, attacking Hodges's management of integration and the NAACP. With Robert Burren Morgan acting as his campaign manager, Lake did well enough to place second in the Democratic primary to Terry Sanford, but in the subsequent runoff election, Sanford defeated Lake by a margin of 50,000 votes.

Subsequent career In the 1964 North Carolina gubernatorial election, Lake ran again, but was eliminated in the first primary. After conceding the race, he threw his support to Judge Dan Moore, which was crucial to Moore's victory in the runoff. In return for his support, Moore named Lake to the next opening on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Lake was sworn in as an associate justice on August 30, 1965. He served until 1978.

Lake was married twice—his first wife, Gertrude M. Bell, died in 1975; he was survived by his second wife, Kathleen Robinson Mackie Lake. His son, I. Beverly Lake Jr., followed him into politics and law.