He served as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro from 1961 to 1966, with a leave of absence from October, 1964, until January, 1966 to head the federal Job Corps.
Singletary's dispassionate yet firm approach to dealing with the conflict, in time effectively restored calm to the campus and prevented a potentially incendiary situation from spinning out of control.
Singletary retired from his post as president of the university on June 30, 1987, having served longer in that position than any of his predecessors, save James Kennedy Patterson and Frank McVey.
Among his writings was Negro Militia and Reconstruction (1957), a treatise on the mixed race paramilitary units employed in the south during the post Civil War period.
[1] This volume examines the use, racial mixture and failures surrounding a group of civil servants who faced a high rate of violence.