Herbert Aptheker

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 13 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1966 Stuart Matthews serves on the steering committee of the UNC chapter of Students for a Democratic Society The federal court's findings in Dickson v. Sitterson list Matthews as a member of the steering committee of Students for a Democratic Society, one of the recognized campus organizations whose officers brought the suit. The Daily Tar Heel adds that Matthews and Gary Waller invited Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker to speak under SDS sponsorship on January 3, 1966. People: Gary Waller, Frank Wilkinson, Herbert ApthekerSearch the index · Justia: Dickson v. Sitterson, 280 F. Supp. 486 (M.D.N.C. 1968)
2. January 1966 Students for a Democratic Society invites Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker to speak at UNC The UNC chapter of Students for a Democratic Society invited Frank Wilkinson, who had pleaded the Fifth Amendment when questioned in California about Communist activities, and the Communist theoretician Herbert Aptheker to speak on campus. After the trustees barred both men, Student Government under Paul Dickson, the Daily Tar Heel, the Carolina Forum, the YMCA and YWCA, the Di-Phi and the Carolina Political Union joined SDS in renewing the invitations. People: Frank Wilkinson, Paul Dickson III, Herbert ApthekerThe Daily Tar Heel, November 20, 1986, p. 11
3. February 1, 1966 Dickson, Nicholson and McCrary invite Herbert Aptheker to speak on campus Three of the students who later sued invited Aptheker to speak at Chapel Hill on March 9, 1966 under the sponsorship of Student Government, the Carolina Forum and the Daily Tar Heel. Aptheker accepted two days later. People: Paul Dickson III, Herbert ApthekerSearch the index · Caselaw Access Project: Dickson v. Sitterson, 280 F. Supp. 486 (M.D.N.C. 1968)
4. February 7, 1966 Gary Waller joins a student panel on the Speaker Ban in Memorial Hall The Daily Tar Heel reported that student body president Paul Dickson presided over a noon meeting of students and faculty in Memorial Hall, with a panel of four that included Waller, Carolina Conservative Club president Wilson Clark and the SDS faculty advisers Joseph Straley and Lewis Lipsitz. The meeting adopted a resolution about four and a half hours before the trustees' executive committee voted 8 to 3 to bar Herbert Aptheker from speaking. People: Paul Dickson III, Joe Straley, Herbert ApthekerSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 8, 1966, p. 1
5. February 7, 1966 UNC trustees' executive committee bars Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker from the Chapel Hill campus Meeting in Governor Dan K. Moore's office in Raleigh, the executive committee of the UNC board of trustees voted 8 to 3 to deny university facilities to Aptheker and Wilkinson and suspended all other invitations covered by the speaker ban law until the full board adopted rules. Earlier that day more than 800 students and faculty at a Memorial Hall meeting had backed Aptheker's right to speak. People: Paul Dickson III, Herbert Aptheker, Dan K. MooreSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 8, 1966, p. 1
6. February 11, 1966 Nicholson criticizes SDS over the Aptheker invitation while backing the principle The Carolina Forum chairman called the Students for a Democratic Society invitation to Herbert Aptheker ill-timed and planned for sensationalism, and said the Forum had joined the invitation only in support of the principle of free speech. People: Herbert ApthekerSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 11, 1966, p. 1
7. February 28, 1966 Stuart Matthews and Gary Waller write to Chancellor Sitterson inviting Herbert Aptheker On the day the full board of trustees adopted new speaker regulations, Matthews and Waller wrote to Acting Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson for the UNC Chapel Hill chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, asking that Herbert Aptheker be allowed to speak on campus about the war in Vietnam on March 9. The letter set out his publications, speaking engagements and his Supreme Court passport case. People: Gary Waller, J. Carlyle Sitterson, Herbert ApthekerSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Letter, Stuart Matthews and Gary Waller to Chancellor J.C. Sitterson, 28 February 1966
8. March 1, 1966 Eight student groups re-invite Frank Wilkinson under the trustees' new speaker rules The day after the full board of trustees adopted speaker regulations on February 28, Paul Dickson and leaders of the Carolina Forum, the YMCA, the YWCA, the Daily Tar Heel, the Di-Phi, Students for a Democratic Society and the Carolina Political Union formally told Acting Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson that Wilkinson was invited for March 2 and Aptheker for March 9. Wilkinson spoke to the Duke Bar Association in Durham that day. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Paul Dickson III, Herbert Aptheker, George E. Nicholson III, Robert S. Powell Jr., James A. Medford, Eunice H. Milton, John E. Greenbacker Jr., Eric Van Loon, Gary Waller, Stuart MatthewsSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 2, 1966, p. 1
9. March 9, 1966 Herbert Aptheker gives his evening talk at the Community Church Kept off campus, Aptheker gave his evening talk to about 350 people at the interdenominational Community Church on Purefoy Road. Paul Dickson then announced a Free Speech Defense Fund to pay for a lawsuit. People: Paul Dickson III, Herbert ApthekerThe Daily Tar Heel, March 11, 1966, p. 1
10. March 9, 1966 Herbert Aptheker speaks to students across the McCorkle Place wall At noon Paul Dickson led Aptheker, invited by SDS and the Committee for Free Inquiry, onto McCorkle Place near the Confederate monument, where campus police chief Arthur Beaumont halted Dickson's introduction and warned of arrest. Aptheker crossed the low stone wall to the Franklin Street sidewalk and spoke to a crowd estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 on the campus side. People: Paul Dickson III, Herbert ApthekerThe Daily Tar Heel, March 10, 1966, p. 1
11. March 31, 1966 Students and the two speakers file Dickson v. Sitterson against the Speaker Ban Minutes after Sitterson refused the students' request, Paul Dickson and eleven other student leaders, joined by Wilkinson and Aptheker as plaintiffs, sued Sitterson, President William C. Friday and the trustees in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Attorney McNeill Smith took the case without fee. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Paul Dickson III, Herbert Aptheker, William C. Friday, George E. Nicholson III, Robert S. Powell Jr., James A. Medford, Eunice H. Milton, John E. Greenbacker Jr., Eric Van Loon, Gary Waller, Stuart Matthews, Frank WilkinsonUNC Carolina Story: One Final Effort
12. February 19, 1968 A federal court struck down the Speaker Ban law in Dickson v. Sitterson A three-judge federal court in Greensboro ruled North Carolina's Speaker Ban law unconstitutional because it was too vague. The suit had been filed in March 1966 by UNC student leaders and the two barred speakers, Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker, and UNC's leaders hoped the ruling ended the long controversy. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Paul Dickson III, Frank Wilkinson, Herbert ApthekerThe Daily Tar Heel, February 20, 1968, p. 1