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Tom Bello

Tom Bello was president of the UNC student body during the May 1970 student strike over the invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State killings. He led a march of 4,000 to 6,000 people through downtown Chapel Hill behind four coffins for the Kent State dead.

Source: DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1970, p. 1

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Tom Bello. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Tom Bello’s life and work.

Browse all 42 works on UNC’s student strike against the Vietnam War, May 1970 Research sources View background reading ↓

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

StorylineWomen’s hours, visitation and coed housing at UNC, 1965–19741965–1974 · 31 events · Between 1965 and 1969 UNC's women students, and the men in the residence halls, pressed against the University's rules on closing hours and visits. Nursing students staged a lie-in in 1965, and in 1967 senior and older women won the right to live off campus. In January 1968 about 500 women marched to the Women's Residence Council over closing hours; Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson at first rejected self-limiting hours, but in November junior and senior women won them with their parents' consent. After a petition with 3,904 names and marches to Lenoir Hall and the chancellor's house, Sitterson allowed experimental open houses in December 1968, though President William Friday kept the open-door rule in 1969. From 1970 self-limiting hours reached all women students, Morrison became a permanent coed hall, and students pressed for each hall to set its own visitation, which the University turned down in 1971. Coed housing spread through 1973, but in 1974 the dean of student affairs ended room-by-room coed living in Winston, and the trustees upheld him.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 14 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Tom Bello is sworn in as student body president Tom Bello was sworn in as president of the UNC student body, with Bill Blue as vice president and Ann Rothe also among the new leaders of Student Government. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Bill Blue, Ann RotheSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 3, 1970, p. 2 (editorial, Tom Bello's Year Should Be Good For The Students) · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, December 8, 1970, p. 1
  2. Student Legislature passes a resolution calling a class boycott over the invasion of Cambodia On the night of Nixon's Cambodia announcement the Student Legislature passed a resolution urging students to boycott classes on May 6. Student Body President Tom Bello called the strike and a student body meeting the next day, before the Kent State killings turned the one-day boycott into a general strike. People: Tom Bello Place: Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, May 6, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)
  3. UNC student strike of 1970 After the Kent State shootings and the invasion of Cambodia, UNC students began a class boycott on May 5, 1970, and more than 4,000 people marched through downtown Chapel Hill the next day. Classes were not cancelled; the faculty instead voted to let striking students take grades on work completed or finish courses later. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Tom Bello Place: Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1970, p. 1
  4. The student body meets in Polk Place and more than 4,000 march through downtown Chapel Hill behind four coffins Tom Bello chaired an emergency meeting of the student body in Polk Place, then led a march half a mile long down Franklin Street behind four coffins for the Kent State dead; estimates ran from 4,000 to 6,000. That night 900 students planned the boycott, 2,500 held a candlelight memorial at McCorkle Place and marched again down Franklin Street, and strikers camped in Polk Place for an all-night vigil. People: Tom Bello Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: McCorkle Place, Polk Place, Franklin StreetThe Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)
  5. Student Government's 'The Strike Continues?' release turns the strike toward canvassing and calls a Memorial Hall teach-in Tom Bello's Student Government press release declared that rallies alone would not end the war and redirected the strike, which it said now involved well over half the student body, toward canvassing, petitions and visits to Congress. It announced a faculty panel on the war for 3 p.m. Monday, May 11 in Memorial Hall with Samuel Wells, James Leutze, Andrew Scott, Daniel Pollitt and David Lapkin. People: Tom Bello, Daniel H. Pollitt Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Samuel F. Wells, James R. Leutze, Andrew Scott, Daniel Pollitt, David Lapkin, James Leutze · Also mentions: Memorial HallNC Anchor (State Library of North Carolina): Primary Source: Campus Protests at UNC Chapel Hill
  6. Students sit in at South Building and hand Chancellor Sitterson a petition of 800 names confessing to the disruption policy Seventy-five to 100 students occupied the South Building lobby for over an hour to protest the trustees' disruption policy and its use against three students charged after the December cafeteria strike. Three were admitted to Chancellor Sitterson's office with a petition of 800 UNC students indicting themselves for violating the policy during the strike's first days; Sitterson said the matter lay with President Friday. Bello and the strike steering committee condemned the sit-in. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, William C. Friday, Tom Bello Place: Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, May 12, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)
  7. Student Legislature lets residence houses choose round-the-clock visitation over the administration's rules Student Legislature voted on September 17 to let each residence house adopt either the administration's Open House Agreement, which allowed visitation from noon to 1 a.m. on weeknights and to 2 a.m. on weekends, or the legislature's own policy allowing visitation at any hour; Carr dormitory, Project Hinton and the fourth floor of Hinton James chose round-the-clock visitation, setting off a month-long dispute with the administration. People: Tom Bello Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Carr dormitorySearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 19, 1970, p. 1
  8. Tom Bello asks students to nominate candidates for chancellor With Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson returning to teaching, student body president Tom Bello issued an open letter asking students to send names to the Advisory Committee on the Chancellorship, chaired by state Rep. Ike F. Andrews, by November 1. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Ike F. AndrewsSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 2, 1970, p. 1 (Bello Urges Ideas For New Chancellor)
  9. Residence halls vote to set their own visitation hours against University policy Following a Morehead Residence College Senate resolution, Lewis, Graham and Aycock dormitories, the James Residence College Senate, 19 of 24 Granville Towers floors, Sigma Chi and other houses endorsed Student Legislature's policy letting each house set its own visitation hours, and several, including two Granville West floors, began seven-day, 24-hour visitation in defiance of the administration's limits. On October 26 the trustees' Consultative Committee recommended self-determined visitation in some housing units with parents' written permission. People: Tom Bello Place: UNC residence halls, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Granville TowersSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 24, 1970, p. 1
  10. Chapel Hill aldermen approve a student Christmas street party on Franklin Street At student body president Tom Bello's proposal, the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen unanimously approved a Christmas street party on Franklin Street for Saturday, December 12, 1970, run by Student Government with the town and the Merchants Association, on condition that the students set it up and cleaned up afterward. Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Franklin StreetSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, December 8, 1970, p. 1
  11. UNC turns down the self-determination dormitory visitation policy Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson said the differential housing policy, which would have let residence units set their own visitation rules from fall 1971, had been turned down by the deans and student body presidents of the Consolidated University. Student body president Tom Bello answered the next day by urging students not to cooperate with or enforce the University's visitation rules. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Tom Bello Place: South Building, UNC, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, January 6, 1971, p. 1
  12. Chancellor Sitterson tells Tom Bello the university will control student activity fees A dispute over student activity fees began when Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson told student body president Tom Bello that the university would keep control of spending all student activity fees. In March Student Government took a 90-page report to the trustees' executive committee asking it to confirm Student Government's authority over the fees. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 16, 1971, p. 1
Show all 14 dated events
  1. UNC moves student activity fees into a University trust fund, and a week-long standoff follows From February 1 the University began paying out student activity fees through a University-run trust fund instead of the students' own Student Activities Fund office, which it said state auditing rules required. When the trust fund paid for residence college parties but held up the Daily Tar Heel's printing bill on February 5, the editor charged 'financial censorship' and student government froze its funds, until Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson ordered on February 9 that all properly signed student requisitions be honored and promised no veto over student spending. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, William C. Friday, Tom Bello Place: South Building and Carolina Union, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 10, 1971, p. 1
  2. Washington Witness II takes UNC students and faculty to Congress to press for an end to the war About 85 UNC students and faculty, with some 40 others from across the state, rode three chartered buses from Chapel Hill to Washington to urge members of Congress to back the Vietnam Disengagement Act of 1971. The group, organized by faculty and students through the YMCA and other campus groups, met Sen. Hubert Humphrey and Representatives Earl Ruth and Richardson Preyer and aides to several senators. People: Tom Bello, Howard N. Lee Place: Morehead Planetarium, Chapel Hill, to Washington, D.C. · Also named: Richardson Preyer · Also mentions: YMCAThe Daily Tar Heel, February 24, 1971, p. 1

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

  • Memorial Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
  • Polk Place University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
  • South Building University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here

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People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Tom Bello, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Background on UNC’s student strike against the Vietnam War, May 1970

Background reading on UNC’s student strike against the Vietnam War, May 1970. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss Tom Bello. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Oral history interview with Sharon Rose Powell, June 20, 1989: interview L-0041, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Powell, Sharon Rose · 2008 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Sharon Rose Powell (born 1947) began at UNC as a freshman in autumn 1964, when women were only about a tenth of the entering class. Interviewed by Pamela Dean in June 1989, she recalls campus life for women students in the mid-1960s, the sexism she met in higher education, the student movements of the decade, and her own path toward feminism and women's rights work. About two hours and ten minutes; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2008, through Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

I raised my hand to volunteer: students protest in 1960s Chapel Hill : an exhibit of the Manuscripts Department in the Wilson Library

Hollingsworth, Biff · 2007

Catalog of an exhibit mounted by the Manuscripts Department of Wilson Library from January 23 to May 31, 2007, on student protest in Chapel Hill during the 1960s. Topics include civil rights demonstrations, the Speaker Ban Law, the Black Student Movement, restaurant strikes and Vietnam War protests at the university. Compiled by Biff Hollingsworth, 59 pages with illustrations and facsimiles, published by the university library.

NC Cardinal UNC Duke Library of Congress CH Historical Society

Oral history interview with Anne Queen, November 22, 1976: interview G-0049-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Queen, Anne · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Second of two Southern Oral History Program interviews with Anne Queen (1911-2005), who came to Chapel Hill after years as an industrial worker and went on to direct the Campus YWCA-YMCA, a center of student activism. Recorded November 22, 1976, by Joseph Herzenberg, this hour-long conversation covers how Queen saw politics in the South and the nation change through the mid-twentieth century, and student political activity at UNC. Published online in 2007 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, February 22, 2001: interview K-0215, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Pollitt, Daniel H. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

A separate interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, recorded February 22, 2001, by David Potorti for the Southern Oral History Program, 75 minutes long. Pollitt traces his liberal convictions on race and religion to a family of ministers, soldiers and lawyers, describes clerking for an appeals court judge, and recounts his part in the civil rights movement in Chapel Hill: opposition to local segregation, school integration in North Carolina, and student movements at the university. Published online in 2007 in Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, November 19, 1990: interview L-0048, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Pollitt, Daniel H. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Law professor Daniel H. Pollitt remembers Anne Queen (1911-2005), director of UNC's Campus Y, in a Southern Oral History Program interview recorded November 19, 1990, by Cindy Cheatham. Queen's commitment to social justice matched Pollitt's own work for racial equality and support of student activists, and he describes her Campus Y as the place where students concerned with civil rights in segregated Chapel Hill gathered and learned to organize. Published online in 2007 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with William C. Friday, December 18, 1990: interview L-0049, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Friday, William C. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

William C. Friday, UNC system president from 1957 until 1986, was interviewed by Cindy Cheatham in December 1990 about Anne Queen (1911-2005). Queen came to the campus YWCA as associate director in 1956 and led the merged YMCA-YWCA from 1964 to 1975. Friday recalls working with her through the years of student political activity in Chapel Hill and reflects on the place of the Y in university life. About forty minutes; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2007, through Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC
Show 6 more

Icons of Power and Landscapes of Protest

Roseboro, Donyell L. · 2005

Donyell L. Roseboro's 2005 doctoral dissertation on the student movement for the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It examines African American student activism and student organizations on the Chapel Hill campus. A typescript of 307 leaves with illustrations, distributed through UMI.

UNC

Progress and protests : UNC-Chapel Hill leaders during "the Long Sixties" (1957-1972) : covering chancellors William Brantley Aycock, Paul F. Sharp, and J. Carlyle Sitterson

Roundtree, Lynn · 2024 · Lynn Roundtree

Lynn Roundtree covers the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between 1957 and 1972 through its three chancellors, William Brantley Aycock, Paul F. Sharp and J. Carlyle Sitterson, set against the student movements of those years. Part of the Coates university leadership series, published by the author in 2024 and running to 926 pages. It is twentieth century campus history.

UNC

I raised my hand to volunteer : students protest in 1960s Chapel Hill.

2007 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Account of student protest in 1960s Chapel Hill, published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007 with illustrations. It draws together the civil rights movement and segregation in the town, discrimination in restaurants, academic freedom and university autonomy, protest against the Vietnam War, Students for a Democratic Society and the Black Student Movement on campus.

UNC

Red state, blue heaven : the conservative student movement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

David, Eric M. · 2005

Eric M. David reports on the conservative student movement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, written in 2005 for a committee of Chris Roush as advisor with Ferrel Guillory and Thad Beyle. It examines student movements and political activity. Sixty leaves with three preliminary pages.

UNC

Left turn : the Carolina journal of radical thought.

2001

Left turn, a journal of radical thought published by students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2001, documenting campus political writing and student movements.

UNC

Caution and candor : the student movement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1929-1940

Donovan, Sarah Elizabeth · 1998

Sarah Elizabeth Donovan's study of student political activity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between 1929 and 1940, written in 1998. Eighty two leaves with a bibliography at the end. The period she covers runs from the start of the Depression to the eve of American entry into the Second World War.

UNC

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