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Henry P. Brandis Jr.

Henry P. Brandis Jr. (1909–1989), a Salisbury native, was the first full-time staff member of the university's Institute of Government and joined the UNC law faculty in 1940. He was dean of the law school from 1949 to 1964 and retired in 1972.

Source: The Carolina Story: Henry P. Brandis, Jr. (1909-1989)

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

Browse all 42 works on School desegregation in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, 1954–1970 Research sources View background reading ↓

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 12 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Henry P. Brandis Jr. becomes the Institute of Government's first associate director Paid from the Cone pledges at $50 a week, Brandis, a Salisbury native with a Columbia law degree, left a New York firm and went straight to Raleigh to follow the General Assembly and digest its new laws. He was later dean of the UNC law school. People: Albert Coates, Henry P. Brandis Jr. Place: Institute of Government, Chapel Hill; General Assembly, RaleighSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 130
  2. The Institute of Government publishes its digest of the 1933 laws and its first guidebook, for clerks of court Henry Brandis's summary of the laws passed by the 1933 General Assembly came out as an issue of Popular Government, followed by a guidebook written for clerks of court. Covington treats them as the Institute's first substantial publications that local officials could use in their daily work. People: Henry P. Brandis Jr. Place: Institute of Government, Chapel Hill · Also named: Henry BrandisSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 144
  3. The Institute of Government publishes a study of the proposed state constitution The Institute of Government issued a 126-page book, The Proposed Constitution for North Carolina, by Dillard S. Gardner with Henry P. Brandis Jr. and T. N. Grice under Albert Coates, comparing the proposed document with past constitutions and setting out advocates' and opponents' arguments without taking a side, ahead of the November vote. People: Henry P. Brandis Jr., Albert Coates Place: Institute of Government, Chapel Hill · Also named: Dillard S. Gardner, T. N. GriceSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 13, 1934, p. 1
  4. Institute of Government staff begin daily bulletins on the General Assembly From rented offices in the Raleigh Building, Brandis, Dillard Gardner and T. N. Grice followed every bill of the 1935 session from the gallery and put a bulletin of the day's action on each member's desk by the next morning. A weekly digest of statewide bills went to every newspaper in the state, so local officials learned of bills before they became law. People: Albert Coates, Henry P. Brandis Jr. Place: General Assembly, Raleigh · Also named: Dillard Gardner, T. N. Grice Jr., T. N. GriceSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 154
  5. With its money gone, the Institute's first staff leave for state jobs By 1938 the Cone gifts were spent and the staff had gone weeks without pay. Brandis became research director of the State Tax Commission, Dillard Gardner joined the state supreme court staff and Grice the state auditor's office, while two young assistants stayed on at reduced pay; the last regular monthly Popular Government went out in January 1938. People: Albert Coates, Henry P. Brandis Jr. Place: Institute of Government, Chapel Hill · Also named: Dillard Gardner, T. N. Grice Jr.Search the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 176
  6. Henry P. Brandis Jr. joins the UNC law faculty After two state tax posts, Brandis, the Institute of Government's first full-time staff member, joined the university's law school faculty in 1940 as assistant professor of law, succeeding Donald W. Markham, and began teaching in the week of January 29. He became its dean in 1949 and a Graham Kenan Professor of Law in 1965, and retired in 1972. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Carolina Story: Henry P. Brandis, Jr. (1909-1989) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, February 2, 1940, p. 5
  7. Henry Brandis becomes dean of the UNC law school Brandis, the Institute's first associate director, was promoted from professor of law to dean in 1949. Under him the law school and the Institute drew closer, with Institute staff teaching Coates's classes when he was away. People: Henry P. Brandis Jr. Place: School of Law (Manning Hall), UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 218
  8. Dean Brandis handles the applications of Pauli Murray and three other Black students to the law school After the trustees left admissions to each professional school's dean, Brandis wrote Chancellor R. B. House about four Black applicants, Pauli Murray, J. Kenneth Lee, Harvey E. Beech and William C. Chance Jr., and on June 6 told Murray the school offered no graduate law courses. The UNC Libraries exhibit reads these letters as showing the law school resisting integration. People: Pauli Murray, R. B. House, J. Kenneth Lee, Harvey E. Beech Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: William C. Chance Jr. · Also mentions: UNC LibrariesSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, 1951: Murray inquiry about law school admissions
  9. Chapel Hill school board refuses Stanley Vickers a transfer to all-white Carrboro Elementary and adopts a first-grade proximity policy The Chapel Hill City Board of Education denied ten-year-old Stanley Vickers a transfer from all-Black Northside Elementary to the nearer all-white Carrboro Elementary School, and at the same meeting adopted a policy of limited integration at the first-grade level starting with the 1960-61 year. UNC law dean Henry Brandis, who had twice moved to approve the transfer, resigned from the board in protest and called the action both morally and legally indefensible. People: Stanley Vickers, Henry P. Brandis Jr. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Thomas Lee Vickers, Lattice Vickers, Henry Brandis · Also mentions: Carrboro Elementary SchoolThe Chapel Hill Weekly, August 6, 1959, p. 1 · Also: Justia: Vickers v. Chapel Hill City Board of Education, 196 F. Supp. 97
  10. Brandis returns for the Vickers hearing, then leaves the Chapel Hill school board Brandis withdrew his August 3 resignation so he could sit at the board's hearing on Stanley Vickers's transfer request on August 31. He resigned again after that meeting, and the board named a committee to find his successor. People: Stanley Vickers Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 31, 1959, p. 1
  11. J. Walter Clark Jr. of Carrboro is elected to the Chapel Hill school board in Henry Brandis's seat The board chose J. Walter Clark Jr., past chairman of the Carrboro School Advisory Committee, to fill the place Henry P. Brandis Jr. gave up after the board again refused Stanley Vickers a transfer. Under board policy he was to serve until the next district election; he was sworn in on October 5. People: Henry P. Brandis Jr. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: J. Walter Clark Jr., Stanley VickersThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 17, 1959, p. 8
  12. Law dean Henry Brandis Jr. turns down Albert Coates's last appeal for a merger Coates sent Dean Henry Brandis Jr. a pleading letter with thirty-nine pages of enclosures urging that the Institute become part of the law school. Brandis refused to reopen the question and said that once Coates returned to full-time teaching, Institute staff would no longer teach his courses, since their part had weakened the school's instruction. People: Albert Coates, Henry P. Brandis Jr. Place: School of Law, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Henry Brandis Jr.Search the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), pp. 262-263

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 the 4 with a known location.

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.

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People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Henry P. Brandis Jr., 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 School desegregation in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, 1954–1970

Background reading on School desegregation in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, 1954–1970. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss Henry P. Brandis Jr.. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Oral history interview with Charlene Regester, February 23, 2001: interview K-0216, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Regester, Charlene B. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Charlene Regester (born 1956) recalls being one of the first Black children to attend Chapel Hill's white elementary schools, in a Southern Oral History Program interview recorded February 23, 2001, by Susan Upton. Her parents, convinced that integrated schools would give Black children better resources, petitioned for her transfer to Estes Hills Elementary, then all white, and Regester describes what those years were like for her. About 45 minutes. Published online in 2007 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Fran Jackson, March 23, 2001: interview K-0208, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Jackson, Fran · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Fran Jackson recalls school integration in Chapel Hill as a student in a Southern Oral History Program interview recorded March 23, 2001, by Christa Broadnax. Jackson began at Northside Elementary and moved to Guy B. Phillips, the integrated junior high, after her parents petitioned for the transfer. She explains that Black parents backed integration because it promised their children the resources the white schools had, and describes what the change meant socially for Black students. Published online in 2007 in Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Sam Holton, March 28, 2001: interview K-0206, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Holton, Samuel M. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Samuel M. Holton (1922-2010) sat on Chapel Hill's school board during desegregation. Elected in 1968 after a term as PTA president, he took office as racial tension rose after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Talking with Jenny Matthews in March 2001, he describes the board's decisions on integrating the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and the conflicts that came with them. Runs about eighty minutes; electronic edition issued by the UNC library in 2007 through Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Black Freedom and the University of North Carolina, 1793-1960

Chapman, John K. · 2006 · John K. (Yonni) Chapman

John K. Chapman's 2006 study of race at UNC from 1793 to 1960, issued by the author. Chapman argues that standard university histories play down the institution's role in upholding white supremacy through slavery, Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era, and that they leave out what African Americans contributed to the campus. It also covers segregation in education and the social conditions of Black residents of Chapel Hill across two centuries. 215 pages with maps.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Burnis Hackney, February 5, 2001: interview K-0547, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Hackney, Burnis · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Burnis Hackney entered Chapel Hill High School, newly integrated, in 1966, one of the first Black students there after Lincoln High School closed. In this Southern Oral History Program interview, recorded February 5, 2001, by Bob Gilgor, Hackney weighs his conviction that integration was right against what was lost when Lincoln's traditions were set aside, and how the merger played out for students. About an hour and a half. Published online in 2006 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Fred Battle, January 3, 2001: interview K-0525, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Battle, Fred · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Fred Battle grew up in Chapel Hill under segregation and describes that world in a Southern Oral History Program interview recorded January 3, 2001, by Bob Gilgor. He portrays the Black community of his youth as centered on the church and on Lincoln High School, recalls his schooling there, and tells of his college years in Greensboro and the civil rights demonstrations he joined there. Published online in 2006 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC
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Oral history interview with Gloria Register Jeter, December 23, 2000: interview K-0549, Southern Oral History Program (#4007)

Jeter, Gloria Register · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Gloria Register Jeter (born 1952) attended both segregated and integrated public schools of Chapel Hill and offers a critical view of how desegregation was carried out, in a Southern Oral History Program interview recorded December 23, 2000, by Bob Gilgor. Jeter argues that the merger of Lincoln High School into Chapel Hill High School cost the Black community its school traditions and institutions, and describes the student protests that followed. Published online in 2006 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with James Atwater, February 28, 2001: interview K-0201, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Atwater, James · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

James Atwater, born in 1932 into a family that had lived in Chapel Hill for generations, talked with Jennifer Nardone in February 2001. He describes the town's Black community between the 1930s and the 1950s: how neighbors dealt with one another in church, at school and in social life, and what schooling under segregation meant at Orange County Training School and Lincoln High School. About an hour and eighteen minutes; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2006, through Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Joanne Peerman, February 24, 2001: interview K-0557, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Peerman, Joanne · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Joanne Peerman, a Chapel Hill native and the daughter of a well-known coach, was in one of the first classes to integrate Chapel Hill High School. In this Southern Oral History Program interview, recorded by Bob Gilgor in February 2001, she describes her schooling under segregation and after it, the last years of Lincoln High School, and the civil rights demonstrations that accompanied school integration. About an hour and a half; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2006, through Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Kathryn Cheeks, March 27, 2003: interview K-0203, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Cheeks, Kathryn · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

A short interview, about thirty-one minutes, with Kathryn Cheeks, a white woman from Chapel Hill who attended elementary school while the town's public schools were desegregating. Talking with Susan Upton in March 2003, she recalls what a child noticed and missed about desegregation, race relations at Chapel Hill High School, and the civil rights demonstrations of the period. Part of the Southern Oral History Program; electronic edition issued by the UNC library in 2006 through Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Raney Norwood, January 9, 2001: interview K-0556, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Norwood, Raney · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Raney Norwood was among the African American students who moved from Lincoln High School to the newly desegregated Chapel Hill High School. Interviewed by Bob Gilgor in January 2001, he recalls the traditions left behind at Lincoln, a hard first year at the new school, and the nonviolent protests students mounted to carry those traditions over. An Upward Bound math-science program also comes up. Runs about an hour and three quarters; electronic edition issued by the UNC library in 2006 through Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Rebecca Clark, June 21, 2000: interview K-0536, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Clark, Rebecca · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Interview recorded June 21, 2000 with Rebecca Clark (1915-2009), a Black Chapel Hill resident, for the Southern Oral History Program at UNC. Clark, educated in Chapel Hill's segregated schools, describes working life under segregation and the economic discrimination she met in it. Topics also include Lincoln High School, school integration, and Howard Lee, elected mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969. Interview K-0536 in collection #4007.

NC Cardinal UNC

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