Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Figure in a named event

Paul Dickson III

Paul Dickson III was UNC student body president in March 1966, when he and other student leaders invited the banned speakers Herbert Aptheker and Frank Wilkinson to Chapel Hill. After the students were prevented from holding the talks on campus, they filed the lawsuit that overturned the Speaker Ban in 1968.

Source: Documenting the American South: Speaker Ban Monument, UNC (Chapel Hill)

Also found in catalogs as Paul Dickson.

2 works about Paul Dickson III are indexed here.

Search these 2 works Research sources View indexed works ↓
Paul Dickson III, Yackety Yack, 1966
Paul Dickson III, Yackety Yack, 1966

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 16 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Bob Powell is named executive director of the Carolina Forum The Daily Tar Heel's list of student government appointments made by Student Body President Paul Dickson gives Bob Powell as executive director of the Carolina Forum for the 1965-66 year. People: Paul Dickson IIISearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 3, 1965, p. 3
  2. Medford is named to the student government State Affairs committee Student Body President Paul Dickson's committee appointments, printed in the Daily Tar Heel, put Jim Medford on the State Affairs committee along with Henry Patterson and Taylor Branch. People: Paul Dickson IIISearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 3, 1965, p. 3
  3. 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
  4. 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)
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. Barred from Carroll Hall, Frank Wilkinson speaks to about 350 people at the Hillel House That evening campus security officer Arthur Beaumont, acting on the chancellor's orders, kept Wilkinson, Paul Dickson and about 200 students out of Carroll Hall, and the group moved to the Hillel House on Cameron Avenue, where almost 350 people heard Wilkinson speak on HUAC. He told them a test case with several plaintiffs would be prepared at once. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Paul Dickson IIISearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 3, 1966, p. 1
  9. Barred from campus by the Speaker Ban, Frank Wilkinson addressed UNC students from the Chapel Hill side of the wall After Acting Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson refused him campus speaking privileges, Frank Wilkinson spoke for about 10 minutes from the Franklin Street sidewalk while about 1,200 students and faculty stood across the low stone wall on McCorkle Place. Student body president Paul Dickson introduced him and predicted a court case. People: Frank Wilkinson, J. Carlyle Sitterson, Paul Dickson IIIThe Daily Tar Heel, March 3, 1966, p. 1
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. Student leaders ask the chancellor to let Wilkinson and Aptheker speak on campus Paul Dickson and the heads of Carolina Forum, the YMCA, the YWCA, Di-Phi, the Carolina Political Union and SDS wrote to Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson asking that Wilkinson speak on March 23 and Aptheker on March 25, or on later dates. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Paul Dickson III, George E. Nicholson III, Robert S. Powell Jr., James A. Medford, Eunice H. Milton, John E. Greenbacker Jr., Eric Van Loon, Gary Waller, Stuart MatthewsUNC Libraries: Letter, Students to Chancellor J.C. Sitterson, 14 March 1966
Show all 16 dated events
  1. 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
  2. Chancellor Sitterson makes student leaders erase a taped meeting The Daily Tar Heel reported that Paul Dickson, Eric Van Loon and George Nicholson met Acting Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson in his office for about thirty minutes, and that Van Loon carried a tape recorder. When Sitterson found the conversation was being recorded he made them play the tape back and erase it, saying it upset him that they had not mentioned it. People: Paul Dickson III, George E. Nicholson III, J. Carlyle SittersonSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 13, 1966, p. 1
  3. A three-judge federal court hears arguments in Dickson v. Sitterson at Greensboro Judges Clement F. Haynsworth, Edwin M. Stanley and Algernon L. Butler heard 45 minutes a side in the U.S. Middle District courtroom. McNeill Smith called the law vague, ambiguous, unconstitutional and void on its face; W. T. Joyner Sr. answered for the University that the 1965 amendment had abolished the original ban. The court then held the case under advisement for a year. People: Paul Dickson IIIThe Daily Tar Heel, February 22, 1967, p. 1
  4. 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

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Paul Dickson III, 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.

Indexed works

Works about or by Paul Dickson III. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Newspaper clippings (1965-1966) on the tenure of Paul Dickson as UNC student body president

2011

Newspaper clippings from 1965 and 1966 about Paul Dickson's term as student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, gathered on thirty unnumbered leaves with portraits and organized for the North Carolina Collection in December 2011. Topics include the North Carolina Speaker Ban Law, academic freedom, student government in Chapel Hill and the university honor system.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Dickson, Paul, -1972.

UNC

Student making a poster that reads "Why Was Paul Dickson Banned From Speaking?", March 6, 1966

News and observer (Raleigh, N.C.) · 1966

News and Observer negative from 6 March 1966 of a Chapel Hill student lettering a poster that asks 'Why Was Paul Dickson Banned From Speaking?' Dickson was student body president at the university during the fight over the 1963 Speaker Ban Law, which barred known Communists and others from speaking on public campuses.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

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 5 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.

All places and the county map →

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this person. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further. Research guide: Trace a family through historical records.

Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Paul Dickson III Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

Local help

Search further

Search other catalogs and collections for this name. Results may include other people with the same name and have not been reviewed by the Friends.

Books about Paul Dickson III

Find copies at other libraries

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Catalog searches use the catalog name heading: Dickson, Paul, -1972. Historical-record searches use the person’s name and may include namesakes. Links open in a new tab.

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

Picture: Paul Dickson III, Yackety Yack, 1966. Public domain. Yackety Yack, 1966 (University of North Carolina yearbook); via the Internet Archive

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026