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Preston Dobbins

Preston Dobbins was a UNC student who in 1967 moved to replace the campus NAACP chapter with the Black Student Movement and was elected its first chairman. The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in April 1968, he led a march through downtown Chapel Hill. During the 1969 food workers' strike, which BSM members backed, he led students through Lenoir Hall on March 3 overturning tables and chairs.

Source: The Daily Tar Heel, April 6, 1968

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

Browse all 50 works on UNC food workers’ and housekeepers’ struggles, 1969 to 1996 Research sources View background reading ↓

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

StorylineChapel Hill after the killing of Martin Luther King Jr., April 19681968 · 11 events · The morning after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in April 1968, Black students held a memorial service in Polk Place and marched through downtown Chapel Hill, where Confederate flags were burned. The mayor proclaimed a period of mourning, police asked merchants to close early, and more than 200 people stood in a silent vigil on Franklin Street. On April 7 about 600 people marched from Y Court to a community service at First Baptist Church, and about 2,000 attended a University service the next day. The Black Student Movement asked Black employees to stay home on the day of the funeral, and in May the Faculty Council took up a proposed King memorial committee on educational opportunity. StorylineThe Black Student Movement’s demands, 1968–19691968–1969 · 16 events · In December 1968 the Black Student Movement presented 23 demands to Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson, among them special admissions, an Afro-American studies department, a dean of Black students and better treatment of nonacademic workers. The Faculty Council recommended steps toward recruiting Black students, and in January 1969 Sitterson answered that the University could not give unique treatment to any race. Marches through South Building and down Franklin Street followed, and on February 19 Sitterson recognized the BSM as an official organization. In April a faculty committee proposed 23 courses in Black studies, and UNC began its Afro-American Studies curriculum in 1969.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 19 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Black students found the Black Student Movement On the night of November 9, 1967, Black students dissatisfied with the campus NAACP chapter formed the Black Student Movement, with Preston Dobbins as temporary chairman. After the Student Legislature, having delayed a month and a half, voted 18 to 16 on November 14 against spending $820 of student fees to recruit Black students, more than 50 Black students came to the group's first organizational meeting the next night, elected Dobbins chairman and a five-member central committee, and named a committee to draw up a petition on recruitment. The group said it would work alongside the NAACP chapter rather than replace it. Its first goals were a Black history course taught by a Black professor, student-fee funding and more Black faculty. People: Preston Dobbins Place: University, Chapel HillBlack Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 28, 1985, p. 8 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, November 12, 1967, p. 2; The Daily Tar Heel, November 15, 1967, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, November 17, 1967, p. 1
  2. Black Student Movement marches again and burns an effigy of Gov. Robert McNair About 100 marchers, mostly members of the Black Student Movement with about 40 white supporters, made a second march through downtown Chapel Hill to protest the killing of three students at Orangeburg, South Carolina, and burned an effigy of South Carolina Gov. Robert McNair on the post office steps. Chapel Hill police guarded the route and there were no incidents; chairman Preston Dobbins announced a fund and food drive to support a Black boycott of Orangeburg stores. People: Preston Dobbins Place: Y Court, Franklin Street and the post office steps, Chapel Hill · Also named: Robert McNairThe Daily Tar Heel, February 17, 1968, p. 1
  3. Black students hold a memorial service for Martin Luther King Jr. in Polk Place On the morning after King's assassination, about 60 members of the Black Student Movement held a memorial service in Polk Place led by three Chapel Hill ministers, among them the Rev. John Manley of First Baptist Church, while about 200 white students looked on. At a meeting in Gerrard Hall afterward, BSM chairman Preston Dobbins told the students the killing would be the last of a Black man without a violent reaction, the Daily Tar Heel reported. People: Preston Dobbins Place: Polk Place, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: John Manley · Also mentions: Gerrard HallThe Daily Tar Heel, April 6, 1968, p. 1
  4. Black students march through downtown Chapel Hill the day after Martin Luther King Jr. is killed Led by Preston Dobbins of the Black Student Movement, Black students marched through the downtown stores in sympathy for King and in protest of his assassination. The march ended with the burning of several Confederate flags on Franklin Street and outside the Kappa Alpha house. People: Martin Luther King Jr., Preston Dobbins Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Franklin StreetSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 6, 1968, p. 1
  5. Chancellor Sitterson lets non-academic employees take a half day off on the day of King's funeral Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson approved a request that University non-academic employees who wished could take a half day off on Tuesday, April 9, without its counting against vacation or leave. BSM chairman Preston Dobbins called the gesture meaningless; the BSM's own walkout that day closed every dining hall but Lenoir, the Daily Tar Heel reported. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Preston Dobbins Place: UNC, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, April 9, 1968, p. 1
  6. Black Student Movement calls on Black students and university workers to stay away in mourning for King The Black Student Movement handed sheets to Black university employees asking them to stay home on April 9 in mourning for Martin Luther King Jr., saying the university had done too little to honor him. Chancellor Sitterson let non-academic employees who wished it take a half day off. People: Martin Luther King Jr., J. Carlyle Sitterson, Preston Dobbins Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 9, 1968, p. 1
  7. Stokely Carmichael speaks in Carmichael Auditorium at the Black Student Movement's invitation Black Panther prime minister Stokely Carmichael, brought by the Black Student Movement, spoke to about 6,500 people on "revolutionary violence," liberalism and capitalism. The state American Party had passed a resolution censuring the University for letting him speak, and BSM chairman Preston Dobbins later said a misunderstanding over charging admission cost the movement money it meant for its tutoring work in Black Chapel Hill and Carrboro. People: Stokely Carmichael, Preston Dobbins Place: Carmichael Auditorium, University, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, November 22, 1968, p. 1
  8. The BSM presents 23 demands to the chancellor's office A BSM delegation delivered a five-page list of 23 demands for Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson to his assistant Claiborne Jones, charging that UNC denied equal opportunity to Black people. The Daily Tar Heel named Central Committee member Juan Cofield as presenting the document and said a rough draft had reached Sitterson the night before; Black Ink's 1985 account names chairman Preston Dobbins. They asked for special admissions for Black students, an African and Afro-American Studies department, a dean of Black students, Black members on the admissions board, BSM funding and better treatment of nonacademic workers. People: Preston Dobbins, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: South Building, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Juan Cofield, Claiborne JonesBlack Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 28, 1985, p. 1 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, December 12, 1968, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, December 13, 1968, p. 1
  9. Forty Black students go to South Building to press the chancellor on their demands About forty Black students went into South Building for about 30 minutes and asked to hear from Chancellor Sitterson about the BSM's 23 demands. His assistant Claiborne Jones and Dean of Student Affairs C. O. Cathey met them instead, and chairman Preston Dobbins said the students would show the chancellor the demands were urgent. People: Preston Dobbins, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: South Building, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Claiborne Jones, C. O. CatheyBlack Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 28, 1985, p. 8 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, December 14, 1968, p. 1
  10. A Black Student Movement delegation that includes Charlie Scott presses Sitterson with three new demands Six BSM members, among them basketball star Charlie Scott and BSM chairman Preston Dobbins, met Chancellor Sitterson and asked him to recognize the BSM, to recognize its right to make demands and to stop using white mediators on Black problems. At a Gerrard Hall rally of about 150 afterward, a member warned that BSM tactics would turn from reform to revolutionary if he did not act by Friday. People: Preston Dobbins, Charlie Scott, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: South Building and Gerrard Hall, University, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Gerrard HallThe Daily Tar Heel, February 19, 1969, p. 1
  11. The Black Student Movement withdraws from the student courts and sets up its own Saying the University had not acted on its demand for Black members on the student courts, the BSM declared that its members were no longer bound by the student judiciary and would answer for honor and campus code charges only to a court it set up. Seventy-six Black students signed; the BSM court held its first trial on March 3 and acquitted a student charged with copying an exam. People: Preston Dobbins Place: University, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, February 23, 1969, p. 1
  12. UNC food workers' strike On February 23, 1969 food service workers at UNC's Lenoir Hall left their counters and sat down at the cafeteria tables, and by the next morning nearly 100 dining hall employees had refused to report for work. The strike ended on March 21 when the University agreed to raise the hourly minimum from $1.60 to $1.80, pay roughly $180,000 in back wages, and appoint a Black supervisor. People: Mary Smith, Elizabeth Brooks, J. Carlyle Sitterson, Robert W. Scott, Julius L. Chambers, Preston Dobbins Place: Chapel HillUNC Libraries: Foodworkers' Strike, I Raised My Hand To Volunteer · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, February 25, 1969, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, March 22, 1969, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, February 2, 1976, p. 6; The Daily Tar Heel, April 29, 1982, p. 5; The Daily Tar Heel, February 22, 1985, p. 1
Show all 19 dated events
  1. Lenoir Hall workers join the Pine Room walkout and the BSM calls a student boycott A day after 17 Pine Room employees stopped work, 25 Lenoir Hall workers joined them, leaving Lenoir on self-service. More than 40 workers, most of them Black, met four University officials for two and a half hours in Lenoir's north dining room without settling their grievances, and BSM co-chairman Preston Dobbins called on students to boycott every University Food Service dining hall. People: Preston Dobbins Place: Lenoir Hall, University, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, February 25, 1969, p. 1
  2. A bomb threat empties the Carolina Union during a strike strategy meeting A telephoned bomb threat at 1:19 p.m. led campus police to clear the Carolina Union during a strategy session of about 450 supporters of the food workers; no bomb was found. The meeting moved to Manning Hall, where BSM co-chairman Preston Dobbins urged the crowd to avoid any clash with the police. People: Preston Dobbins Place: Carolina Union, University, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Manning HallThe Daily Tar Heel, March 8, 1969, p. 1
  3. Students hold an all-day vigil in Polk Place for the striking food workers Up to 500 people gathered in Polk Place on March 17 in support of the striking University food workers; about 300 wrote to Governor Bob Scott and their legislators at tables set up by student government, and Representatives Jim Beatty and Skipper Bowles came to talk with them. The vigil went on the next day but moved into Gerrard Hall in the rain and fell to about 50. People: Preston Dobbins Place: Polk Place, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Jim Beatty, Hargrove Bowles Jr., Bob Scott · Also mentions: Gerrard HallThe Daily Tar Heel, March 18, 1969, p. 1
  4. Students and some faculty strike classes in support of the food workers At the striking food workers' request, a strike of classes began on March 19 with about 60 pickets at Saunders, Murphey and Bingham halls and about 200 people in Polk Place; the Daily Tar Heel said about 30 Chapel Hill High School students joined the first day. Turnout stayed small, though some faculty taught in Polk Place and strikers held 'liberation' classes on March 21. People: Elizabeth Brooks, Preston Dobbins Place: Polk Place, University, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel Hill High SchoolThe Daily Tar Heel, March 20, 1969, p. 1
  5. A Polk Place rally learns that Governor Scott has ordered a $1.80 minimum wage for state workers As about 500 people gathered in Polk Place for a rally with Durham activist Howard Fuller, workers' association officer Amy Lyons announced that Governor Bob Scott had ordered a minimum of $1.80 an hour for state employees from April 1, the strikers' chief demand. Fuller and BSM co-chairman Preston Dobbins told the crowd the Black Student Movement's own demands were still unmet. People: Robert W. Scott, Preston Dobbins Place: Polk Place, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Howard Fuller, Amy Lyons, Bob ScottThe Daily Tar Heel, March 22, 1969, p. 1
  6. Hillsborough police arrest about 17 Black demonstrators, among them two Black Student Movement leaders, near the courthouse About 17 Black demonstrators, among them Black Student Movement leaders Preston Dobbins and Jack McLean, were arrested in Hillsborough and charged with parading or demonstrating without a license after they refused an order to take off signs reading "White Racist Society." McLean said the group had gone to a centennial celebration at the courthouse, was asked to leave, and was arrested about 2:15 p.m. in front of a drugstore across the street; on April 28 the district court case was put off two weeks at the defense lawyer's request. People: Preston Dobbins Place: Orange County Courthouse and a drugstore across the street, Hillsborough · Also named: Jack McLeanThe Daily Tar Heel, April 30, 1969, p. 5
  7. UNC refuses to let two Black Student Movement leaders work in Upward Bound Provost Charles J. Morrow refused to approve the hiring of Preston Dobbins and Jack McLean, whom director Bob Bourdeaux had hired for the Upward Bound summer tutorial program for Black high school students, citing penalties both had received over an incident in Lenoir Hall during the cafeteria strike. Dobbins and McLean said the real reason was the University's fear of their year-long work with the same students in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough. People: Preston Dobbins Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Charles J. Morrow, Bob Bourdeaux, Jack McLean · Also mentions: Lenoir HallThe Daily Tar Heel, June 12, 1969, p. 1

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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.

  • Lenoir Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 2 events here
  • South Building University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 2 events here

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People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Preston Dobbins, 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 food workers’ and housekeepers’ struggles, 1969 to 1996

Background reading on UNC food workers’ and housekeepers’ struggles, 1969 to 1996. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss Preston Dobbins. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, March 21-22, 1991: interview L-0064-6, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Pollitt, Daniel H. · 2008 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Sixth Pollitt interview, recorded March 21 and 22, 1991, by Ann McColl, about an hour long. Its single subject is the 1969 strike by food service workers at UNC, which Pollitt supported. He sets the strike in its local and national context, the labor and civil rights currents of the late 1960s, then follows how it unfolded among the workers, their union backers, the faculty and the university administration. Published online in 2008 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in 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 Ashley Davis, April 12, 1974: interview E-0062, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Davis, Ashley · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Ashley Davis, who entered UNC in 1968 and joined the Black Student Movement, recalls the 1969 strike by the university's cafeteria workers and the BSM's decision to stand with them when the workers asked. Recorded April 12, 1974, by Russell Rymer for the Southern Oral History Program, the hour-and-a-half interview touches on Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson, the Southern Student Organizing Committee and race relations among students on campus. 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

Oral history interview with William C. Friday, November 26, 1990: interview L-0145, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

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

In this session with William Link, recorded in November 1990, William C. Friday concentrates on the Speaker Ban Law. The 1963 law barred Communists and certain others from speaking on state campuses, and Friday, as UNC system president, spent five years working to undo it. He discusses the law's origins, the fight over academic freedom and free speech at Chapel Hill, and relations between the university and the state. About eighty minutes; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2007, through Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Elizabeth Brooks, October 2, 1974: interview E-0058, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Brooks, Elizabeth · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Elizabeth Brooks, a cafeteria worker at UNC and a leader of the 1969 food workers' strike, speaks in a Southern Oral History Program interview recorded October 2, 1974, by Beverly Jones. Born in Caswell County, Brooks had made her home in Hillsborough since 1949 and raised nine children before her first paid job, at the university. She describes the strike, the Black Student Movement's support for the workers, and the response of Governor Robert W. Scott. Published online in 2006 in Documenting the American South.

NC Cardinal UNC
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It Wasn't Slavery Time Anymore: Foodworkers' Strike at Chapel Hill, Spring 1969

Williams, J. Derek · 1979

J. Derek Williams's 1979 study of the 1969 strike by cafeteria workers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, examining a chapter in the university's labor and Black history. A typescript of 270 leaves with a bibliography.

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

20th anniversary of the historic UNC housekeepers' agreement.

2016 · The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History

Commemorative booklet from the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History marking twenty years since the UNC housekeepers' agreement. Sixteen unnumbered pages with illustrations, facsimiles and portraits, published at Chapel Hill in 2016. Topics include the UNC Housekeepers Association, labor unions among housekeepers, and discrimination in employment at the university.

UNC

Oral history interview with Bob Scott, April 4, 1990 interview L-0193, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).

Scott, Robert Walter · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Robert W. Scott (1929-2009), North Carolina's governor between 1969 and 1973 and son of Governor Kerr Scott, interviewed by William Link on April 4, 1990 for the Southern Oral History Program. Scott discusses his student years at North Carolina State College in the early 1950s and his dealings with university president William Friday, including the food workers' strike at Chapel Hill, college integration, and the consolidation of the state's universities into the UNC System during his term. One hour thirty-seven minutes. Electronic edition 2007.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Joseph Califano, April 5, 1991

Califano, Joseph A. · 2007

An interview from April 5, 1991, published in 2007, with Joseph A. Califano, Jr., who led the federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The conversation covers college integration in North Carolina, federal and state controversies over it, and the dispute between the Office for Civil Rights and the university system that William Friday directed from Chapel Hill.

NC Cardinal

Oral history interview with Julius L. Chambers, June 18, 1990

Chambers, Julius L. · 2007

Julius L. Chambers, the attorney and later university administrator, interviewed on June 18, 1990 and published in 2007. Topics include college integration in North Carolina, affirmative action in education, the work of college trustees and litigation involving the University of North Carolina system, matters that ran through William Friday's Chapel Hill offices.

NC Cardinal

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