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

Local figure

Peter H. Klopfer

Peter H. Klopfer was a Duke University biologist. In 1962 he and his wife Martha joined other Quakers in founding Carolina Friends School, later built on land the Klopfers gave. Charged with trespass after a 1964 sit-in attempt at Watts Grill in Chapel Hill, he challenged the state's practice of holding charges open indefinitely. In March 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Klopfer v. North Carolina that the speedy-trial right binds the states.

Source: WUNC: Peter Klopfer, a Duke biologist and founder of its Lemur Center as well as a civil rights…

1 indexed work is connected with this person.

Search this work Research sources View indexed works ↓

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

Demise of an "extraordinary criminal procedure" : Klopfer v. North Carolina and the incorporation of the Sixth Amendment's speedy trial provision

Mosnier, Joseph · 1989

Joseph Mosnier's 1989 account of Klopfer v. North Carolina, the case that carried the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial into state courts by way of the United States Supreme Court. The study joins due process law in the state to race relations in Chapel Hill. Ninety-seven leaves with a bibliography.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

UNC

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Quakers from the Chapel Hill and Durham meetings found Carolina Friends School Members of the Chapel Hill and Durham Friends meetings founded Carolina Friends School as a purposely integrated school, beginning with early education programs in the two meeting houses. Mildred Ringwalt was one of the seven founders and the first clerk of its board of trustees. People: Peter H. KlopferSearch the index · Carolina Friends School: Our History
  2. Supreme Court hears Klopfer v. North Carolina The Supreme Court heard arguments in Peter Klopfer’s speedy-trial case, arising from an Orange County trespass prosecution. People: Peter H. KlopferJustia
  3. The U.S. Supreme Court decided Klopfer v. North Carolina, the speedy-trial case that grew out of a Chapel Hill sit-in arrest The Supreme Court applied the constitutional speedy-trial right to state prosecutions in Peter Klopfer’s case. People: Peter H. KlopferKlopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U.S. 213 (1967)

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Peter H. Klopfer, 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.

Research sources

Resources picked for this person, each with a note on what it holds. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further.

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Peter H. Klopfer Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • 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

Ready-made searches in other catalogs and collections. Results are not checked against this person.

Books about Peter H. Klopfer

More catalogs that show where copies are

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Searched by name. The catalogs give no dates for this person, so results may include other people with the same name. The historical records searches look for the name as written, so they can turn up other people with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

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

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