Daniel H. Pollitt

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens its own page, with its events date by date.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 13 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

1. 1957 Daniel H. Pollitt joins the UNC law faculty Pollitt came to the UNC School of Law in 1957 as an associate professor of constitutional and labor law, after resigning from the University of Arkansas rather than sign an oath disavowing membership in the NAACP. Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: UNC School of LawSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Daniel H. Pollitt Papers, 1935-2009 (#05498), finding aid
2. June 25, 1963 Aldermen hear Daniel Pollitt's opinion that Chapel Hill may pass a public accommodations law, then shelve it At a Town Hall hearing attended by more than 200 people, Mayor Sandy McClamroch read an opinion by Pollitt that Chapel Hill had the authority to enact a public accommodations ordinance and that similar laws elsewhere had withstood court tests. The Board of Aldermen then voted 4 to 2 to postpone the ordinance indefinitely. People: Sandy McClamroch Place: Chapel Hill Town HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, June 27, 1963, p. 1 (Accommodations Proposal Postponed Indefinitely)
3. November 1963 Daniel Pollitt's law review article calls the Speaker Ban constitutionally suspect Pollitt's article Campus Censorship: The North Carolina Visiting Speakers Law, written for the December 1963 North Carolina Law Review, argued that the Speaker Ban raised serious problems of free speech, self-incrimination and due process. The Daily Tar Heel called it the first known legal analysis of the law by a lawyer outside the attorney general's office. Place: UNC campus, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 13, 1963, p. 1 (Gag Law Labeled 'Constitutionally Suspect' By Pollitt)
4. May 1, 1970 The Faculty Council widens pass-fail and starts a faculty scholarship fund The Faculty Council let students count up to 24 hours of pass-fail credit toward graduation with no limit per semester and unanimously set up a scholarship fund paid by voluntary payroll deductions from University employees, after student aid director William Geer reported federal Economic Opportunity Grants for UNC cut from $554,181 to $364,600. People: Daniel H. Pollitt Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: William GeerSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 2, 1970, p. 1
5. May 9, 1970 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. October 24, 1973 More than 700 rally in the Pit for the impeachment of President Nixon Four days after the firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox, a noon rally in the Pit drew more than 700 people to hear state AFL-CIO president Wilbur Hobby, law professor Daniel H. Pollitt, aldermanic candidate Gerry Cohen and Student Body President Ford Runge call for President Nixon's impeachment. Five striking Brookside coal miners from Harlan County, Kentucky, attended, and organizers gathered more than 2,000 signatures for an impeachment telegram and formed a committee to send buses of students to lobby Congress. People: Wilbur Hobby, Daniel H. Pollitt Place: the Pit, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Gerry Cohen, Ford RungeSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 25, 1973, p. 1
7. January 29, 1977 A faculty committee upholds the denial of tenure to geologist David Stewart In its first case, the new Faculty Hearings Committee ruled that assistant professor of geology David M. Stewart had not shown that his department denied him tenure over his free speech or from personal malice. Stewart, whose prediction of an earthquake near Wilmington and invitation to a psychic had stirred controversy in January 1976, had been turned down by the department's full professors in November and by Dean James R. Gaskin on December 9; he then asked the AAUP to review UNC's tenure rules. People: Daniel H. Pollitt Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: David M. Stewart, James R. GaskinSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, January 31, 1977, p. 1
8. announced December 8, 1978 Daniel H. Pollitt is elected chairman of the UNC faculty The general faculty elected law professor Daniel H. Pollitt chairperson of the faculty, succeeding philosophy professor E. Maynard Adams, as announced at the December 8 Faculty Council meeting. The post made him an ex officio member of the Chancellor's Cabinet and other councils and head of the campus's delegation to the Faculty Assembly of the 16-campus system. People: Daniel H. Pollitt, E. M (Elie Maynard) Adams Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, January 11, 1979, p. 3
9. by November 2, 1983 Seventeen UNC law professors write President Reagan protesting the Grenada invasion By November 2, 1983, the dean and 16 professors of the UNC School of Law had sent President Reagan a six-sentence letter saying they were "deeply anguished" by the invasion of Grenada, which they also called an invasion of the power of Congress to declare war under the War Powers Resolution of 1973. Kenan Professor Daniel H. Pollitt wrote the first draft, and slightly more than half of the professors asked signed it. People: Daniel H. Pollitt Place: School of Law, University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 2, 1983, p. 3
10. November 15, 1985 UNC Faculty Council asks the University to divest from firms supporting apartheid The Faculty Council voted without dissent to ask the trustees to divest University funds and state employee retirement funds from companies and banks doing direct and extensive business with the South African government. Law professor Daniel H. Pollitt, a co-sponsor, said the Sullivan Principles policy then in force did not work, and Chancellor Christopher C. Fordham III agreed to take the resolution to the Board of Trustees. People: Daniel H. Pollitt, Christopher C. Fordham III Place: University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 18, 1985, p. 2
11. 1992 Daniel Pollitt retires from the UNC law faculty Pollitt, by then a Kenan professor of law, retired from teaching in 1992 after more than 35 years at UNC. The Daily Tar Heel credited him with founding the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, opposing the Speaker Ban and helping to integrate the university. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Daniel H. Pollitt Papers, 1935-2009 (#05498), finding aid · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, April 15, 1992, p. 1
12. March 5, 2010 Daniel H. Pollitt dies in Chapel Hill Pollitt died in Chapel Hill on March 5, 2010. His honors included the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the Thomas Jefferson Award and the Order of the Golden Fleece. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Daniel H. Pollitt Papers, 1935-2009 (#05498), finding aid

After their death in 2010

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

1. August 28, 2011 Rebecca Clark's name is added to the Peace and Justice Plaza plaque Clark, Yonni Chapman, the Rev. Charles M. Jones and Dan Pollitt were honored after their deaths for their work for civil rights, social justice and equality in Chapel Hill. Their names were added to the plaque at Peace and Justice Plaza, in front of the historic post office on Franklin Street. People: Rebecca Clark, Yonni Chapman, Charles M. Jones, Daniel H. Pollitt Place: Peace and Justice Plaza, Chapel Hill · Also named: Dan Pollitt · Also mentions: Franklin StreetSearch the index · UNC Libraries, History on the Hill: Four activists to be honored in Chapel Hill, SHC preserves documentation of their legacy