Skip to content

Figure in a named event

Frank Wilkinson

Frank Wilkinson, executive director of the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee, was one of two speakers refused a UNC platform in the winter of 1966. He spoke from the East Franklin Street sidewalk and joined Herbert Aptheker and UNC students in suing over the ban.

Source: DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, December 10, 1966, page 1

1914–2006 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

5 indexed works are connected with this person.

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.

Frank Wilkinson and several unidentified people walking down a street in Chapel Hill, March 2, 1966

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

Frank Wilkinson walks along a Chapel Hill street with a group of unidentified people on 2 March 1966, in a News and Observer photograph. His visit challenged the Speaker Ban Law, passed in June 1963, which kept known Communists off the platforms of North Carolina's public campuses.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Wilkinson, Frank, 1914-2006.

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

Frank Wilkinson in Chapel Hill, March 2, 1966

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

News and Observer negative of 2 March 1966: Frank Wilkinson talking with an unidentified man in Chapel Hill, where he came to address students from off campus. The 1963 Speaker Ban Law barred known Communists and certain others from speaking on the state's public college campuses.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Wilkinson, Frank, 1914-2006.

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

Frank Wilkinson speaking to Chapel Hill Police officer, March 2, 1966

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

Negative from the News and Observer, 2 March 1966, showing Frank Wilkinson in conversation with a Chapel Hill police officer during his visit to speak to students under the Speaker Ban Law, the 1963 statute limiting who could speak on the state's public college campuses.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Wilkinson, Frank, 1914-2006.

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

Frank Wilkinson speaking to students in Chapel Hill, March 2, 1966

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

On 2 March 1966 Frank Wilkinson spoke to students across a wall on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, standing off campus because the Speaker Ban Law kept him from the university grounds. A News and Observer negative.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Wilkinson, Frank, 1914-2006.

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

Students gathered in Chapel Hill to hear Frank Wilkinson, March 2, 1966

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

Students on the Chapel Hill campus wait behind a low wall for Frank Wilkinson to speak on 2 March 1966, beneath a sign calling it Gov. Dan K. Moore's (Chapel Hill) Wall. A News and Observer negative from the protests against North Carolina's 1963 Speaker Ban Law.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Wilkinson, Frank, 1914-2006.

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

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 9 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Stuart Matthews serves on the steering committee of the UNC chapter of Students for a Democratic Society The federal court's findings in Dickson v. Sitterson list Matthews as a member of the steering committee of Students for a Democratic Society, one of the recognized campus organizations whose officers brought the suit. The Daily Tar Heel adds that Matthews and Gary Waller invited Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker to speak under SDS sponsorship on January 3, 1966. People: Gary Waller, Frank Wilkinson, Herbert ApthekerSearch the index · Justia: Dickson v. Sitterson, 280 F. Supp. 486 (M.D.N.C. 1968)
  2. 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 ApthekerDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, November 20, 1986, page 11
  3. 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 · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, February 8, 1966, page 1
  4. 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 · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, March 2, 1966, page 1
  5. 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 · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, March 3, 1966, page 1
  6. 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 IIIDaily Tar Heel (DigitalNC): March 3, 1966, page 1
  7. 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
  8. Frank Wilkinson speaks on the UNC campus in Howell Hall Three months after the ruling, Wilkinson gave his first permitted talk on the UNC campus, speaking on HUAC in Howell Hall at the invitation of the Carolina Political Union to about 35 people. People: Frank WilkinsonDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, May 17, 1968, page 1
  9. Frank Wilkinson returns to speak in Manning Hall Wilkinson, then 74, spoke in Manning Hall on FBI surveillance and U.S. policy in Central America at an event sponsored by the Carolina Committee on Central America. People: Frank WilkinsonDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, September 24, 1987, page 2

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 2 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Frank Wilkinson, 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.

Search further

The index lists works with an Orange County connection. To find everything else about Frank Wilkinson, search these catalogs.

Books about Frank Wilkinson

More catalogs that show where copies are

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Searched with the Library of Congress heading Wilkinson, Frank, 1914-2006, so the results are about this person and not others 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.

Research sources

Background context 3

Background from selected state and local sources

Additional research sources

Other catalogs to search and local organizations that can help.

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

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

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