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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 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

5 works about Frank Wilkinson are indexed here.

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Life and Orange County connections

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

StorylineSpeaker Ban controversy, 1962–19681962–1968 · 60 events · In October 1962 the Division Three area of the state American Legion, meeting in Chapel Hill, endorsed a Chapel Hill post resolution by Col. Henry E. Royall asking for an investigation of possible leftist influences on the UNC campus. The General Assembly passed the Speaker Ban on June 26, 1963, barring known Communists and people who had pleaded the Fifth Amendment from speaking on state campuses. In March 1966 Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker spoke to UNC students from the Franklin Street side of the wall, and a federal court struck the law down on February 19, 1968. StorylineSDS, SSOC and the student left at UNC, 1965–19691965–1969 · 14 events · A UNC chapter of Students for a Democratic Society organized in 1965, invited the barred speakers Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker in 1966 and started a paper, the Left Heel. In 1968 the Southern Student Organizing Committee founded a UNC chapter, ran a "Disorientation" for new students, backed the Durham Black Solidarity boycott, petitioned for dormitory visitation and started the Radish, and that October the University stopped sending security officers to campus political meetings. The Chapel Hill Revolutionary Movement formed in the fall of 1969 and disbanded in December. StorylineWall speeches at the campus line, 19661966–2011 · 20 events · In 1966 the trustees barred Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker from the campus under the Speaker Ban law, so each spoke to students across the stone wall at McCorkle Place from the Franklin Street sidewalk. Students and the two speakers sued in Dickson v. Sitterson, a federal court struck the law down in 1968, and a marker went up at the wall in 2011.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 10 dated events in the chronology →

1966 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: Stuart Matthews, Gary Waller, Frank Wilkinson, Herbert Aptheker Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Justia: Dickson v. Sitterson, 280 F. Supp. 486 (M.D.N.C. 1968) · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, April 17, 1966, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, May 12, 1966, p. 1
January 1966 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 Aptheker Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: YMCAThe Daily Tar Heel, November 20, 1986, p. 11
February 7, 1966 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. Moore Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Memorial HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 8, 1966, p. 1
March 1, 1966 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 Matthews Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: YMCASearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 2, 1966, p. 1
March 2, 1966 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 III Place: Hillel House, Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill · Also named: Arthur Beaumont · Also mentions: Carroll Hall, Cameron AvenueSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 3, 1966, p. 1
March 2, 1966 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 III Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: McCorkle Place, Franklin StreetThe Daily Tar Heel, March 3, 1966, p. 1
March 31, 1966 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 Wilkinson Place: U.S. District Court, Greensboro · Also named: McNeill SmithUNC Carolina Story: One Final Effort · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, April 1, 1966, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, December 10, 1966, p. 1
February 19, 1968 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 Aptheker Place: Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, February 20, 1968, p. 1
May 15, 1968 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 Wilkinson Place: Howell Hall, UNCThe Daily Tar Heel, May 17, 1968, p. 1
September 23, 1987 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 Wilkinson Place: Manning Hall, UNCThe Daily Tar Heel, September 24, 1987, p. 2

People named in the same events

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.

Paul Dickson III 5 entries, including Students for a Democratic Society invites Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker to speak at UNC (January 1966)
Herbert Aptheker 4 entries, including Stuart Matthews serves on the steering committee of the UNC chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (1966)
J. Carlyle Sitterson 3 entries, including Barred from Carroll Hall, Frank Wilkinson speaks to about 350 people at the Hillel House (March 2, 1966)
Dan K. Moore 1 entry: UNC trustees' executive committee bars Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker from the Chapel Hill campus (February 7, 1966)
Gary Waller 1 entry: Stuart Matthews serves on the steering committee of the UNC chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (1966)
Stuart Matthews 1 entry: Stuart Matthews serves on the steering committee of the UNC chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (1966)

Indexed works

Works about or by Frank Wilkinson. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Wilkinson, Frank, 1914-2006.

NC Digital Collections DPLA