The full story
In August 1977, as the federal government pressed the UNC system to enroll more Black students, Chancellor N. Ferebee Taylor made Assistant Dean Hayden B. Renwick his special assistant for 1977-78 to advise him on raising minority enrollment; Renwick called the federal goal of a 150 percent increase too much but said a larger Black enrollment could be reached. That November the Black Student Movement cosponsored a debate on the Bakke case between Dean Morton Teicher of the School of Social Work, who argued that racial quotas denied individuals the chance to be judged on merit, and law professor Charles Daye, who answered that classifications with a rational, non-malicious purpose could be lawful.
Renwick had said that UNC turned away qualified Black applicants, as Black freshman enrollment fell from 270 in 1974 to 194 in 1976 before rising to 223 in 1977. His report of February 1978 recommended a central office for minority and disadvantaged students, Black counselors at the University Counseling Center and more recruiting visits, and Taylor named a committee to study it. On April 5 two white applicants denied admission to the School of Law filed a $25,000 suit in U.S. Middle District Court charging that less qualified minority students had been admitted in their place, a case observers likened to Bakke, then before the U.S. Supreme Court; President William C. Friday, Taylor, Dean Robert G. Byrd and former Dean J. Dickson Phillips were the defendants.
In a Chapel Hill Newspaper column on September 17, 1978, Renwick published figures showing that UNC had accepted 427 of 554 Black applicants in 1974 but only 424 of 706 in 1978, and charged that the admissions office was rejecting qualified Black students. Vice Chancellor Donald A. Boulton answered that Black enrollment had risen, and the BSM, the Carolina Indian Circle and the North Carolina Black Student Coalition backed Renwick; the coalition's president, Byron Horton, said it had intervened for the defense in the law school suit. On October 5 the University released its fall figures two weeks early: 1,385 Black students, among them 297 Black freshmen, a third more than the year before. Renwick replied that his evidence had been ignored and that UNC should enroll about 450 Black freshmen a year, and at a BSM forum in the Pit on October 11 he told more than 200 students that the figures gave "half the picture" and that he would not resign. The next day BSM president Allen Johnson pressed the trustees on the charges at an open meeting with students. On October 20 Taylor told the Faculty Council that Black North Carolinians were not being discriminated against in freshman admissions: his review of every one denied for 1978 found no improper rejection, and 80 percent of Black in-state applicants were admitted, against 68 percent of whites. Renwick answered that the 1978 figures did not answer his evidence from 1976 and 1977, which he had been barred from updating. By then the Black Faculty-Staff Caucus had asked Taylor to meet on fair standards for all applicants, and a meeting was set for October 27.
In November the law school adopted a policy that reserved about 25 percent of places in its next entering class for applicants below its minimum grades-and-test-score threshold who showed other merits under nine criteria, among them race or ethnic origin, which under the Bakke ruling could count but not decide; admissions chairman Daniel Pollitt said the pending suit was not the cause, though it may have contributed. The School of Medicine reported that its in-state Black applicants had fallen from 72 in 1977 to 52 in 1978. On June 12, 1979 a faculty committee chaired by religion professor Charles H. Long, named by Taylor to study Renwick's charges, found ten years of Black enrollment growth unsatisfactory but did not uphold most of the charges. That fall more than 400 Black freshmen enrolled, against 297 the year before. On October 19 the Faculty Council adopted the Long Committee's recommendations on minority admissions and affirmative action, and the Committee on the Status of Minorities and the Disadvantaged, chaired by Daye, called open hearings for November on how to carry them out.
On April 18, 1980 the Faculty Council accepted a report of its Advisory Committee on Undergraduate Admissions, which recommended continued monitoring of special admissions for talented students in athletics, music and dramatic art, continued use of factors beyond grades and test scores, and new admissions treatment for minority applicants with a parent schooled in North Carolina. The same day it approved the final report of Daye's Committee on the Status of Minorities and the Disadvantaged, which said the University had failed by omission to carry out its 1968 commitments and asked Chancellor Christopher C. Fordham III to create a mechanism reporting directly to him to coordinate minority admissions, financial aid, advising and recruitment; Fordham endorsed it. By July he had created a vice chancellorship for university affairs, to work to increase the presence of minority students and employees and to oversee admissions, financial aid, records and the registrar, and had named an advisory committee chaired by business dean Jack Evans to help choose the new vice chancellor; in the same reorganization Vice Chancellor Douglass Hunt became special assistant to the chancellor. The Black Student Movement had endorsed Renwick for the post, but in November Fordham's choice was reported to be Harold Wallace, pending Board of Governors approval, and Renwick said there should have been an office of minority affairs instead. Wallace took up the post on December 1, 1980, with the University's new full-time affirmative action officer working under him. In late March 1981 more than 300 minority high school students already admitted to UNC visited the campus with their parents for Decision Days, a new admissions program; organizers said many minority students who chose other schools had held misconceptions about the University, and assistant admissions director Collin Rustin Jr. called it "only the 11th year of real integration here." On January 1, 1983 UNC formed a Student-Faculty-Alumni Advisory Subcommittee for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions on a two-year trial, chaired by William H. Graves, associate dean of the General College. With two students, professors Stirling Haig, Doris Betts and John Nelson, an officer of the General Alumni Association and admissions director Richard G. Cashwell, it gave students, faculty and an alumni officer a voice in recruiting, application design and admissions policy, including questions about minorities and the out-of-state quota.
On October 26, 1981 Renwick, by then associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, filed a $3 million libel and invasion of privacy suit in Orange County Superior Court against the News and Observer Publishing Co. and the Greensboro News Co. It grew out of an April 22 Raleigh Times editorial, reprinted in the Greensboro Daily News, that his lawyers said misstated his 1978 column on Black applicants denied admission, putting the number at 800 where he had estimated about 300. On February 22, 1982 Judge John Martin dismissed the suit, granting the publishers' motion on grounds of insufficient evidence, and Renwick said he would appeal. In July 1983 the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled that he could take the suit to trial, holding that the editorial, which blamed federal charges about UNC's minority recruitment on his 1978 article, could carry "a defamatory meaning"; by September 20 the two papers had filed a joint appeal to the N.C. Supreme Court.
Reading on the places and people in this storyline
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are about the sites and people its dated events name, those named most often first, so they may discuss the storyline only in part. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, April 5, 1991: interview L-0064-7, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Pollitt, Daniel H. · 2008 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Seventh of nine Southern Oral History Program interviews with Daniel H. Pollitt, a professor at the UNC School of Law. Recorded April 5, 1991, by Ann McColl, this session of just under an hour is devoted to the Speaker Ban Law, the 1963 act of the General Assembly that barred Communists and certain other speakers from state campuses, and to the fight over it at Chapel Hill in the mid-1960s, in which Pollitt took part. Published online in 2008 in Documenting the American South.
Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, December 13, 1990: interview L-0064-3, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Pollitt, Daniel H. · 2008 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Third session of the nine-part Pollitt series, recorded December 13, 1990, by Ann McColl, an hour and a quarter long. Daniel H. Pollitt, who joined the UNC law faculty in 1957, picks up the portrait of his colleagues begun in the previous interview: who they were, what they did in the classroom and beyond it, and how the school changed as Black students and women entered it. Published online in 2008 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.
Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, February 15, 1991: interview L-0064-4, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Pollitt, Daniel H. · 2008 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Race, sports and student protest at UNC are the subjects of this fourth interview with law professor Daniel H. Pollitt, recorded February 15, 1991, by Ann McColl for the Southern Oral History Program. Pollitt discusses the integration of Carolina athletics, including basketball player Charlie Scott, the university's first Black scholarship athlete, the discrimination Black athletes met, student activism from the late 1950s through the 1960s, and the Campus Y. Published online in 2008 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.
Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, November 28, 1990: interview L-0064-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Pollitt, Daniel H. · 2008 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Second interview in the Pollitt series, recorded November 28, 1990, by Ann McColl, and the shortest at about 35 minutes. Daniel H. Pollitt explains how he came to join the UNC law faculty in 1957. Before that he had declined a loyalty oath demanded by another university, and the interview covers that episode and his move to Chapel Hill. Published online in 2008 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library as part of the Southern Oral History Program collection in Documenting the American South.
Medicine at Chapel Hill
McLendon, William Woodard · 2012 · Dept. of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina
History of the Department of Medicine at the UNC School of Medicine, compiled by William W. McLendon and published by the department in 2012. After a section of historical perspective, the book covers the deans, founding faculty and department chairs, then the subspecialty divisions, offshoot departments, teaching and research, with appendices. Much of it is biographical, profiling the physicians who built clinical medicine in Chapel Hill. 478 pages with illustrations.
Legends and Legacies
Kagarise, Mary Jane · 1997 · Dept. of Surgery, UNC School of Medicine
Mary Jane Kagarise's history of the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill across its first four decades, 1952 to 1993, with biographies of the surgeons on its faculty. Published by the department in 1997 in a first edition of 461 pages with illustrations, some in color. Topics include surgery and medical colleges in Chapel Hill and biography of the department's faculty.
Reviewed in The American Journal of Surgery (1998).
Jubilee: a 50-year illustrated retrospective, North Carolina Memorial Hospital, UNC School of Medicine
Broom, Dick · 2002
Illustrated look back at fifty years of North Carolina Memorial Hospital and the UNC School of Medicine, with stories by Dick Broom edited by Lynn Wooten. Published by the Medical Foundation of N.C. in 2002, 93 pages with color illustrations and portraits.
Obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill : the first half century
2000
Departmental history of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill covering its first fifty years, published by the department in 2000. The history covers medical schools, medical education and the teaching of obstetrics in North Carolina. First edition, xvii and 366 pages with illustrations and portraits.
South Building
1903
Photograph from about 1903 of South Building on the university campus in Chapel Hill. Work on the building started in 1798 under Samuel Hopkins, was later carried on by John Clare, and finished in 1814. Part of the Images of North Carolina collection.
Draft Proceeding Minutes of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina
1798
Draft minutes of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina for 14 April 1798, recording the Masonic ceremony for laying the cornerstone of the University of North Carolina's Old South Building in Chapel Hill.
South Building, UNC-Chapel Hill, April 22, 1987
Morton, Hugh M. · 1987
South Building at UNC on 22 April 1987, showing its columns with flowers in bloom, in a Hugh Morton color photograph. Mounted 35 mm slide.
South Building, UNC-Chapel Hill, circa 1946-1947
Morton, Hugh M. · 1946
South Building on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, probably shot on infrared film by Hugh Morton in late 1946 or early 1947. Morton gave six photographs to the Alumni Office that autumn, and this one ran on page 216 of the April 1947 Alumni Review. Black-and-white sheet film negative.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film : our diaspora : where every life is an epic story
Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film (2017 : Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History) · 2017 · UNC, the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History
Program calendar for the 2017 Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film, presented in the fall by the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at Chapel Hill and tied to the campus Arts Everywhere initiative. Topics include film festivals in Chapel Hill and Black people in the motion picture industry, so the leaflet records what the festival screened that season.
BSM 40th movie
Sykes, D. (Derek) · 2007
Derek Sykes's film marking the fortieth anniversary of the Black Student Movement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, made in 2007 and first issued in electronic form. Topics include African American student movements and African American students, so the piece records four decades of Black student organizing on the Chapel Hill campus.
I raised my hand to volunteer : students protest in 1960s Chapel Hill.
2007 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Account of student protest in 1960s Chapel Hill, published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007 with illustrations. It draws together the civil rights movement and segregation in the town, discrimination in restaurants, academic freedom and university autonomy, protest against the Vietnam War, Students for a Democratic Society and the Black Student Movement on campus.
Milestones
Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center · 2004 · Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center
Milestones is the newsletter of the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published by the center and dated 2004. African American students in Chapel Hill and the center itself are its subject. As a serial it carries programs, speakers and news of Black student life on campus.
Program guide
2004 · Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center
The program guide of the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center at Chapel Hill, issued in illustrated volumes and recorded from 2004, with the 2000 to 2001 issue lacking that title.It concerns African American students and their societies and clubs. Volumes range from 18 to 26 cm.
Sauti mpya : the literary magazine of The Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center.
2004 · The Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center
Literary magazine of the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published from 2004. Topics include American literature by African American authors in North Carolina and student periodicals in Chapel Hill, so the issues carry student poetry and prose. Volumes with illustrations, 22 to 28 cm.
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