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Storyline

Speaker Ban controversy, 1962–1968

The law barring “visiting speakers” from state campuses, the 1966 wall speeches and Dickson v. Sitterson.

In briefIn 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.

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The Act to Regulate Visiting Speakers, in the Session Laws of 1963
The Act to Regulate Visiting Speakers, in the Session Laws of 1963

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Episodes in this history, in date order. Each has its own page.

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. StorylineDickson v. Sitterson, 1966–1968The federal case that struck down the Speaker Ban

Other events in this storyline, in date order. See these 60 dated events in the chronology →

  1. An American Legion division meeting in Chapel Hill backs a call to investigate leftists at UNC Meeting at the Chapel Hill Legion clubhouse, the Division Three area of the state American Legion endorsed without dissent a resolution asking for an investigation of possible leftist influences on the UNC campus. Written by Col. Henry E. Royall of the Chapel Hill post's Americanism committee, it had already passed the local post and district and condemned the campus Progressive Labor Club. Place: American Legion clubhouse, Chapel Hill · Also named: Henry E. RoyallSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 1, 1962, p. 11
  2. The General Assembly passed the Speaker Ban Law in the last hours of its session
  3. 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. People: Daniel H. Pollitt Place: UNC campus, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 13, 1963, p. 1 (Gag Law Labeled 'Constitutionally Suspect' By Pollitt)
  4. Republican nominee Robert Gavin attacks the speaker ban in Chapel Hill Campaigning in Chapel Hill, Republican nominee for governor Robert Gavin said he would use the governor's office to repeal or at least amend the communist speaker ban law, which he called a bad law. He also charged that Democrat Dan Moore was avoiding joint appearances, toured Eastgate, Carrboro and Chapel Hill, and dined with party workers at the Colonial Inn in Hillsborough. Place: Chapel Hill; Colonial Inn, Hillsborough · Also named: Robert GavinThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 20, 1964, p. 3
  5. Paul F. Sharp serves as chief administrator of UNC at Chapel Hill Sharp was chief administrative officer of the university at Chapel Hill from September 1, 1964 to February 15, 1966. His records document the state's speaker ban law and programs in medical education, and he left to become president of Drake University. People: Paul F. Sharp Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Office of Chancellor, Paul Frederick Sharp Records, 1964-1966 (finding aid)
  6. The UNC chapter of the AAUP sends its report on the speaker ban to the chancellor, not the press Meeting with officers from the Greensboro and Raleigh campuses and the state conference, the Chapel Hill chapter of the American Association of University Professors voted without dissent to send its committee report on the Visiting Speakers Law's effect on the University to Chancellor Sharp for the President and trustees, rather than release it to the press. People: Paul F. Sharp Place: UNC, Chapel HillThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 10, 1964, p. 4
  7. Student leaders take some 1,000 Chapel Hill signatures against the Speaker Ban to a trustees' committee About 1,000 Chapel Hill students signed a Student Government petition asking that the internal affairs of state colleges be left to their trustees, and Student Body President Bob Spearman and student leaders from the Greensboro and Raleigh campuses presented it to the trustees' special committee on the Speaker Ban, answering the members' questions. Place: Graham Memorial, Chapel Hill (petitions collected) · Also named: Bob SpearmanThe Daily Tar Heel, February 14, 1965, p. 1
  8. A Free Speech Movement rally in Y-Court protests the Speaker Ban and fraternity race clauses About 1,500 people, by the campus police chief's count, filled Y-Court at noon for a protest rally organized by graduate student James W. Gardner with the Chapel Hill CORE, the UNC NAACP, the Student Peace Union and a new Free Speech Movement. Gardner called the Speaker Ban a law passed to punish the University for its part in the civil rights movement; much of the crowd heckled, a Confederate flag hung from Old West, and firecrackers and eggs were thrown at the speakers' stand. Place: Y-Court, YMCA building, UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: James W. GardnerThe Daily Tar Heel, February 20, 1965, p. 1
  9. A national physics teachers' association refuses to meet at Chapel Hill while the Speaker Ban stands The executive board of the American Association of Physics Teachers told UNC's physics department it would not consider an invitation to hold its national meeting at Chapel Hill as long as the Speaker Ban law was in effect. W. E. Haisley and department chairman Everett D. Palmatier made the letter public on February 23; the department had hoped for the meeting in 1967 or 1968. Place: Department of Physics, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: W. E. Haisley, Everett D. PalmatierThe Daily Tar Heel, February 24, 1965, p. 1
  10. Governor Dan K. Moore tells editorial writers in Chapel Hill the University should not seek repeal of the Speaker Ban Speaking to the N.C. Editorial Writers' Conference, Moore said it was unwise for the University to advocate repeal of the Speaker Ban law, which he believed voters would overwhelmingly uphold, though it might be amended to return authority to the trustees. He also said he would not call for a bond issue for college buildings in the next two years. People: Dan K. Moore Place: N.C. Editorial Writers' Conference, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, April 4, 1965, p. 1
  11. Duke President Douglas M. Knight calls the Speaker Ban foolish in a Chapel Hill address Addressing graduates of the 12th annual Executive Program, Knight said the Speaker Ban rested on fear and was a foolish way to deal with communism, suggesting that the easiest way to dispel illusions would be to let 18-year-olds question Communist leader Gus Hall. Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Douglas M. KnightThe Daily Tar Heel, April 10, 1965, p. 1
  12. Berkeley Free Speech Movement leader Steve Weissman urges UNC students to challenge the Speaker Ban Speaking to about 100 people in Gerrard Hall under Carolina Forum sponsorship, Weissman said students and faculty should take control of their university and urged an all-out campaign against the Speaker Ban, saying lawmakers would be powerless if the faculty jointly invited a Communist speaker. Place: Gerrard Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Steve WeissmanThe Daily Tar Heel, May 4, 1965, p. 1
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  1. UNC bars civil-rights leader Carl Braden from speaking on campus under the Speaker Ban The dean of student affairs told the UNC chapter of the NAACP that Carl Braden, information director of the Southern Conference Educational Fund, fell under the Speaker Ban and could not speak in a campus building, citing a newspaper report that an FBI informant had called him a communist. After the chapter appealed, the administration confirmed the decision on May 13, and the chapter called it a branding on unsupported testimony. People: Paul F. Sharp Place: UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: Carl BradenThe Daily Tar Heel, May 11, 1965, p. 1
  2. Carl Braden speaks at the Chapel of the Cross after UNC bars him from campus Barred from campus, Carl Braden spoke to nearly 75 people at the Episcopal Chapel of the Cross under NAACP sponsorship and attacked the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Speaker Ban, while eight to ten Young Americans for Freedom pickets marched outside. That afternoon four to eight NAACP pickets had marched in front of South Building with leaflets denying that the ban covered him. Place: Chapel of the Cross and South Building, Chapel Hill · Also named: Carl BradenThe Daily Tar Heel, May 19, 1965, p. 1
  3. The Southern Association warns that the Speaker Ban threatens the state colleges' accreditation The executive council of the Southern Association's Commission on Colleges telegraphed Governor Dan K. Moore that the Speaker Ban had interfered with the state-supported colleges to their detriment and that the commission would decide their accreditation at its next meeting. Moore made the telegram public the next day and said accreditation appeared to be threatened; UNC officials warned that loss of it would hurt transfers, hiring and grants. People: Dan K. Moore, William C. Friday Place: Raleigh (for UNC and the state-supported colleges)The Daily Tar Heel, May 21, 1965, p. 1
  4. UNC trustees adopt the speaker policy asked as the price of amending the Speaker Ban With Governor Dan K. Moore presiding, the trustees of the Consolidated University endorsed the Speaker Ban Study Commission's policy that Communists be invited to speak only rarely and only when it would clearly serve education. State Senator Tom White cast the only no vote after his stricter policy died for want of a second. People: Dan K. Moore Place: Old House chamber, State Capitol, Raleigh · Also named: Tom WhiteThe Daily Tar Heel, November 13, 1965, p. 1
  5. The General Assembly amends the Speaker Ban, returning speaker decisions to the trustees In a three-day special session called by Governor Dan K. Moore, the House voted 75 to 39 and the Senate 36 to 13 to amend the 1963 Speaker Ban so that the trustees of each state campus, rather than the law, would rule on visiting Communists and Fifth Amendment pleaders. Senators Robert Morgan and Tom White failed, 27 to 21, to require monthly reports on campus speakers. People: Dan K. Moore, David M. (David Maxwell) Britt Place: State Capitol, Raleigh · Also named: Robert Morgan, Tom WhiteThe Daily Tar Heel, November 18, 1965, p. 1
  6. John E. Greenbacker Jr. leads the Dialectic and Philanthropic literary society The Daily Tar Heel reported that the Di-Phi Senate elected Greenbacker, who had served a year as its president pro tem, president of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies on January 11, 1966; he was still called president-elect at the society's inaugural debate on March 15. The federal court's findings in Dickson v. Sitterson list Greenbacker as president of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Literary Society, one of the recognized student organizations whose officers brought the Speaker Ban suit. The Daily Tar Heel likewise named him as Di-Phi president among the ten student leaders who wrote to Chancellor Sitterson on March 1, 1966. People: John E. Greenbacker Jr., J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Dialectic and Philanthropic SocietiesSearch the index · Justia: Dickson v. Sitterson, 280 F. Supp. 486 (M.D.N.C. 1968) · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, January 13, 1966, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, March 15, 1966, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, May 12, 1966, p. 1
  7. The trustees' executive committee adopts rules for visiting speakers Meeting in Raleigh, the executive committee of the UNC board of trustees adopted regulations for visiting speakers on the University's four campuses under the amended Speaker Ban law, sending them to the full board. Only recognized student, faculty and University groups could invite speakers, and a chancellor could require a University officer to preside, questions from the audience, or a later chance to hear other views. Place: Raleigh (rules for the Chapel Hill campus and the other branches)The Daily Tar Heel, January 15, 1966, p. 1
  8. 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
  9. Dickson, Nicholson and McCrary invite Herbert Aptheker to speak on campus Three of the students who later sued invited Aptheker to speak at Chapel Hill on March 9, 1966 under the sponsorship of Student Government, the Carolina Forum and the Daily Tar Heel, widening an earlier invitation from Students for a Democratic Society. The court found that the invitation went out on or about February 1 and that Aptheker accepted it two days later. The Daily Tar Heel reported that the three announced the invitation and his acceptance at a Carolina Inn press conference on February 4, and Aptheker later said Nicholson's letter of invitation was dated February 4. People: George E. Nicholson III, Paul Dickson III, Herbert Aptheker Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Ernest S. McCrary · Also mentions: Carolina InnSearch the index · Caselaw Access Project: Dickson v. Sitterson, 280 F. Supp. 486 (M.D.N.C. 1968) · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, February 5, 1966, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, February 8, 1966, p. 6
  10. Gary Waller joins a student panel on the Speaker Ban in Memorial Hall The Daily Tar Heel reported that student body president Paul Dickson presided over a noon meeting of students and faculty in Memorial Hall, with a panel of four that included Waller, Carolina Conservative Club president Wilson Clark and the SDS faculty advisers Joseph Straley and Lewis Lipsitz. The meeting adopted a resolution about four and a half hours before the trustees' executive committee voted 8 to 3 to bar Herbert Aptheker from speaking. People: Gary Waller, Paul Dickson III, Joe Straley, Herbert Aptheker Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Wilson Clark, Joseph Straley, Lewis Lipsitz · Also mentions: Memorial HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 8, 1966, p. 1
  11. 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: Frank Wilkinson, 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
  12. Students form the Committee for Free Inquiry after the Aptheker ban More than 350 students met in Murphey Hall and formed the Committee for Free Inquiry the night after the trustees' executive committee barred Herbert Aptheker and Frank Wilkinson from the Chapel Hill campus. On February 11 the group met in Gerrard Hall, elected a nine-member steering committee and invited Governor Dan K. Moore to explain the ban; he declined, and on February 17 it voted to hold a rally and a walk to President Friday's house on February 24. People: Paul Dickson III, Gary Waller, Dan K. Moore Place: Murphey Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Herbert Aptheker, Frank Wilkinson · Also mentions: Gerrard HallThe Daily Tar Heel, February 9, 1966, p. 1
  13. Nicholson criticizes SDS over the Aptheker invitation while backing the principle The Carolina Forum chairman called the Students for a Democratic Society invitation to Herbert Aptheker ill-timed and planned for sensationalism, and said the Forum had joined the invitation only in support of the principle of free speech. People: George E. Nicholson III, Herbert Aptheker Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 11, 1966, p. 1
  14. J. Carlyle Sitterson serves as chief administrator of UNC at Chapel Hill Sitterson was the chief administrative officer of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from February 16, 1966 to January 31, 1972. His records as chancellor cover desegregation and the federal HEW lawsuit, the Speaker Ban law, protest against the Vietnam War and campus unrest. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Office of Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Joseph Carlyle Sitterson Records, 1966-1972 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, February 16, 1966, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, February 22, 1966, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, October 3, 1991, p. 1
  15. About 1,200 people walk from a Committee for Free Inquiry rally to President Friday's home Close to 1,200 students and faculty attended a Committee for Free Inquiry meeting on the Speaker Ban in Memorial Hall and then walked quietly to Consolidated University President William C. Friday's home on East Franklin Street, where they gave Friday and Acting Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson the committee's statement against prior restraint of campus speakers. Friday thanked them for their conduct and said he would put their proposals to the trustees the following Monday. People: Paul Dickson III, William C. Friday, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: Memorial Hall and the President's House, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: East Franklin StreetThe Daily Tar Heel, February 25, 1966, p. 1
  16. About 60 demonstrators meet Governor Moore at the Carolina Inn with a free speech petition When Governor Dan K. Moore came to the Carolina Inn for a dinner honoring Morehead Scholarship candidates, about 60 demonstrators, most of them from the political science department, met him with placards reading 'Free Speech Now' and a petition signed by most of those present, which political science instructor William Fleming handed him. Moore took it and said he would like to see 'a little more restraint'; the group broke up soon after he went in. People: Dan K. Moore Place: Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill · Also named: William FlemingThe Daily Tar Heel, March 1, 1966, p. 1
  17. Stuart Matthews and Gary Waller write to Chancellor Sitterson inviting Herbert Aptheker On the day the full board of trustees adopted new speaker regulations, Matthews and Waller wrote to Acting Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson for the UNC Chapel Hill chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, asking that Herbert Aptheker be allowed to speak on campus about the war in Vietnam on March 9. The letter set out his publications, speaking engagements and his Supreme Court passport case. People: Stuart Matthews, Gary Waller, J. Carlyle Sitterson, Herbert Aptheker Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Letter, Stuart Matthews and Gary Waller to Chancellor J.C. Sitterson, 28 February 1966 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, March 1, 1966, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, March 2, 1966, p. 1
  18. The UNC Board of Trustees adopts visiting-speaker procedures under the amended Speaker Ban Acting under G.S. 116-199 and 116-200, the full Board of Trustees adopted procedures requiring recognized student groups to clear invitations to covered speakers with the chancellor. The students complied with them when they renewed the Wilkinson and Aptheker invitations, and the court later found the procedures as vague as the statute. People: William C. Friday, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: RaleighCaselaw Access Project: Dickson v. Sitterson, 280 F. Supp. 486 (M.D.N.C. 1968), finding of fact 27 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, March 1, 1966, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, March 2, 1966, p. 1
  19. Acting Chancellor Sitterson names the faculty members of the new speakers advisory committee Under the procedures the trustees had adopted the day before, Acting Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson named faculty chairman Corydon Spruill, George E. Nicholson Jr. and Arnold Perry to the joint student-faculty committee that advises him on visiting speakers covered by the amended Speaker Ban. The committee met that afternoon for more than two and a half hours on the new invitation to Frank Wilkinson, and Sitterson would not make its advice public. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: South Building, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Corydon Spruill, George E. Nicholson Jr., Arnold Perry, Frank WilkinsonThe Daily Tar Heel, March 2, 1966, p. 1
  20. 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: Frank Wilkinson, 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
  21. 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: Frank Wilkinson, 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
  22. 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
  23. The University Presbyterian Church session refuses its building for Herbert Aptheker After more than two hours of debate, the session of the Presbyterian church on East Franklin Street voted by a close majority to turn down student body president Paul Dickson's request to let Herbert Aptheker speak there on the war in Vietnam. The session resolved that it favored hearing opposing philosophies only in a panel that included a speaker for the Christian point of view; the pastor, the Rev. Vance Barron, said he personally would have granted the request. People: Paul Dickson III, Herbert Aptheker Place: University Presbyterian Church, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Vance Barron · Also mentions: East Franklin StreetThe Daily Tar Heel, March 6, 1966, p. 1
  24. Acting Chancellor Sitterson bars Herbert Aptheker but approves departmental invitations to two Communist scholars Acting Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson denied Herbert Aptheker the use of University buildings for his March 9 talk, holding that the trustees' executive committee's February 7 cancellation bound him, as he had ruled for Frank Wilkinson two days before. The same day he approved invitations from the political science and psychology departments to Soviet historian Vladimir Alexandrov and Czech scientist Hanus Papousek as clearly in accord with the trustees' new speaker policy. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Herbert Aptheker Place: South Building, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Vladimir Alexandrov, Hanus Papousek, Frank WilkinsonThe Daily Tar Heel, March 5, 1966, p. 1
  25. Committee for Free Inquiry members picket South Building over the speaker bans About 35 graduate and undergraduate members of the Committee for Free Inquiry marched with signs in front of South Building from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., protesting Acting Chancellor Sitterson's barring of Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker and the locking of Carroll Hall, while more than 200 people watched. Student body president Paul Dickson, the committee's chairman, would not back the picketing, a Daily Tar Heel poll found most students against it, and the committee voted two days later to stop. People: Paul Dickson III Place: South Building, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Herbert Aptheker, Frank Wilkinson · Also mentions: Carroll HallThe Daily Tar Heel, March 5, 1966, p. 1
  26. Herbert Aptheker gives his evening talk at the Community Church Kept off campus, Aptheker gave his evening talk to about 350 people at the interdenominational Community Church on Purefoy Road. Paul Dickson then announced a Free Speech Defense Fund to pay for a lawsuit. People: Paul Dickson III, Herbert Aptheker Place: Community Church, Purefoy Road, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, March 11, 1966, p. 1
  27. Herbert Aptheker speaks to students across the McCorkle Place wall At noon Paul Dickson led Aptheker, invited by SDS and the Committee for Free Inquiry, onto McCorkle Place near the Confederate monument, where campus police chief Arthur Beaumont halted Dickson's introduction and warned of arrest. Aptheker crossed the low stone wall to the Franklin Street sidewalk and spoke to a crowd estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 on the campus side. People: Paul Dickson III, Herbert Aptheker Place: McCorkle Place wall at Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Arthur J. Beaumont, Arthur Beaumont · Also mentions: Franklin StreetThe Daily Tar Heel, March 10, 1966, p. 1
  28. Chancellor Sitterson makes student leaders erase a taped meeting The Daily Tar Heel reported that Paul Dickson, Eric Van Loon and George Nicholson met Acting Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson in his office for about thirty minutes, and that Van Loon carried a tape recorder. When Sitterson found the conversation was being recorded he made them play the tape back and erase it, saying it upset him that they had not mentioned it. People: Eric Van Loon, Paul Dickson III, George E. Nicholson III, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 13, 1966, p. 1
  29. Student leaders ask the chancellor to let Wilkinson and Aptheker speak on campus Paul Dickson and the heads of Carolina Forum, the YMCA, the YWCA, Di-Phi, the Carolina Political Union and SDS wrote to Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson asking that Wilkinson speak on March 23 and Aptheker on March 25, or on later dates. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Paul Dickson III, 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: YMCAUNC Libraries: Letter, Students to Chancellor J.C. Sitterson, 14 March 1966 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, March 27, 1966, p. 1
  30. Governor Moore tells the UNC Faculty Club the speaker question is closed Speaking to the UNC Faculty Club before television cameras, Governor Dan K. Moore said that political influence would always bear on public education and that the regulation of campus speakers was 'now a closed issue' he hoped would stay closed. He told the faculty they were the key to the University's continued excellence. People: Dan K. Moore Place: Faculty Club, UNC, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, March 16, 1966, p. 1
  31. Soviet historian Vladimir Alexandrov speaks to UNC classes under the new speaker rules Vladimir Alexandrov, a Moscow State University historian on exchange at Indiana University, spoke to three history and political science classes and to a public gathering at the Morehead Planetarium, calling American policy in Vietnam imperialist and denying that religion was suppressed in the Soviet Union. The Daily Tar Heel said he and Czech scientist Hanus Papousek would be the first known Communists to speak at UNC since the 1963 Speaker Ban Law. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: Morehead Planetarium and Caldwell Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Vladimir Alexandrov, Hanus PapousekThe Daily Tar Heel, March 23, 1966, p. 1
  32. Bob Powell wins the runoff for UNC student body president Powell, the Student Party candidate, beat University Party candidate Teddy O'Toole by 2,401 votes to 1,993 in the runoff, two days before the Speaker Ban suit was filed. People: Robert S. Powell Jr. Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 31, 1966, p. 1
  33. 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
  34. Powell is named to the student-faculty committee on visiting speakers The Daily Tar Heel listed Bob Powell first among the members of the student-faculty committee on visiting speakers, in the same story that printed the students' request to the chancellor. People: Robert S. Powell Jr. Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Bob PowellSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 27, 1966, p. 1
  35. Slavic languages chairman Walter W. Arndt resigns, saying the Speaker Ban made the final difference Walter W. Arndt, chairman of the Department of Linguistics, Slavic and Oriental Languages, said he would leave for a similar post at Dartmouth in September and that the speaker ban controversy 'made the final difference', although the University had matched his offers; his leading choice for a successor had turned the job down over the ban. Sociologist Bruce K. Eckland told the acting chancellor he would leave if any controversial speaker were banned before January. Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Walter W. Arndt, Bruce K. EcklandThe Daily Tar Heel, March 10, 1966, p. 1
  36. Yugoslav diplomat Cvijeto Job speaks to a faculty group at Morehead Planetarium Cvijeto Job, press and cultural attache of the Yugoslav Embassy, spoke on socialism and freedoms in Yugoslavia to about 40 people, mostly faculty and their wives, in the Morehead Planetarium faculty lounge at the invitation of the campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors. The Daily Tar Heel called him the first Communist diplomat to speak on campus since the Speaker Ban Law; because a faculty group invited him, the chancellor's approval was not needed. People: Joseph W. Straley Place: Morehead Planetarium, Chapel Hill · Also named: Cvijeto JobThe Daily Tar Heel, April 29, 1966, p. 1
  37. University defendants answer the Speaker Ban suit and ask for dismissal Andrew Vanore of the Attorney General's staff filed the answer of Chancellor Sitterson, President Friday and the trustees in federal court at Greensboro, asking that the students' claims be separated from those of Herbert Aptheker and Frank Wilkinson and that the case be dismissed. The answer argued that the students had not been denied a right to hear the speakers, who had spoken just off campus, and that the speakers' claims were moot because they had been refused only for that semester. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, William C. Friday Place: U.S. District Court, Greensboro · Also named: Andrew Vanore, Herbert Aptheker, Frank WilkinsonThe Daily Tar Heel, May 14, 1966, p. 1
  38. The AAUP files a friend-of-the-court brief against the Speaker Ban The American Association of University Professors filed a 55-page brief as a friend of the court for the student and speaker plaintiffs in Dickson v. Sitterson, the federal suit against the Speaker Ban; the next day the Raleigh firm of Joyner and Howison filed a 118-page brief for the state. The Daily Tar Heel reported that a three-judge panel would hear oral arguments in January. Place: U.S. District Court, Greensboro (UNC case, Chapel Hill)The Daily Tar Heel, December 10, 1966, p. 1
  39. A three-judge federal court hears arguments in Dickson v. Sitterson at Greensboro Judges Clement F. Haynsworth, Edwin M. Stanley and Algernon L. Butler heard 45 minutes a side in the U.S. Middle District courtroom. McNeill Smith called the law vague, ambiguous, unconstitutional and void on its face; W. T. Joyner Sr. answered for the University that the 1965 amendment had abolished the original ban. The court then held the case under advisement for a year. People: Paul Dickson III Place: Greensboro (U.S. District Court, Middle District of North Carolina) · Also named: McNeill Smith, William T. Joyner, Clement F. Haynsworth, Edwin M. Stanley, Algernon L. ButlerThe Daily Tar Heel, February 22, 1967, p. 1
  40. 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
  41. Governor Moore recommends that the state and the trustees not appeal the Speaker Ban ruling Three days after the decision, Governor Dan K. Moore said the state should not appeal the federal court's finding that the law was unconstitutionally vague and recommended that the trustees not appeal either, voicing his hope that they and the administration would keep the campuses from being exploited as outlets of discord and strife. People: Dan K. Moore Place: RaleighThe Daily Tar Heel, February 23, 1968, p. 1
  42. The UNC trustees adopt six temporary speaker rules in place of the voided regulations A week after the ruling the trustees approved, over Senator Tom White's plea to proceed calmly, six interim rules on the manner of a speaker's appearance (a senior faculty member presiding at the chancellor's request, public forums, balanced views, audience questions, sponsorship by recognized student groups), with the items the court had struck removed, pending further study by the executive committee on March 8. People: William C. Friday, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Tom WhiteThe Daily Tar Heel, February 27, 1968, p. 1
  43. The trustees' executive committee asks Governor Moore to name a subcommittee on a permanent speaker policy Meeting in Charlotte, the Board of Trustees' Executive Committee voted to ask the governor to appoint a subcommittee to study speaker regulations and recommend a permanent policy to the full board in May. Senator Tom White, who agreed with the state's decision not to appeal, said the board had resolved nothing; President Friday hoped the matter would be settled by May. People: William C. Friday, Dan K. Moore Place: Charlotte · Also named: Tom WhiteThe Daily Tar Heel, March 9, 1968, p. 1
  44. 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
  45. 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
  46. Herbert Aptheker returns to speak at UNC in Greenlaw Hall Twenty-five years after he was kept off campus, Aptheker spoke to students and faculty in Greenlaw Hall in a visit arranged by anthropology professor Don Nonini. People: Herbert Aptheker Place: Greenlaw Hall, UNC · Also named: Don NoniniThe Daily Tar Heel, March 25, 1991, p. 3
  47. 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. People: Daniel H. Pollitt 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
  48. Speaker Ban marker dedicated at the McCorkle Place wall On University Day a bronze marker naming the twelve student plaintiffs was dedicated at the wall where Wilkinson and Aptheker spoke, a gift of Anne Dickson Fogleman and Robert Dickson. People: Holden Thorp Place: McCorkle Place wall at Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Anne Dickson Fogleman, Robert DicksonUNC Carolina Story: The Speaker Ban Marker

Places in this history

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 11 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Filter these works by material, period, or place. Counts refer to works, not individual copies. A work may appear under more than one period or place.

Material

Histories 31Photographs & portraits 10Biography 5Letters & correspondence 5Interviews 4other types 5

Period

20th century 36World War II era 221st century 2

Place

North Carolina (statewide) 53Orange County 37Chapel Hill 31City of Durham (neighboring) 2Research Triangle 2Hillsborough 1

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Speaker Ban Law (North Carolina).

NC Cardinal UNC

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Speaker Ban Law (North Carolina).

NC Cardinal UNC Duke Library of Congress CH Historical Society

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.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with William C. Friday, November 26, 1990: interview L-0145, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Friday, William C. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

In this session with William Link, recorded in November 1990, William C. Friday concentrates on the Speaker Ban Law. The 1963 law barred Communists and certain others from speaking on state campuses, and Friday, as UNC system president, spent five years working to undo it. He discusses the law's origins, the fight over academic freedom and free speech at Chapel Hill, and relations between the university and the state. About eighty minutes; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2007, through Documenting the American South.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Speaker Ban Law (North Carolina).

NC Cardinal UNC

Communists on Campus

Billingsley, William J. · 1999 · University of Georgia Press

William J. Billingsley's history of the Speaker Ban Law, the 1963 North Carolina statute that barred known Communists from speaking on state campuses, and the fight over it at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The subtitle sets the scope: race, politics and the public university in sixties North Carolina. It treats academic freedom, anti-communist movements and free speech in the state. University of Georgia Press, 1999, 308 pages with eight pages of plates.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NCCU record: Speaker Ban Law (North Carolina).

Reviewed in Academe (2000), The American Historical Review (2001), The Journal of Southern History (2001), Journal of American History (2001), The Journal of Politics (2001).

Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL NCCU UNC Library of Congress

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.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC
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Speaking freely : UNC-CH administrators respond to freedom of expression, 1963-1970

Floren, Gillian Dae · 1989

Gillian Dae Floren examined how University of North Carolina administrators at Chapel Hill answered questions of free expression between 1963 and 1970, the years of the Speaker Ban Law, the 1969 food service employees' strike and the 1970 student strike. Completed in 1989 with a bibliography on leaves 101 to 104, it reaches to the General Assembly act regulating visiting speakers at state supported colleges.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Speaker Ban Law (North Carolina).

UNC

The coy mistress caper.

1966 · Time Inc

A four page article clipped from Life, volume 61, number 20, dated November 11, 1966, on a dispute over academic freedom at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The article concerns the instructor Michael Paull, Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson, Jesse Helms and Andrew Marvell's poem 'To His Coy Mistress'. Illustrated, with portraits.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC

Campus censorship : the North Carolina "visiting speakers" law

Pollitt, Daniel H. · 1963 · D.H. Pollitt

Daniel H. Pollitt's paper on the North Carolina visiting speakers law, the 1963 statute restricting who could speak on the state's public campuses. Prepared for distribution to the university's chapter of the American Association of University Professors and scheduled for the North Carolina Law Review of December 1963, it treats academic freedom and censorship at Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: North Carolina. Speaker Ban Law.

UNC

Commencement address.

Knight, Douglas M., 1921-2005 · 1965

A sound recording: Douglas M. Knight's commencement address at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on June 7, 1965, broadcast by radio station WUNC and preserved on one analog audiocassette. Knight took as his subject the Speaker Ban Law, the 1963 statute limiting who could speak on North Carolina campuses, and with it academic freedom and freedom of speech in the state.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Speaker Ban Law (North Carolina).

UNC

Office of Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Carol L. Folt records, 2013-2018

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Office of the Chancellor · 2013

Chancellor's office records from the tenure of Carol L. Folt at Chapel Hill, 2013 to 2018, 8 linear feet in the University Archives at UNC, collection 40024. Topics include university administration and educational fund raising, curriculum planning, health occupations schools and medical education, and race relations and college integration in North Carolina. Holden Thorp and Christopher C. Fordham also appear.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC

Rebellion in black and white : southern student activism in the 1960s

Morrow, Kelly; Sellers, Cleveland, 1944- · 2013 · The Johns Hopkins University Press

Southern student activism in the 1960s, taking in civil rights organizing, Black Power in Greensboro, the Speaker Ban Law and student movements at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It also concerns student sexual freedom and sexual ethics in Chapel Hill. Kelly Morrow and Cleveland Sellers contribute; published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in Baltimore in 2013.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: North Carolina. Speaker Ban Law.

UNC

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Picture: The Act to Regulate Visiting Speakers, in the Session Laws of 1963. Public domain. Session Laws and Resolutions of North Carolina, 1963; via the Internet Archive

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