Speaker Ban controversy, 1963–1968

In the chronology

Episodes in this history, earliest first. Each has its own page.

Other dated events here, earliest first. See these 31 dated events in the chronology →

1. 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.Search the index · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, November 13, 1963, page 1 (Gag Law Labeled 'Constitutionally Suspect' By Pollitt)
2. September 1, 1964–February 15, 1966 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.Search the index · UNC Libraries: Office of Chancellor, Paul Frederick Sharp Records, 1964-1966 (finding aid)
3. 1966 John E. Greenbacker Jr. leads the Dialectic and Philanthropic literary society 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: J. Carlyle SittersonSearch the index · Justia: Dickson v. Sitterson, 280 F. Supp. 486 (M.D.N.C. 1968)
4. 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 ApthekerDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, November 20, 1986, page 11
5. February 1, 1966 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. Aptheker accepted two days later. People: Paul Dickson III, Herbert ApthekerSearch the index · Caselaw Access Project: Dickson v. Sitterson, 280 F. Supp. 486 (M.D.N.C. 1968)
6. February 7, 1966 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: Paul Dickson III, Joe Straley, Herbert ApthekerSearch the index · North Carolina Newspapers: The Daily Tar Heel, February 8, 1966, page 1
7. 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. MooreSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, February 8, 1966, page 1
8. February 11, 1966 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: Herbert ApthekerSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, February 11, 1966, page 1
9. February 16, 1966 – January 31, 1972 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.Search the index · UNC Libraries: Office of Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Joseph Carlyle Sitterson Records, 1966-1972
10. February 28, 1966 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: Gary Waller, J. Carlyle Sitterson, Herbert ApthekerSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Letter, Stuart Matthews and Gary Waller to Chancellor J.C. Sitterson, 28 February 1966
11. February 28, 1966 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 SittersonCaselaw Access Project: Dickson v. Sitterson, 280 F. Supp. 486 (M.D.N.C. 1968), finding of fact 27
12. 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 MatthewsSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, March 2, 1966, page 1