Storyline

Opposing the Vietnam War in Chapel Hill, 1965–1973

Name: Opposing the Vietnam War in Chapel Hill, 1965–1973
Start: 1965-02-20
End: 1973
Location: Chapel Hill

How students, faculty and townspeople in Chapel Hill opposed the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1969: the early silent walks and fasts, the Wednesday vigil at the post office, the speakers and debates, draft counseling and draft resistance, the Dow Chemical sit-in and the Moratorium day of October 1969.

In briefFrom 1965 to 1969 opposition to the Vietnam War in Chapel Hill grew from a silent walk of about 30 Student Peace Union marchers to a Moratorium day in which thousands took part. Students held fasts, sing-outs and pickets, a silent vigil stood at the post office every Wednesday from January 1967, and Vice President Humphrey, Senators Morse, Mansfield and Kennedy and others spoke on the war. Draft counseling began in 1967, faculty members signed statements backing draft refusers, and in March 1968 fifteen people were arrested at a sit-in against a Dow Chemical recruiter. On October 15, 1969 some 3,500 to 5,000 marchers walked through downtown to a convocation where Mayor Howard Lee spoke. From 1970 a Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense tied ROTC to new courses, students and faculty lobbied Congress, and in April 1972 more than 2,000 students marched against the renewed bombing. The Franklin Street peace vigil went on into 1973, when local peace groups formed the Chapel Hill Peace Center.

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On February 20, 1965 about 30 Student Peace Union marchers walked in silent single file from Y-Court to Franklin Street with signs calling for negotiation in Viet Nam, and the Daily Tar Heel reported that few onlookers paid them any mind. That spring antiwar slogans were painted overnight on campus buildings and on the front door of President William Friday's home, and in May some 150 students heard the national teach-in on the war by closed-circuit radio. In October peace groups held a soup fast and a Y Court rally, while on Veterans Day more than 1,200 students, midshipmen and cadets gathered at the Polk Place flagpole in support of U.S. policy. In 1966 about 100 students held a peace sing-out at Silent Sam, six Student Peace Union members fasted for five days, and about 40 pickets from Students for a Democratic Society, led by chapter president Gary Waller, marched outside Memorial Hall as the South Vietnamese ambassador arrived to speak.

From January 4, 1967 a silent vigil against the war stood every Wednesday at noon in front of the Chapel Hill post office; the first drew more than 120 people, and in February residents of the Battle-Vance-Pettigrew dormitory across the street answered it with signs and military music. Between February and May, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, Senators Wayne Morse, Mike Mansfield and Edward M. Kennedy, and Allard Lowenstein, in a debate with a State Department officer, all spoke on the war in Chapel Hill, and nearly 4,000 students voted in a YM-YWCA referendum on it. About 150 Vietnam Summer marchers walked down Franklin Street to Silent Sam in August, a free draft counseling service opened in November, and in December 140 UNC faculty members were among the signers of a statement backing students who refused the draft. When a candidate for Congress demanded in January 1968 that political science professor Lewis Lipsitz be removed for a letter on the war, Friday and Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson replied that he was entitled to his opinion as a citizen.

On March 18, 1968, after about 50 pickets organized by Students for a Democratic Society protested a Dow Chemical recruiter at Gardner Hall, 15 people sat down outside the interview room and were arrested by campus police, and the Recorder's Court convicted and fined 14 of them. Joan Baez spoke against the war and the draft in Memorial Hall in April, and a day-long moratorium on classes brought speeches and forums to McCorkle Place on April 26. That fall students began the North Carolina Draft Resistance Union, antiwar groups formed the United Anti-War Mobilization Front, which marched down Franklin Street in December for soldiers' free speech, and Lipsitz debated a Dow spokesman on napalm in Gerrard Hall. In February 1969 the Chapel Hill Friends Meeting voted to oppose cooperation with the draft, and faculty debated dropping ROTC. On the national Moratorium day, October 15, 1969, students read the names of the war dead, about 400 people stood in the vigil, and 3,500 to 5,000 marchers by the Daily Tar Heel's counts walked through downtown to a Memorial Hall convocation where Mayor Howard Lee spoke. In a campus referendum in November, 44.9 percent of 1,879 student voters favored immediate total withdrawal, and in December residents and students formed United Citizens for Peace.

In March 1970 the Faculty Council created a Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense, with the Navy and Air Force ROTC programs affiliated with it, and set rules for ROTC credit; the curriculum began under its first director, historian Samuel R. Williamson Jr., in 1972. The North Carolina Moratorium Committee's Festival of Life drew fewer than 3,000 people to Ehringhaus Field in April 1970, and in December students marched to the Naval Armory and read a mock eviction notice to the NROTC. In February 1971 about 85 UNC students and faculty rode to Washington to lobby Congress for the Vietnam Disengagement Act, and Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson, acting personally, joined the sponsors of a North Carolina committee to end the war; that April Vietnam veterans described war crimes at a Veterans for Peace program in Gerrard Hall, and several hundred people celebrated the People's Peace Treaty. After the bombing of North Vietnam resumed, about 500 students stood in a silent vigil in Polk Place on April 19, 1972, a night march across campus grew to more than 2,000, and graduate students began a week-long fast at the Polk Place flagpole. In January 1973 sixteen Chapel Hill pastors appealed for an end to the war, and the weekly Franklin Street peace vigil, disbanded after the cease-fire announcement, re-formed when American planes kept bombing Laos and Cambodia. Sister Elizabeth McAlister of the Harrisburg Seven spoke at the Wesley Foundation that February, and by March peace groups had joined in the Chapel Hill Peace Center.

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StorylineUNC’s student strike against the Vietnam War, May 1970After the invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State killings, some 6,000 students joined a strike that suspended business as usual on campus

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February 20, 1965 Student Peace Union marchers walk through Chapel Hill against the war in Vietnam About 30 Student Peace Union marchers walked silently in single file from Y-Court to Franklin Street and back with signs calling for negotiation in Viet Nam, leaving four to picket the post office. The Daily Tar Heel called it Chapel Hill's first street demonstration in six months and reported that few onlookers paid it any mind. Place: Y-Court to Franklin Street and the post office, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Franklin StreetSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 21, 1965, p. 2
April 22, 1965 "Get out of Vietnam" is painted on the gun outside the Naval Armory Overnight, someone lettered an antiwar slogan on the antiaircraft gun on the armory lawn; NROTC officers called it a childish prank. Place: NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel HillSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill, National Register nomination (OR1541), p. 39 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, April 29, 1965, p. 1
April 27-28, 1965 Antiwar slogans are painted on campus buildings and on President Friday's door Overnight, messages calling for U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and 'jobs and freedom for all,' many with the Student Peace Union's emblem, were painted on the Old Well, the steps of South Building, Wilson Library, Manning Hall, Lenoir Hall, Y-Court, the Air Force ROTC building (marked 'Department of Murder'), a campus police scooter and the front door of Consolidated University President William Friday's home. The Student Peace Union said it did not condone the defacing, and workmen found the ink would have to be sandblasted off the marble. Place: UNC campus and President William Friday's home, Chapel Hill · Also named: William Friday · Also mentions: Lenoir Hall, Manning Hall, Old Well, Wilson LibrarySearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 29, 1965, p. 1
May 15, 1965 Chapel Hill joins the national Viet Nam teach-in by closed-circuit radio Some 150 students heard the nationally broadcast debate on U.S. policy in Viet Nam in Carroll Hall, Gerrard Hall and Roland Parker Lounge, and a panel of UNC and Duke professors continued the discussion afterward. The local forum was sponsored by the Committee of Faculty Concerned About the War in Viet Nam, the campus YM-YWCA and the Carolina Political Union. People: Joseph W. Straley Place: Carroll Hall, Gerrard Hall and Graham Memorial, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Gerrard HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 16, 1965, p. 1
October 15, 1965 Peace groups hold a soup fast and Y-Court rally against the Vietnam War The Student Peace Union, Students for a Democratic Society, the Durham-Chapel Hill branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and 62 citizens who signed a Chapel Hill Weekly ad asked people to skip a meal for soup and give the savings to CARE for Vietnamese villagers, and held a peace rally in Y Court. The lunch collection brought $97 and the fund passed $150, though Student Legislature had voted 22 to 17 the night before to urge students not to take part. Place: Y Court and Franklin Street restaurants, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 16, 1965, p. 1
November 11, 1965 Students and ROTC units hold a Veterans Day rally backing the Vietnam War More than 1,200 students, Navy midshipmen and Air Force cadets gathered at the Polk Place flagpole for Veterans Day ceremonies that a student group had joined to show support for U.S. policy in Vietnam. Student Body President Paul Dickson said he backed President Johnson's goal, and the group laid a wreath that was later placed on a soldier's grave in the Chapel Hill Cemetery. People: Paul Dickson III Place: Polk Place, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel Hill CemeterySearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 12, 1965, p. 1
March 26, 1966 About 100 students hold a peace sing-out at Silent Sam during the national days of protest About 100 UNC students gathered at noon around the Confederate monument on McCorkle Place for a 'Sing Out for Peace and Freedom' against the Vietnam War, with a jug band and 'Make Love, Not War' buttons, one of the weekend's anti-war demonstrations across the country. The Daily Tar Heel's front-page account was a visiting student editor's sketch that mocked the singers. Place: Silent Sam, McCorkle Place, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: McCorkle PlaceSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 27, 1966, p. 1
May 2-6, 1966 Student Peace Union members fast for five days against the Vietnam War Six members of the Student Peace Union lived on orange juice from early Monday, May 2, until a half-hour silent vigil in Polk Place at dusk on Friday, May 6, to protest American involvement in Vietnam, while others fasted from sunrise to sunset in sympathy. The group held open-air seminars and dormitory discussions on the war and the draft through the week; the largest drew 90 to 100 people, the SPU said. Place: Polk Place, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1966, p. 1
September 21, 1966 Students for a Democratic Society pickets the South Vietnamese ambassador at Memorial Hall About 40 pickets from the UNC chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, led by chapter president Gary Waller, marched outside Memorial Hall against the Vietnam War as Ambassador Vu Van Thai arrived to speak, while Young Republicans carried signs backing the war. Both groups stacked their signs and went in to hear the speech, which drew about 1,000 people. People: Gary Waller Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Vu Van ThaiSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 22, 1966, p. 1
January 4, 1967 to 1973 Wednesday vigils against the Vietnam War at the Chapel Hill post office Every Wednesday from January 4, 1967 through 1973, Charlotte Adams and fellow protesters, whom the Duke newsletter places in the Chapel Hill branch of WILPF, stood in silent vigil from noon to 1 p.m. in front of the Chapel Hill post office against U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. The first vigil drew more than 120 students and townspeople and was organized by the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of the Chapel Hill Friends Meeting, the Daily Tar Heel reported. People: Charlotte Adams Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel Hill Friends Meeting, Chapel Hill post officeSearch the index · Duke University Libraries, Sallie Bingham Center: Women at the Center newsletter, "WILPF: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally" · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, January 5, 1967, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, October 3, 1969, p. 7; The Daily Tar Heel, November 17, 1971, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, October 9, 1980, p. 11
February 1, 1967 Battle-Vance-Pettigrew residents counter-picket the Wednesday peace vigil As more than 200 students, professors and townspeople stood in the weekly silent vigil against the Vietnam war along Franklin Street from the post office, residents of the Battle-Vance-Pettigrew dormitory across the street hung signs and played military music from a window while a dozen counter-pickets held signs. Chapel Hill police had the record player turned down, and a national wire service carried the story. Place: Franklin Street at the post office and Battle-Vance-Pettigrew dormitory, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Franklin StreetSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 2, 1967, p. 1
February 28, 1967 Vice President Humphrey defends Vietnam policy in Memorial Hall as SDS pickets march outside Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey landed by helicopter in Kenan Stadium and answered questions on Vietnam and foreign policy from a Carolina Forum panel of two professors and two students before an overflow crowd in Memorial Hall, with Governor Dan Moore, Senators Sam Ervin and B. Everett Jordan, President William Friday and Chancellor Sitterson attending. Outside, 50 to 60 pickets organized by Students for a Democratic Society marched with signs against the war, and the Daily Tar Heel reported no disturbance. People: Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio) Humphrey, Gary Waller Place: Memorial Hall, University campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: Sam Ervin, William Friday, B. Everett Jordan · Also mentions: Kenan StadiumSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 1, 1967, p. 1

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March 9, 1967 Senator Wayne Morse attacks Vietnam policy at the state Conference on World Affairs Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, a Democratic critic of President Johnson's war policy, told a large audience in Memorial Hall at the 17th annual North Carolina Conference on World Affairs that he would not vote 'a single dollar' to send American soldiers to die in Vietnam. He urged a United Nations trusteeship and a reconvened Geneva conference to end the war. Place: Memorial Hall, University campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: Wayne MorseSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 10, 1967, p. 1
March 13, 1967 Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield urges United Nations action on Vietnam in a Memorial Hall address In a rare public speech to the Carolina Forum in Memorial Hall, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield proposed that the United States ask the Security Council to invite all parties, including China and North Vietnam, to discuss the war and to seek a World Court opinion on the Geneva accords. He also said American forces in Europe could be cut from six divisions to two or three; WUNC-TV carried the speech live. Place: Memorial Hall, University campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: Mike Mansfield · Also mentions: WUNC-TVSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 14, 1967, p. 1
April 15, 1967 About 200 people stand in a silent vigil on Franklin Street in support of the national peace marches Some 200 students, faculty members and townspeople lined one side of Franklin Street from noon to 1 p.m. on the day of the large marches against the Vietnam War in New York and San Francisco. The Chapel Hill weekly peace vigil, which had stood every Wednesday since January, sponsored the stand. Place: Franklin Street, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 16, 1967, p. 1
May 3, 1967 Allard Lowenstein and a State Department officer debate the Vietnam War before a packed Hill Hall More than 850 students and professors crowded Hill Hall to hear Allard Lowenstein, a UNC graduate and critic of the war, call for an end to the bombing of North Vietnam and a pullback to enclaves, while Daniel I. Davidson of the State Department defended U.S. policy. The Carolina Forum sponsored the debate before a planned campus referendum on the war; the Daily Tar Heel reported a standing ovation for Lowenstein. People: Allard K. Lowenstein Place: Hill Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Daniel I. Davidson, Allard LowensteinSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 4, 1967, p. 1
May 9, 1967 Sen. Edward M. Kennedy speaks on Asia after Vietnam to an overflow Memorial Hall crowd Speaking for the Carolina Forum to more than 2,000 students, faculty members and guests, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts urged restraint in Asia after the war and said he favored de-escalation, an end to the bombing of North Vietnam and more effort toward negotiations. Several hundred students walked with him afterward across McCorkle Place to Morehead Planetarium. People: Edward M. (Edward Moore) Kennedy Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: McCorkle Place, Morehead PlanetariumSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 10, 1967, p. 1
May 16, 1967 The campus YMCA holds a student referendum on the Vietnam War After Student Legislature voted on May 11 to cancel its own Vietnam referendum, the YM-YWCA ran the poll at five campus polling places. Nearly 4,000 students voted; the de-escalation choice (stop the bombing and seek negotiations) led all others, while the hawkish choices together drew a slight majority, the Daily Tar Heel reported. Place: Y Court, Wilson Library, Scuttlebutt, Lenoir and Chase dining halls, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 17, 1967, p. 1
August 5, 1967 Vietnam Summer marchers protest the war down Franklin Street About 150 people, among them students, professors, townspeople and small children, marched a mile down Franklin Street from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro town line to Silent Sam on the eve of Hiroshima Day, where about 50 more joined a rally of anti-war speeches and poems. UNC Vietnam Summer held the march with town police and University permission; the only visible counter-protest was a sign held by two American Legion members. Place: Franklin Street from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro line to Silent Sam, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Franklin StreetSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, August 8, 1967, p. 1
October 24, 1967 Bread and Puppet Theater stages an antiwar play in Y Court Masked players of the New York Bread and Puppet Theater performed a short play about the Vietnam War in a drizzling Y Court at midmorning, narrated by skull-masked musicians and ending with a soldier carried off under a white sheet, and the crowd that gathered applauded. The troupe, founded by Peter Schumann, was also booked that night at the Presbyterian Student Center and the next night at the Wesley Foundation. Place: Y Court, UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: Peter Schumann · Also mentions: Presbyterian Student Center, Wesley FoundationSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 26, 1967, p. 1
November 17, 1967 Westminster Fellowship stages an antiwar happening in Y Court Members of the Presbyterian students' Westminster Fellowship unrolled a long painted scroll of a Vietnamese farm family under a sky of bombers in Y Court, until five students planted in the crowd tore it to shreds and the national anthem played. The presentation advertised a showing of the antiwar film The War Game to raise money for war-injured Vietnamese children. Place: Y Court, UNC campus, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 19, 1967, p. 1
by November 10, 1967 A free draft counseling service opens in Chapel Hill About fifteen faculty members, graduate students and clergy began advising students free of charge on the new draft law and conscientious objector status, in a service grown out of the Vietnam Summer antiwar group that its organizers said would take no side on the war. By November 10 some 25 to 30 students had come to it for advice about losing their student deferments. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 11, 1967, p. 1
December 7, 1967 Antiwar groups hold a Vietnam teach-in at Memorial Hall Antiwar groups held a marathon teach-in on the Vietnam War and the draft in Memorial Hall as part of the second national Stop the Draft Week, but only about 60 students and faculty members came to the afternoon session. Political science professor Lewis Lipsitz and the Presbyterian and Baptist chaplains Harry Smith and Jack Halsell spoke, and a film on life in North Vietnam was shown. Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Lewis Lipsitz, Harry Smith, Jack HalsellSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, December 8, 1967, p. 1
by December 7, 1967 UNC faculty members sign a petition backing students who refuse the draft Almost 175 full-time college teachers in North Carolina, 140 of them at UNC, signed a statement supporting students who conscientiously refused military service, to be sent to President Johnson, the Justice Department and members of Congress as a protest against a draft law that recognized objection only to all wars. A psychology professor who helped draft it said the signers meant to give moral support to the refusers and work to change the law. Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, December 7, 1967, p. 1
January 9, 1968 Friday and Sitterson refuse a demand to fire professor Lewis Lipsitz When Reece B. Gardner, a Republican candidate for Congress in the First District, telegraphed a demand that political science professor Lewis Lipsitz be removed for a letter calling a U.S. victory the worst outcome of the Vietnam War, Consolidated University President William C. Friday and Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson replied within two hours that Lipsitz was entitled to his opinion as a citizen. Lipsitz said the next day that he was a critic of the war, not a partisan of the Viet Cong. People: William C. Friday, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: Lewis Lipsitz, Reece B. GardnerSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, January 10, 1968, p. 1
by February 8, 1968 Faculty draft counselors organize a dial-a-counselor service Fourteen draft counselors at UNC, among them radio and television professor Robert Gwyn and psychology professors Roger Wells and Forrest Young, completed organizing a counseling service begun the semester before, adding a telephone number men could call for a list of counselors besides their Monday and Thursday table in Y Court. The counselors said they advised on deferments and conscientious objector claims but did not urge anyone to refuse induction. Place: Y Court, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Robert Gwyn, Roger Wells, Forrest YoungSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 8, 1968, p. 1
March 4, 1968 About 50 students gather in Y Court to picket Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who cancels About 50 demonstrators, mostly students, gathered in Y Court to picket Attorney General Ramsey Clark over the prosecution of Dr. Benjamin Spock and the Orangeburg killings, but Clark had canceled his law school speech; the Southern Student Organizing Committee rescheduled, and about 40 people found him absent again on March 11. Place: Y Court, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 5, 1968, p. 1
March 18, 1968 Campus police arrest 15 anti-war demonstrators at a sit-in against a Dow Chemical recruiter About 50 pickets organized by Students for a Democratic Society protested outside Gardner Hall against a Dow Chemical recruiter, whose company made napalm for the war in Vietnam, and took their demands to Dean C. O. Cathey in South Building. After the recruiter declined to debate them, 15 people sat down in the hall outside the interview room and were arrested by campus police under the state law against disrupting business in a public building. Place: Gardner Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: C. O. CatheySearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 19, 1968, p. 1
March 19, 1968 Five women carry cardboard coffins across campus in an anti-war procession Five UNC women dressed as Vietnamese peasants carried three cardboard coffins and dolls through Polk Place, Y Court and Lenoir Hall and left the coffins at the flagpole in Polk Place. The Daily Tar Heel reported that the 'guerrilla skit' was sponsored by Students for a Democratic Society and the Southern Student Organizing Committee, which the night before had collected $75 toward bond for the 15 people arrested at the Dow sit-in. Place: Polk Place, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Lenoir HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 20, 1968, p. 1
March 26, 1968 Chapel Hill Recorder's Court convicts 14 of the Dow sit-in demonstrators Judge L. J. Phipps found 14 of the 15 people arrested at the March 18 Dow Chemical sit-in guilty of violating the state law against obstructing a public building; the charge against the fifteenth was dropped because no witness could identify him. He fined twelve of them $25 and two Southern Student Organizing Committee field workers $50, and withheld final judgment for six months on condition that they pay at once and stage no more illegal sit-ins. People: Luther James Phipps Place: Recorder's Court, Town Hall, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 27, 1968, p. 1
April 3, 1968 Draft resisters hold an anti-draft rally in Y Court On the third national day of draft resistance, The Resistance held a noon rally in Y Court; the Daily Tar Heel reported that attendance was sparse in a cold, misty rain. UNC and Duke demonstrators then joined a peace service in Duke Chapel and marched to the Durham draft board, where a petition backing draft resisters, signed by more than 460 faculty members, over 250 of them from Chapel Hill, was read. Place: Y Court, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 4, 1968, p. 1
April 5, 1968 UNC Faculty Council defeats a bill to make campus recruiters discuss their organizations' issues The Faculty Council defeated on a voice vote, by about two to one, a bill presented by Professor William Fleming that would have required any outside organization recruiting on campus to discuss its issues in an open forum, a proposal that grew out of the Dow Chemical protest. It tabled a resolution favoring a lottery system for the draft. Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: William FlemingSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 7, 1968, p. 1
April 8, 1968 Joan Baez speaks against the war and the draft in Memorial Hall Folk singer Joan Baez spoke to an estimated 700 people at an anti-war, anti-draft meeting in Memorial Hall sponsored by Students for a Democratic Society, the Southern Student Organizing Committee and The Resistance, and two UNC students handed her their draft cards afterward. She shared the program with her husband, a Resistance leader, and Ira Sandperl of the Institute for Non-violence. Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Joan Baez, Ira SandperlSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 9, 1968, p. 1
April 26, 1968 Students and faculty hold a moratorium on classes against the war in McCorkle Place A day-long moratorium on classes, part of a national protest, brought speeches, forums and films on the Vietnam War, the draft, poverty and racism to McCorkle Place after Dean of Men James O. Cansler ruled out loudspeakers in Polk Place. About 300 people heard Howard Fuller open the day and organizer Sam Austell counted as many as 500 at times; at dawn students had set up a mock cemetery of about 400 graves in Polk Place. The sponsors were the Baptist Student Union, Black Student Movement, Concerned Faculty Group, Hillel Foundation, Students for McCarthy, Wesley Foundation and YM-YWCA. Place: McCorkle Place, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Sam Austell, Howard Fuller, James O. Cansler · Also mentions: Polk Place, Wesley FoundationSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 27, 1968, p. 1
by October 27, 1968 UNC students start the North Carolina Draft Resistance Union Students at UNC began the North Carolina Draft Resistance Union, a statewide group of draft-age men publicly announcing their refusal to serve in the armed forces, with the backing of the New University Conference and the Southern Student Organizing Committee; it took a booth on Time-Out Day. Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 27, 1968, p. 1
November 11, 1968 Antiwar students march quietly into the Veterans Day ceremony in Polk Place About 30 members of the Southern Student Organizing Committee and the Young Socialist Alliance marched in quietly with signs during the annual Veterans Day observance by the Navy and Air Force ROTC units in Polk Place, which President William Friday and Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson attended. The same day a Fort Bragg private at an antiwar table in Y Court drew a crowd of about 150. People: William C. Friday, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: Polk Place, University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 12, 1968, p. 1
by November 9, 1968 Antiwar groups form the United Anti-War Mobilization Front in Chapel Hill Representatives of the Southern Student Organizing Committee, the Young Socialist Alliance, Students for a Democratic Society and other groups formed the United Anti-War Mobilization Front "to coordinate action in North Carolina against the war," according to its spokesman. Its first plans were teach-ins and leafleting with soldiers from Fort Bragg. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 9, 1968, p. 1
December 7, 1968 More than 100 march down Franklin Street for soldiers' free speech More than 100 people marched behind a banner reading "Free Speech for GI's" from the Morehead Planetarium lot down Franklin Street to a rally in front of the First Baptist Church on Roberson Street, where four military veterans spoke. Chapel Hill police directed traffic for the United Anti-War Mobilization Front's march, and about 20 marchers went on to Fayetteville to hand out leaflets downtown. Place: Franklin Street and First Baptist Church, Roberson Street, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Morehead Planetarium, Franklin Street, Roberson StreetSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, December 8, 1968, p. 1
December 11, 1968 Lewis Lipsitz and a Dow Chemical spokesman debate napalm in Gerrard Hall Before a packed Gerrard Hall, political science professor Lewis Lipsitz and E. N. Brandt, Dow Chemical's director of public relations, debated Dow's making of napalm for the Vietnam War and its right to recruit at UNC. The YMCA-sponsored debate followed the spring 1968 protest in Gardner Hall, where 15 people were arrested, and a reported ruling by Dean C. O. Cathey that Dow could not recruit on campus without taking part in an open debate. Place: Gerrard Hall, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Lewis Lipsitz, E. N. Brandt, C. O. Cathey · Also mentions: Gardner HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, December 13, 1968, p. 1
December 13, 1968 Dean Cathey sends antiwar leafleters out of Gardner Hall during CIA recruiting Dean of Student Affairs C. O. Cathey told five New University Conference students handing out leaflets against the Central Intelligence Agency, whose recruiter was interviewing in Gardner Hall, that they were blocking the hall and must leaflet outside the building. Place: Gardner Hall, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: C. O. CatheySearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, December 14, 1968, p. 1
by December 13, 1968 Graduate students pledge part of their federal fellowships to draft resistance Eighteen graduate students on federal fellowships or the GI Bill signed a petition pledging part of that money to the North Carolina Draft Resistance Union and the national Resistance "in open condemnation" of the Vietnam War. Place: University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, December 13, 1968, p. 1
February 5, 1969 UNC faculty publicly debate dropping ROTC An open faculty discussion of removing ROTC was followed by a student-faculty advisory committee on academic credit for ROTC courses under historian George V. Taylor, which proposed a Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense to take in naval and aerospace science while keeping ROTC as an option. The Daily Tar Heel reported that Arts and Sciences Dean R. H. Dawson set up the committee and that it first met on April 23, 1969. People: George Vanderbeck Taylor Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: R. H. DawsonSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill, National Register nomination (OR1541), p. 39 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, April 24, 1969, p. 1
February 1969 The Chapel Hill Friends Meeting votes to oppose cooperation with the draft At its business meeting the Chapel Hill Friends Meeting adopted the October 1968 National Quaker Conference statement calling conscription inconsistent with the teachings of Christ and refusing to support draft reform. A member said the Quakers adopted it through discussion, without opposition. Place: Friends Meeting, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel Hill Friends MeetingSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 21, 1969, p. 1
September 25, 1969 University president and six chancellors tell faculty to meet classes on Moratorium Day In a joint release issued at Chapel Hill, President William C. Friday and the chancellors of the six Consolidated University campuses said the University would run normally on October 15 and that faculty who willfully refused their assigned duties would come under the trustees' July 7 disruption policy, while student attendance was left to each school. Local Moratorium organizers took it as leaving students free to take part. People: William C. Friday, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 26, 1969, p. 1
October 15, 1969 Thousands in Chapel Hill observe the Vietnam Moratorium On the national Moratorium day students read the names of the war dead before the Naval ROTC building from dawn, about 400 people stood in the weekly peace vigil on Franklin Street, and some 3,500 to 5,000 marchers by the Daily Tar Heel's counts walked through downtown to a Memorial Hall convocation where Mayor Howard Lee and journalist Jack Newfield spoke. Organizers said about 7,000 took part and 60 percent of students stayed out of class; objectors tore down a National Liberation Front flag carried at the start of the march. People: Howard N. Lee Place: Memorial Hall and Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Jack Newfield · Also mentions: Franklin StreetSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 16, 1969, p. 1
November 12, 1969 The University Hearings Committee hears a Moratorium-day case under the new Disruptions Policy A UNC-Charlotte part-time sociology lecturer, whom the Daily Tar Heel called the first person tried under the policy, put his case before the seven-member committee at Morehead Planetarium, arguing he had given assignments for the class he skipped on October 15 and meant to make it up. About 250 rallied at the Book-Ex beforehand and about 125 marched to the Planetarium; oral arguments were set for December 18 before chairman William B. Aycock. People: William B. Aycock Place: Morehead Planetarium, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 13, 1969, p. 1
November 18, 1969 About 40 students protest CIA recruiting at Gardner Hall Charging that the Central Intelligence Agency could not meet the Placement Service's rule on disclosing finances and was unfit to recruit, about 40 students marched with signs outside Gardner Hall and then crowded into the Placement Service office. Campus Security Chief Arthur Beaumont ordered them out and threatened to call police, and they resumed picketing outside. Place: Gardner Hall, UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: Arthur BeaumontSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 19, 1969, p. 1
November 20, 1969 UNC students vote in a campus referendum on the Vietnam War In a referendum sponsored by Scott Residence College and the Craige Graduate Center, 44.9 percent of 1,879 student voters favored immediate total withdrawal, 29.3 percent withdrawal by December 1970, 21.1 percent the president's policy and about five percent escalation. The results were to go to President Nixon, Governor Scott and the state's senators. Place: UNC campus, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 22, 1969, p. 1
by December 5, 1969 Chapel Hill residents and students form United Citizens for Peace United Citizens for Peace, a new organization of Chapel Hill residents and University students working with the North Carolina Mobilization Committee, set out to build a lasting peace group, canvass eastern North Carolina and organize other campuses. It began by selling bus tickets and arranging car pools for the December 13 GI antiwar march in Fayetteville. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, December 7, 1969, p. 1
March 6, 1970 UNC's Faculty Council establishes a Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense with ROTC tied to it After long debate the Faculty Council adopted the Taylor committee's recommendation to offer courses on war, militarism and defense aimed at an eventual major, and to keep the Navy and Air Force ROTC programs in affiliation with the new curriculum, adding "peace" to its name on an opponent's amendment. Academic credit for ROTC courses was left for a special meeting the next week. People: George Vanderbeck Taylor Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 7, 1970, p. 1
March 13, 1970 The Faculty Council adopts rules for ROTC credit and the new Peace, War and Defense curriculum At a special meeting the Faculty Council approved eight more proposals from the Taylor Committee's ROTC report: ROTC students could count up to four ROTC courses toward a degree and had to take four other courses in the new Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense, ROTC officers of assistant professor rank and above became voting members of the General Faculty, and the Navy was asked to lift its limits on midshipmen's majors and marriages. SDS members entered the meeting with petitions for laid-off SAGA workers. Place: 111 Murphey Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: George TaylorSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 14, 1970, p. 1
April 11-12, 1970 The Festival of Life antiwar gathering comes to Ehringhaus Field and Carmichael Auditorium The North Carolina Moratorium Committee's two-day Festival of Life drew fewer than 3,000 people on its first day, far below the 10,000 organizers expected, for rock bands, workshops and speakers on Ehringhaus Field, among them Black Panther spokesman Larry Little of Winston-Salem and two antiwar soldiers, and for an evening in Carmichael Auditorium with Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton and Arthur Waskow. Retired Brigadier General Hugh Hester, a 1916 UNC graduate, spoke the second afternoon, and antiwar leader Rennie Davis that night. Place: Ehringhaus Field and Carmichael Auditorium, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Larry Little, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Arthur Waskow, Hugh Hester, Rennie DavisSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 12, 1970, p. 1
April 30, 1970 Student Legislature passes a resolution calling a class boycott over the invasion of Cambodia On the night of Nixon's Cambodia announcement the Student Legislature passed a resolution urging students to boycott classes on May 6. Student Body President Tom Bello called the strike and a student body meeting the next day, before the Kent State killings turned the one-day boycott into a general strike. People: Tom Bello Place: Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, May 6, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)
May 1, 1970 More than 1,500 UNC students sign a petition to President Nixon against the Cambodia invasion The day after U.S. troops entered Cambodia, more than 1,500 UNC students signed a petition to be wired to President Nixon deploring the deployment, and student body president Tommy Bello called an emergency meeting of the whole student body for May 6. Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Tommy BelloThe Daily Tar Heel, May 2, 1970, p. 1
May 5, 1970 Antiwar marchers lower the Naval Armory flag for the Kent State dead During a 2,000-student march against the Cambodia invasion, protesters took down the flag at the armory to half staff for the students killed at Kent State; NROTC students pushed back and raised it again before the march moved on to South Building. Place: NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel HillNC State Historic Preservation Office: Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill, National Register nomination (OR1541), p. 39 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, May 6, 1970, p. 1
May 5-6, 1970 More than 3,000 students march at night to the chancellor's and the president's homes A candlelit march that began with about 40 Granville Towers residents grew to more than 3,000 students, who held a memorial for the Kent State dead in the Pit and gathered on Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson's lawn on Country Club Road and then at President William Friday's house on Franklin Street. Neither man appeared, and the march dwindled by 2 a.m. after an argument over a sit-in at Franklin and Columbia streets. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, William C. Friday Place: Country Club Road and Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Franklin and Columbia streets, Granville Towers, Country Club Road, Franklin StreetThe Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1970, p. 1
May 1970 UNC student strike of 1970 After the Kent State shootings and the invasion of Cambodia, UNC students began a class boycott on May 5, 1970, and more than 4,000 people marched through downtown Chapel Hill the next day. Classes were not cancelled; the faculty instead voted to let striking students take grades on work completed or finish courses later. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Tom Bello Place: Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1970, p. 1
May 6, 1970 A candlelight memorial for the Kent State dead draws 2,500 in Chapel Hill On the night of the second strike day about 2,500 students held a candlelight service in McCorkle Place for the four students killed at Kent State, marched by candlelight down Franklin Street and back to Polk Place, and many camped there overnight in a peace vigil. Organizers announced 25 liberation classes taught by students and faculty for the next day. Place: McCorkle Place and Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Polk Place, Franklin StreetThe Daily Tar Heel, May 8, 1970, p. 1
May 6, 1970 President Friday and the six chancellors ask North Carolina's senators to stop the war's widening At the student body meeting in Polk Place, Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson read a telegram from President William Friday and the chancellors of all six Consolidated University campuses to Senators B. Everett Jordan and Sam Ervin reporting deep and widespread apprehension among students and faculty over the widening war in Southeast Asia and asking for immediate steps to prevent further escalation and hasten its end. People: William C. Friday, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: Polk Place, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: B. Everett Jordan, Sam ErvinThe Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1970, p. 1
May 6, 1970 The student body meets in Polk Place and more than 4,000 march through downtown Chapel Hill behind four coffins Tom Bello chaired an emergency meeting of the student body in Polk Place, then led a march half a mile long down Franklin Street behind four coffins for the Kent State dead; estimates ran from 4,000 to 6,000. That night 900 students planned the boycott, 2,500 held a candlelight memorial at McCorkle Place and marched again down Franklin Street, and strikers camped in Polk Place for an all-night vigil. People: Tom Bello Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: McCorkle Place, Polk Place, Franklin StreetThe Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)
May 7, 1970 The general faculty votes to let striking students take their grades as they stand or finish coursework later With more than 4,000 students rallying outside, the general faculty meeting in Hill Hall overwhelmingly approved a substitute motion by Marvin Silver and Gerhard Lenski calling the strike 'a reasonable, peaceful and responsible course of action' and allowing final grades on work completed so far or delayed completion of course requirements, with a right of appeal. Faculty chairman Daniel Okun's letter the next day explained the policy as no penalties for strike absences and make-up exams for those who could not in conscience sit the scheduled exam. People: Joe Straley, Daniel A. Okun, Oscar Knefler Rice Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Marvin Silver, Gerhard Lenski, Daniel Okun · Also mentions: Hill HallThe Daily Tar Heel, May 8, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)
May 8, 1970 A homemade bomb shatters a Student Stores window during the student strike Early on May 8, during the student strike, a homemade bomb set under a brace on the front window of the Student Stores blew an 8- to 10-inch hole in the plate glass and cracked it top to bottom, doing about $1,000 in damage; no one was hurt. Chapel Hill police sent the fragments to the State Bureau of Investigation, and the store manager said the cost would come out of the store's scholarship fund. Place: Student Stores, UNC, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, May 9, 1970, p. 1
May 9-10, 1970 Strike volunteers canvass Chapel Hill and Carrboro door to door against the war Over the weekend of May 9 and 10, about 250 to 300 UNC students went door to door in Chapel Hill and Carrboro asking townspeople to support the antiwar movement, as Mayor Howard Lee had urged in a statement opposing the move into Cambodia. People: Howard N. Lee Place: Chapel Hill and CarrboroThe Daily Tar Heel, May 12, 1970, p. 1
May 9, 1970 Student Government's 'The Strike Continues?' release turns the strike toward canvassing and calls a Memorial Hall teach-in Tom Bello's Student Government press release declared that rallies alone would not end the war and redirected the strike, which it said now involved well over half the student body, toward canvassing, petitions and visits to Congress. It announced a faculty panel on the war for 3 p.m. Monday, May 11 in Memorial Hall with Samuel Wells, James Leutze, Andrew Scott, Daniel Pollitt and David Lapkin. People: Tom Bello, Daniel H. Pollitt Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Samuel F. Wells, James R. Leutze, Andrew Scott, Daniel Pollitt, David Lapkin, James Leutze · Also mentions: Memorial HallNC Anchor (State Library of North Carolina): Primary Source: Campus Protests at UNC Chapel Hill
May 11, 1970 Students sit in at South Building and hand Chancellor Sitterson a petition of 800 names confessing to the disruption policy Seventy-five to 100 students occupied the South Building lobby for over an hour to protest the trustees' disruption policy and its use against three students charged after the December cafeteria strike. Three were admitted to Chancellor Sitterson's office with a petition of 800 UNC students indicting themselves for violating the policy during the strike's first days; Sitterson said the matter lay with President Friday. Bello and the strike steering committee condemned the sit-in. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, William C. Friday, Tom Bello Place: Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, May 12, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)
by May 12, 1970 Strikers organize a Union for National Draft Opposition center at UNC A chapter of the Union for National Draft Opposition, founded at Princeton during the strike, was organized at UNC as the union's southeastern regional center, with offices in the Carolina Union and Meyer Dworsky of the UNC Draft Counseling Service as regional director. Place: Carolina Union, Chapel Hill · Also named: Meyer DworskyThe Daily Tar Heel, May 13, 1970, p. 1
spring 1970 (reported November 10, 1970) UNC Veterans Against the War, formed in the student strike, becomes N.C. Veterans for Peace A veterans' antiwar group started during the May 1970 student strike as UNC Veterans Against the War renamed itself N.C. Veterans for Peace, began recruiting veterans across the state and was incorporating as a non-profit; it called for a cease-fire in Indochina and halving military spending. Place: UNC, Chapel Hill (meetings in Murphey Hall)The Daily Tar Heel, November 10, 1970, p. 1
December 2, 1970 Students march on the Naval Armory and serve an eviction notice on the NROTC After two 1969 West Point graduates, both Army lieutenants, spoke against ROTC to about 100 students in Murphey Hall, student protesters marched to the armory and read a mock eviction notice to the NROTC, arguing the revised ROTC curriculum only made military training easier to accept. Place: NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Murphey HallSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill, National Register nomination (OR1541), p. 40 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, December 1, 1970, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, December 4, 1970, p. 1
February 23, 1971 Washington Witness II takes UNC students and faculty to Congress to press for an end to the war About 85 UNC students and faculty, with some 40 others from across the state, rode three chartered buses from Chapel Hill to Washington to urge members of Congress to back the Vietnam Disengagement Act of 1971. The group, organized by faculty and students through the YMCA and other campus groups, met Sen. Hubert Humphrey and Representatives Earl Ruth and Richardson Preyer and aides to several senators. People: Tom Bello, Howard N. Lee Place: Morehead Planetarium, Chapel Hill, to Washington, D.C. · Also named: Richardson Preyer · Also mentions: YMCAThe Daily Tar Heel, February 24, 1971, p. 1
by February 24, 1971 Chancellor Sitterson joins the sponsors of a North Carolina committee to end the war in Indochina Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson agreed to co-sponsor a new committee, formed in Winston-Salem, that planned to use political contact and education to press for an end to the Vietnam war, alongside Duke president Terry Sanford and the heads of Wake Forest, Winston-Salem State and the School of the Arts. Sitterson said he acted personally and not for the University. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Terry Sanford Place: South Building, UNC, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, February 25, 1971, p. 1
April 9, 1971 Vietnam veterans describe war crimes at a North Carolina Veterans for Peace program at UNC Six Vietnam War veterans, among them a Durham lawyer, spoke in Gerrard Hall at a program sponsored by the North Carolina Veterans for Peace about atrocities they had seen or taken part in and the dehumanization of soldiers, and the film 'Winter Soldier' was shown. The group planned to repeat the program at N.C. State and Duke. Place: Gerrard Hall, UNC, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, April 12, 1971, p. 1
April 14, 1971 The People's Peace Coalition holds a day of antiwar events ending in a street dance Several hundred people took part in a day-long celebration of the People's Peace Treaty with workshops, treaty signing booths, a debate before more than 120 people, a march through campus and the noon peace vigil on Franklin Street. That night about 200 people danced in the Rosemary Street parking lot, where the Board of Aldermen had allowed the dance from 8 to 10 p.m. after refusing the use of Henderson Street. Place: McCorkle Place, UNC, and Rosemary Street parking lot, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Franklin Street, Henderson Street, Rosemary StreetThe Daily Tar Heel, April 16, 1971, p. 1
April 19, 1972 About 500 students hold a silent vigil in Polk Place against the renewed bombing of North Vietnam About 500 students stood silently for five minutes at noon in Polk Place to protest the renewed bombing of North Vietnam, signed petitions backing the Mansfield Amendment to cut off war funds, and heard Student Body President Richard Epps urge a class boycott on Friday. The Society of Friends kept up its weekly Franklin Street vigil, held for about four and a half years. Place: Polk Place, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Richard Epps · Also mentions: Franklin StreetThe Daily Tar Heel, April 20, 1972, p. 1
April 20 to 21, 1972 UNC students march across campus and strike classes against the bombing of North Vietnam A night march that set out from the Student Union with 14 people grew to more than 2,000 as it passed the dormitories, ending on the steps of South Building after midnight. The next day, the national student strike, about 750 heard Richard Epps and two professors at a rally in the Great Hall, moved indoors after the University refused Polk Place under its rule against outdoor speakers during class hours, and a car caravan joined about 1,500 marchers from N.C. State to the State Capitol in Raleigh. Place: South Building, the Great Hall and campus dormitories, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Richard Epps · Also mentions: Student Union, Polk Place, State CapitolThe Daily Tar Heel, April 22, 1972, p. 1
April 24, 1972 Graduate students begin a week-long fast and vigil in Polk Place against the war A group of UNC graduate students began a round-the-clock vigil and fast at the flagpole in Polk Place, eating only two small bowls of rice a day, the ration of Vietnamese refugees, to dramatize the gap between life in Chapel Hill and in Vietnam, and invited others to join them for up to a week. Place: flagpole, Polk Place, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Polk PlaceThe Daily Tar Heel, April 25, 1972, p. 1
by September 2, 1972 UNC's Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense begins under its first director Historian Samuel R. Williamson Jr., who came from Harvard that summer, became the first director of the new interdisciplinary Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense in the College of Arts and Sciences. Recommended in 1970 by the Taylor committee on ROTC, it drew on ROTC courses and several departments, and four of the eight courses required of Air Force and Navy cadets now had to come from it. Place: College of Arts and Sciences, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Samuel R. Williamson Jr.Search the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 2, 1972, p. 2
January 31, 1973 The Franklin Street peace vigil resumes over the bombing of Laos and Cambodia The Chapel Hill Peace Vigil, held weekly on Franklin Street for seven years, disbanded after the January cease-fire announcement but re-formed and stood its usual Wednesday vigil when word came that American planes were still bombing Laos and Cambodia, and it kept sending petitions and letters to the President and Congress. Charlotte Adams said the vigil would stand as long as the country bombed, and plans went ahead for a Chapel Hill Peace Center joining the ACLU, the American Friends Service Committee and other groups. People: Charlotte Adams Place: Franklin Street, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, February 1, 1973, p. 1
by January 19, 1973 Sixteen Chapel Hill pastors issue a letter calling for an end to the war Sixteen pastors of Chapel Hill's principal congregations joined in a 'Letter from the Pastors' appealing to the community to act to end the Vietnam War. They deplored the President's isolation from the people and Congress and asked Congress to exercise its constitutional responsibility for war and peace. Place: Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, January 19, 1973, p. 1
February 11, 1973 Sister Elizabeth McAlister of the Harrisburg Seven speaks in Chapel Hill Sister Elizabeth McAlister, the nun tried in the Harrisburg Seven conspiracy case, told about 35 students and townspeople at the Wesley Foundation that the peace movement faced a calculated wearing down by the government and that decisions like the secret bombing of Laos had been made by a few men behind closed doors. Place: Wesley Foundation, Pittsboro Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Elizabeth McAlisterThe Daily Tar Heel, February 12, 1973, p. 4
by March 1973 Chapel Hill peace groups join in the Chapel Hill Peace Center Peace, political and civil liberties groups banded together after the November 1972 election in the Chapel Hill Peace Center, which the Daily Tar Heel called the town's first effort to coordinate peace work, with Jean Wagner of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom as acting chairperson. Its members included the League, North Carolina Veterans for Peace, the Community of War Tax Resistance, Chapel Hill Draft Counseling, the Chapel Hill Peace Vigil, Bread and Roses and the Greenwillow Alternative School, and it met monthly at the Chapel Hill Friends Meeting. Place: Chapel Hill Friends Meeting, Chapel Hill · Also named: Jean WagnerSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 29, 1973, p. 7
February 8, 1974 Jane Fonda speaks against the Vietnam War at UNC's Women's Festival Fonda spoke in Memorial Hall in the afternoon as part of the Association of Women Students' festival, and students looked over a tiger cage of the kind used to hold political prisoners in South Vietnam; she said some had been built by a North Carolina construction company. In an interview she said she spoke only about the war and described her suit against President Nixon and the FBI's surveillance of her. Place: Memorial Hall, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Jane FondaThe Daily Tar Heel, February 11, 1974, p. 1

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 them all.

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.

NROTC Naval Armory University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 3 events here
Chapel Hill Friends Meeting House Churches and lodges · Chapel Hill · 2 events here
Chapel Hill Post Office and Peace and Justice Plaza Public buildings and services · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
Hill Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
Memorial Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
Polk Place University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
South Building University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
University YMCA University schools and programs · Chapel Hill · 1 event here

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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.

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.