Student opposition to North Carolina’s 1963 Speaker Ban Law will be the subject of the annual Gladys Hall Coates University History Lecture Thursday, April 11, at the Wilson Special Collections Library.

Former UNC student body president Robert Spearman (’65) will discuss the controversial law that barred certain individuals from speaking on campus. Known members of the Communist Party, those who advocated the overthrow of the federal or state government, and those who pleaded the Fifth Amendment when questioned about communist or subversive activities were all prohibited from speaking at state-supported campuses.

The 5:30 p.m. lecture, sponsored by the North Carolina Collection and University Archives and Records Management Services, is free and open to the public.

The passage of the Speaker Ban Law fifty years ago drew almost immediate reaction from students and faculty, who protested that the law infringed on their rights to free speech. Students invited banned speakers to address their classmates from the sidewalk on Franklin Street and eventually initiated a lawsuit in federal court.

Spearman, now an attorney for a Raleigh law firm, testified before a state commission tasked with revising the law, which was eventually overturned in 1968.

Prior to the lecture, attendees can view the North Carolina Collection Gallery exhibition A Right to Speak and to Hear: Academic Freedom and Free Expression at UNC beginning at 5 p.m.

The exhibition uses original letters, documents, and photographs to examine the University’s long history of free speech controversies from the nineteenth century to the present.

The exhibition runs through June 2, 2013.

“Wikipedia Edit-a-thon: African Americans in North Carolina”
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Wilson Special Collections Library
1 – 5 p.m.
Free and open to the public (Registration requested)
Information: Emily Jack, North Carolina Collection Gallery, (919) 962-0104

Academics, history buffs, and Wikipedians are invited to UNC’s first-ever Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on Sunday, April 14, at the Wilson Special Collections Library.

Participants will update, improve, and create new Wikipedia articles about African American history and institutions in North Carolina.

The free public program will take place from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Refreshments and tours of Wilson Library will be provided.

Participants do not need specialized historical knowledge or experience with Wikipedia. Assistants will help locate book and article source materials and teach Wikipedia syntax and style.

Organizers encourage participants with personal laptops to bring them.

For more details and to register, visit the event page.

The event sponsors are the North Carolina Collection and student groups from the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), including the Student Chapter of the Society of American Archivists (SCOSAA), the Art and Museum Library and Information Student Society (AMLISS), and the Information and Library Science Student Association (ILSSA).

Related Links

• Wikipedia Edit-a-thon registration
• Facebook event page

Download exhibit poster (pdf)

A new exhibition in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library explores the long history of free speech controversies at UNC.

A Right to Speak and to Hear: Academic Freedom and Free Expression at UNC will use original letters, documents and photographs to examine some of the University’s most contentious moments from the nineteenth century to the present.

It marks the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the Speaker Ban. The controversial 1963 law forbade known members of the Communist party or those who advocated the overthrow of the federal or state government from speaking on campus. The Ban was overturned in 1968.

Visitors to the exhibit will see original materials from the Library’s North Carolina Collection, Southern Historical Collection, and University Archives and Records Management Services. Highlights include:

• A page from the early 19^th century “Laws of the University of North Carolina” barring students from delivering “indecent, profane, or immoral” speeches.

• The November 1939 “Sex Issue” of the Buccaneer. The student council ordered this issue of the student humor magazine burned. The Buccaneer had frequent run-ins with campus authorities and was banned from campus at one point.

• Video of UNC police chief Arthur Beaumont ordering Herbert Aptheker, a member of the Communist Party, off the campus in March 1966 during the Speaker Ban.

• A letter from David Duke, Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, to the Daily Tar Heel. Students shouted down Duke when he attempted to speak on campus in January 1975. He criticized the protesting students for “suppressing” his right to speak and for limiting their classmates’ right to hear.

• Postcards sent to Chancellor James Moeser as part of the Family Policy Council’s organized protest of the University’s summer reading selection for 2002, Approaching the Qu’ran: The Early Revelations by Michael Sells.

On April 11, former UNC student body president Robert Spearman (’65) will deliver the annual Gladys Hall Coates University History Lecture in conjunction with the exhibition.

Spearman—now an attorney in Raleigh—will recall student efforts to repeal the Speaker Ban, including his own testimony before a state commission tasked with revising the law.

Download event flier (pdf)

Abraham Galloway and the Slaves’ Civil War
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Wilson Special Collections Library
5:30 p.m. Program | Pleasants Family Assembly Room
Free and open to the public
Information: Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, (919) 548-1203

The life of one of the most significant black leaders in the South during the Civil War will be the subject of a lecture Thursday, March 7 in the Wilson Special Collections Library.

Historian David S. Cecelski will discuss his new book, The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves’ Civil War (UNC Press, 2012). The book tells the thrilling life story of Galloway, a runaway slave and staunch abolitionist who served as a Union spy and recruiter during the war.

The 5:30 p.m. event, sponsored by the North Carolina Collection, the Stone Center Library for Black Culture and History, and the Friends of the Library, is free and open to the public.

Born in Brunswick County, North Carolina, Galloway advocated for equal rights for African Americans, organized a Freedman’s Convention in Raleigh, and became one of the first black men to serve in the North Carolina legislature.

Cecelski has served three times as the Lehman Brady joint chair in Documentary Studies and American Studies at UNC and Duke. He is the author of The Waterman’s Song: Slavery and Freedom in Maritime North Carolina (UNC Press, 2001) and co-editor of Democracy Betrayed: The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 and Its Legacy (UNC Press, 1998).

Books will be available for sale and signing, courtesy of the Bull’s Head Bookshop.

Hurricane Hazel at Carolina Beach, 1954. Photograph by Hugh Morton.

The Wilson Library exhibit Photographic Angles: News Photography in the North Carolina Collection will remain on view until Feb. 10, 2013.

The exhibit is in the North Carolina Collection Gallery on the main floor of Wilson Library.

The extension offers an additional week to view 30 published and unpublished photographs taken for the News & Observer of Raleigh, the Daily Tar Heel, the Durham Herald-Sun, and other newspapers from 1891 through 2000. The images show how photographers use low camera angles, wide-angle lenses, and personal perspectives to create compelling news photographs.

The photojournalists represented include Hugh Morton (UNC ’43); UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication faculty members Jock Lauterer (UNC ’67) and Paul Cuadros; Roland Giduz (UNC ’48), former editor of The Chapel Hill News Leader and The News of Orange County; Charlotte Observer photographer Don Sturkey; and The Hatterasman author Ben Dixon MacNeill.

The exhibit is sponsored by the North Carolina Collection and draws on the holdings of its North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.

Download event flier (pdf)

A Short Time to Stay Here
Book talk by Terry Roberts
Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, at 5:30 p.m.
Wilson Special Collections Library
Free and open to the public
Information, Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, (919) 548-1203

Author Terry Roberts will read from and discuss his first novel on Jan. 24. The book highlights a little-known chapter in North Carolina history: the detention of German prisoners of war in the Tar Heel State during World War I.

A Short Time to Stay Here is set at the Mountain Park Hotel in isolated Hot Springs, north of Asheville. The hotel served as the internment site for more than 2,000 German nationals during the war.

The 5:30 p.m. reading and discussion in the Wilson Special Collections Library is free and open to the public. The North Carolina Collection is the program sponsor.

Roberts, who was born in Asheville and raised in Weaverville, N.C., is the director of the National Paideia Center in Chapel Hill, which advocates for a holistic approach to life-long learning.

Books will be available for sale and signing, courtesy of the Bull’s Head Bookshop.

Related Links

• A Short Time to Stay Here (book site)
• North Carolina Collection 

"Naked Came the Leaf Peeper" is the 1,000th entry for the Library's "Read North Carolina Novels" blog

A collaborative and humorous whodunit is the one-thousandth entry in the UNC Library’s Read North Carolina Novels blog.

Naked Came the Leaf Peeper is the work of twelve Tar Heel authors who joined forces in 2011 to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café in Asheville.

The North Carolina Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library created and maintains Read North Carolina Novels. Staff select several novels weekly, each with a North Carolina setting. Many are by Tar Heel authors.

What started as an experiment in 2005 has grown to become a highly curated resource, searchable by county, author, and theme, and by topics such as dogs, war, or mill towns. Both current and older publications are represented. Titles come from academic presses, trade publishers, and vanity presses.

“A jointly written book associated with a state literary landmark seemed like the perfect milestone novel,” said Eileen McGrath, current manager of Read North Carolina Novels and Associate Curator of the North Carolina Collection.

McGrath welcomes suggestions for future entries. Contact her at (919) 962-1172 or levon@unc.edu, or via the “Contact” section of Read North Carolina Novels

Related Links

• Read North Carolina Novels
• North Carolina Collection

Hurricane Hazel at Carolina Beach, 1954. Photograph by Hugh Morton.

The work of photojournalism will be the subject of a lecture by former Daily Tar Heel student photographer James Wallace (’64) on Nov. 1 at Wilson Library.

The 5:30 p.m. talk, sponsored by the Friends of the Library, Wilson Library’s North Carolina Collection, and the Center for the Study of the American South, is part of the Center’s James A. Hutchins Lecture series. It also serves as the keynote for a Civil Rights in Chapel Hill Celebration Weekend taking place Nov. 1-3 at locations around Chapel Hill and Durham.

Beginning at 5 p.m., attendees can enjoy a special viewing of the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives exhibit Photographic Angles: News Photography in the North Carolina Collection.

The theme for Wallace’s lecture will be “That we may know by our eyes,” and he will also discuss his new book of photographs, Courage in the Moment: The Civil Rights Struggle, 1961–1964. Also presenting will be Patrick Davison, associate professor of journalism at UNC, who will examine the current and future state of the photojournalism profession.

Davison previously worked as a staff photojournalist at the Rocky Mountain News (Denver) and the Dallas Morning News.

Wallace served for 25 years as director of Imaging and Photographic Services at the Smithsonian Institution, and currently serves on the board of advisers of the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The exhibit features 30 published and unpublished photographs taken for the News & Observer of Raleigh, the Daily Tar Heel, the Durham Herald-Sun, and other newspapers from 1891 through 2000. The images show how photographers use low camera angles, wide-angle lenses, and personal perspectives to create compelling news photographs.

The exhibit will be on view through February 3, 2013. February 10, 2013.

Among the photojournalists represented are Hugh Morton (UNC ’43); UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication faculty members Jock Lauterer (UNC ’67) and Paul Cuadros; Roland Giduz (UNC ’48), former editor of The Chapel Hill News Leader and The News of Orange County; Charlotte Observer photographer Don Sturkey; and The Hatterasman author Ben Dixon MacNeill.

The exhibit is sponsored by the North Carolina Collection and draws on the holdings of its North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.

The website www.jacksoncenter.info/events contains complete schedule information for the Civil Rights in Chapel Hill Weekend.

Knowledge Capital and Human Flourishing: Educating North Carolinians, 1865–1970

Yale historian Glenda Gilmore will deliver the lecture “Knowledge Capital and Human Flourishing: Educating North Carolinians, 1865-1970” on Thursday, Oct. 11, in the Wilson Special Collections Library.

Gilmore says her talk will examine ““what the history of education in North Carolina has to tell us about the current school crisis.”

The free public lecture will begin at 5:30 p.m. It is the keynote address for the statewide New Voyages to Carolina Conference: Defining the Contours of the Old North State.

Additional conference events will take place throughout the day on Friday, Oct. 12, at North Carolina Central University. Complete schedule and registration information can be found on the website of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History.

Gilmore (UNC Ph.D. ’92) is the Peter V. and C. Van Woodward Professor of History at Yale. Her books include Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919–1950 (W. W. Norton, 2008) and Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920 (University of North Carolina Press, 1996).

The lecture is sponsored by the North Carolina Collection, the Friends of the Library, the Center for the Study of the American South, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill College of Arts and Sciences, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of History, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, and the Historical Society of North Carolina.

Related Links

• Conference Brochure and Registration Information
• Glenda Gilmore faculty page (Yale University)

Download event flier (pdf)

“To Gain Attention to Their Various Claims”: Historic Political Campaigns in North Carolina
Conference: Sept. 14-15 in Wilson Library
Dinner with political consultants Carter Wrenn and Gary Pearce: Sept. 14 at the Carolina Inn
Registration required

North Carolina political junkies can immerse themselves in Tar Heel politics past and present during a conference Sept. 14 and 15 at Wilson Library.

The event will feature talks about ten political campaigns in the state from the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

During a reception and dinner at the Carolina Inn on Sept. 14, political consultants Carter Wrenn, a Republican, and Gary Pearce, a Democrat, will share strategic insights on current campaigns and war stories from past races. The pair currently collaborates on the blog Talking About Politics.

Advance registration is required for both the conference ($10 per person) and the dinner ($50 per person).

The full program and registration instructions are available at: www.bit.ly/nccampaigns.

The North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library is the organizer of the two-day event, “‘To Gain Attention to Their Various Claims’: Historic Political Campaigns in North Carolina.” The Southern Historical Collection is a co-sponsor.

Exhibit

The related exhibit Who May Vote?: Disenfranchisement in North Carolina, 1865-1900 will be on view in the Grand Reading Room of Wilson Library during the conference and until Dec. 28.

Using campaign literature, letters, and political cartoons from the Wilson Library collections, the exhibit will examine attempts through both legislation and intimidation to restrict the vote in North Carolina in the decades following the Civil War.

Related Links

• Political campaigns conference registration and information