Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the North Carolinians for the Freeze Records #4491, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Cyrus B. King of Raleigh, North Carolina, in August 1987.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Antinuclear movement--North Carolina.
• Lobbying--North Carolina.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1951-
• North Carolinians for the Freeze.
• Peace movements--North Carolina.
• Raleigh (N.C.)--Politics and government.

North Carolinians for the Freeze was organized in the fall of 1982 as a citizens' group advocating a mutual, verifiable nuclear weapons freeze between the United States and the Soviet Union. NCF was a loose coalition of freeze groups and individuals from across the state who worked together to promote awareness of the freeze issue and to encourage the introduction and passage of a freeze resolution in the 1983 session of the North Carolina General Assembly.

The group was based in Raleigh, in office space donated by Common Cause. Dale M. Evarts of the Raleigh Peace Initiative was hired as general coordinator. Evarts had been active in the 1982 drive that resulted in the Raleigh City Council's adoption of an ordinance requiring the city manager to petition the president annually for a nuclear arms freeze. In addition to Common Cause, NCF received support from the American Friends Service Committee, SANE, the War Resisters' League, and other groups.

NCF was instrumental in lobbying for the freeze resolution that was introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly on 16 February 1983 by Representative H. Parks Helms (D-Mecklenburg) and Senator William G. Hancock, Jr. (D-Durham). The House resolution was passed on 4 March, but a joint resolution, designed to put both houses on record as favoring the freeze, eventually went down in defeat in the Senate, even though twenty-four of the fifty state senators were listed as sponsors. It was widely reported that the intervention of anti-freeze Lt. Governor James C. Green was the primary cause of the resolution's failure.

NCF was officially disbanded in January 1985, although activity had stopped, for the most part, after the freeze resolution's demise.

Files, 1982-1985, from the office of North Carolinians for the Freeze. Most files retain the titles assigned by NCF staff; a few titles have been changed to clarify contents. Of interest is the set of notes marked "Background" in the publicity file, which documents some of the history of the organization and its activities.