This Day in the History of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Frank Wilkinson lectured at the off-campus Hillel House during the Speaker Ban Law controversy. Wilkinson, who had taken the Fifth Amendment before the United States House of Representatives' Un-American Activities Committee, spoke during the day from a Franklin Street sidewalk, which was Town of Chapel Hill property, to students sitting on campus grounds--just on the other side of "Gov. Dan K. Moore's (Chapel Hill) Wall." Wilkinson also attempted to speak at Memorial Hall, but campus officials prohibited him from doing so.

Campus police prevented Herbert Aptheker, historian and American Communist Party member, from speaking on University grounds due to the Speaker Ban Law. Not allowed to lecture on campus, he then proceeded to Chapel Hill's Community Church to deliver a critique of American actions in Vietnam.