Free Men reunion recalls Chapel Hill desegregation

Thursday, November 8
5:45 p.m.
Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library
Free and open to the public
Program information: Liza Terll (919-962-4207)

Participants in and witnesses to desegregation protests that rocked Chapel Hill in 1963 and 1964 will come together in a program Nov. 8 at UNC's Wilson Library to recall their experiences and celebrate republication of a landmark book about the era.

John Ehle's The Free Men chronicled the quest to desegregate Chapel Hill's public accommodations in the face of forceful, sometimes violent opposition. Ehle will speak about his 1965 book, reissued in February by Winston-Salem, N.C., publisher Press 53.

Joining Ehle will be:

• Karen Parker, an activist in the 1963-64 sit-ins, and the first black female to graduate from UNC, now an editor with the Winston-Salem Journal;
• Wayne King, Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist with the Detroit Free Press and New York Times, who covered the protests as an editor at the Daily Tar Heel and who wrote a new Afterword for the new edition;
• Jim Wallace, UNC alumnus and retired curator of photography for the Smithsonian, whose photographs appear in the book; and
• Josh and Matt Dunne, sons of the late John B. Dunne, a UNC undergraduate jailed for his protests.
• James Foushee, protestor who provided the quote that serves as the epigraph to Ehle's book: "Sometimes you feel so bad you want to go out into a cabin in the woods and just forget about freedom."

Attendees will also be able to examine archival selections from the Manuscripts Department in Wilson Library, home to the papers of Ehle, Parker, and Dunne. On view will be photographs of events depicted in The Free Men; the journal in which Parker reflected on her experiences as a student and demonstrator in 1963-64 ("On Saturday the 14th, I decided to go to jail. It was no fun at all."); and a 1964 letter Dunne wrote on a paper towel to his parents from the Orange County Jail, describing sentences imposed on him and conditions in the jail.

The Bull's Head Bookshop will offer copies of The Free Men for sale at the program, which is cosponsored by the Library and Press 53.

Related Links

• "I Raised My Hand to Volunteer: Students Protest in 1960s Chapel Hill" (online exhibit from the Manuscripts Department)
• News release from UNC News Services

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