On University Day, Wednesday, Oct. 12, UNC students who worked to bring an end to the Speaker Ban Law will be honored with the dedication of a granite marker along the stone wall between McCorkle Place and Franklin Street.
Twelve names will appear on the marker, each of whom was a plaintiff in a successful suit challenging a state law that prohibited from speaking on UNC campuses anyone who was a member of the Communist Party, advocated for the overthrow of the government or had invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to questions about subversive activities.
In March 1966, in defiance of the law, the campus chapter of Students for a Democratic Society invited Herbert Aptheker, a Marxist historian, and Frank Wilkinson, a civil-rights activist, to speak from the Franklin Street sidewalk, just beyond the low wall, while the audience listened from the campus lawn. The talks served as a foundation for the lawsuit; two years later, the law was overturned.
A ceremony unveiling the marker will be held at 3 p.m. A reception in the Johnston Center lounge will follow. All are invited.
The University Library’s Special Collections has created an online exhibit on the history of the speaker ban at museum.unc.edu. The site also includes a list of publications, archives and manuscripts relating to the ban available for research at Wilson Library. – Staff Reports