
{"id":9302,"date":"2010-03-11T11:11:34","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T19:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=9302"},"modified":"2011-07-14T09:52:30","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T13:52:30","slug":"a-lifetime-of-civility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/03\/11\/a-lifetime-of-civility\/","title":{"rendered":"A lifetime of civility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Taylor Sisk<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There was mischief in the man \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in his voice and eyes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the expression of a quenchless appreciation for the wonders of this world, absurdities and all. He was once called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a combination of Don Quixote and one of the best legal minds we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll ever have.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He spoke up for the little guy and in the face of the Man, any place and any time he perceived injustice. <\/p>\n<p>UNC Kenan Professor Emeritus Dan Pollitt died last Friday at the age of 88 after a brief period of declining health, characteristically gracious and kind through it all, reassuring his caretakers and warmly greeting the tide of friends and family who gathered at his side.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He was just kind and gentle and warm to everyone,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, whom he married last year, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but that was his whole life.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Make no mistake: Dan Pollitt was a force, a guy you wanted on your side. He was a winner, but always a congenial one. He carried it all off with \u00c3\u00a9lan.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He was a soldier for what was right,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kinnaird said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and always respectful of the other side.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He left the world a better place.<\/p>\n<p><strong>An \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcidea man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nPollitt was born on July 6, 1921 in Washington, D.C. His father, Basil, a lawyer, helped implement the New Deal in Franklin Roosevelt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Department of Justice. His parents divorced, and his mother, Mima, then earned a law degree and went to work for the Department of Justice, then the Department of the Interior, focusing on Indian rights.<\/p>\n<p>Pollitt served in the Pacific with the 2nd Marine Division during World War II, suffering two slight wounds. He was in Nagasaki less than a month after the atomic bomb was dropped.<\/p>\n<p>In 1951, he married Jean Ann Rutledge, daughter of Supreme Court Justice Wiley Rutledge. The Pollitts were married for 55 years and raised three children, Daniel, Phoebe and Susan. Jean died in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>He became a lawyer, and then a teacher, and was there on the front lines of every social justice battle of his time. While working in the office of prominent civil-rights and civil-liberties lawyer Joseph L. Rauh, he helped defend Lillian Hellman and Arthur Miller against Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. <\/p>\n<p>In 1955, while teaching at the University of Arkansas, he was told to sign a disclaimer stating that he was not nor ever had been a member of the NAACP. He refused, quit and, at the urging of Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas (Pollitt was counsel to the Sharecroppers Fund, on whose board Thomas sat), accepted the offer of a position at UNC, in the School of Law, where the foundation for a more tolerant environment had been laid by former university president Frank Porter Graham. <\/p>\n<p>Here he became a mentor to, among countless others, Raleigh lawyer Wade Smith.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know any lawyers, and Dan simply took me under his wing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Smith said in a 2000 interview. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I watched him, and I knew what a lawyer could be \u00e2\u20ac\u201c what a difference a lawyer could make. His idealism seeped into me and helped me to be what I am\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a wonderful, wonderful mixture of idealism and the law.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>And he made trouble. Pollitt helped integrate the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system, led a picket line to integrate a downtown theater and helped break the color line in the Atlantic Coast Conference as an active advocate for the recruitment of Charlie Scott onto Dean Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basketball team.<\/p>\n<p>Along the way, he defended the free-speech rights of Ku Klux Klan leader James \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Catfish\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cole and the North Carolina A&#038;T students who sat down at a Greensboro Woolworth counter.<\/p>\n<p>In a 1964 <em>U.S. News &#038; World Report<\/em> article titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What the Future Holds for America,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Pollitt was cited as one of Lyndon Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Idea Men.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He urged investment in public schools.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Disagreeing without being disagreeable<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nPollitt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s commitment to seeing to it that the values on which this country was built \u00e2\u20ac\u201c his fealty to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and justice for all \u00e2\u20ac\u201c were fully disseminated was reflected in his defense of laborers, from sharecroppers a half century ago to contract poultry workers in recent years, said Betty Bailey, former executive director of the Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA (RAFI) and a longtime friend.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He wanted those rights applied to everybody,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bailey said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and he worked for that every day of his life.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>In a 1964 <em>Harper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/em> article titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Timid Lawyers and Neglected Clients,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Every case \u00e2\u20ac\u201c whether on behalf of the unpopular defendant or not \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is a leap into the dark. No one can foretell what new evidence may turn up, what vagaries of chance may occur. &#8230; There is always the hazard of being undone\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. But if the lawyer stays close by the campfire and never ventures forth, the circle of safety and freedom will contract. It always does if nobody preserves it by venturing forth and taking risks.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Pollitt ventured forth, and beyond. As he said in 2000, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I believe in free speech, I believe in nude dancing, I believe in the works.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>And though his political positions often put him at odds with his employers, his unfailing gentle good wit, and his gentility, disarmed would-be enemies.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He would always stand up for the truth, but with that wonderful sense of humor,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bailey said, a quality that also served him well in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>When RAFI named its new conference center for Pollitt, who served on its board for many years, Bailey was introduced to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153legions\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of former students who expressed their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ultimate respect, regardless of their political views.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He knew how to disagree without being disagreeable,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bailey said.<\/p>\n<p>The late Rev. W.W. Finlator, a lifetime champion of peace and justice, perhaps summed up Pollitt most succinctly: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dan is attractive in most every way; he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cut out of a different pattern.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Pollitt continued to work and teach until the end. Last year, Gov. Beverly Perdue awarded him the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, one of the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s highest honors.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Constant skepticism is the hallmark of a democratic society,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he told <em>The Citizen<\/em> at the time. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my motto.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>He also recalled a piece of advice he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d given his daughter Phoebe upon her arrest some years ago for an act of civil disobedience. He had written to her: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You know I carry in my wallet, for easy observation, a card with the words \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc<em>Illegitimis non carborundum<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122: Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let the bastards [grind] you down.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He was so young in spirit, but so wise,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bailey said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So much knowledge, but so much humility.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>And kindness. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was one of his highest values,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kinnaird said on Monday. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Human kindness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UNC Kenan Professor Emeritus Dan Pollitt died last Friday at the age of 88 after a brief period of declining health, characteristically gracious and kind through it all, reassuring his caretakers and warmly greeting the tide of friends and family who gathered at his side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9302"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19684,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9302\/revisions\/19684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}