Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, November 19, 1990
Subtitle: interview L-0048, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Cheatham, Cindy, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Law teachers; College administrators; Civil rights movements; Student movements; African Americans; Segregation; Race relations; Campus Y (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Other titles: Interview L-0048, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, November 19, 1990; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: University of North Carolina law professor Daniel Pollitt recalls his relationship with and respect for UNC Campus Y director Anne Queen. Queen's interest in social justice issues intersected with Pollitt's active support of racial equity and student activism. The Campus Y served as a refuge and training ground for social justice activism, and it led to the creation of other organizations focused on social justice matters. The Community Church, composed of many UNC professors, also played an active role in endorsing desegregation. The connection between politically active UNC students and religiously concerned church members created an anti-segregation coalition. Pollitt describes how Campus Y student activists and some church members engaged in direct-action protests of a segregated movie theater in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Local white businessmen resisted attempts to integrate public facilities, often with force. At the whites-only Pines Restaurant, the local press captured the restaurant owner's attack on an elderly priest attempting to integrate the establishment. Many white Chapel Hill residents were appalled by the restaurant owner's segregationist fervor. However, civil rights demonstrations in downtown Chapel Hill drew negative views from North Carolina governor Terry Sanford and Chapel Hill Weekly owner Edward Randis. They also created more violent backlash from segregationist whites. Pollitt connects whites' rising resentment of civil rights activism to frustration with other student and labor activism: by the late 1960s, UNC students involved in civil rights demonstrations also objected to the Vietnam War and to the inequity of UNC food workers' pay.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 13, 2008).

Interview participants: Daniel H. Pollitt, interviewee; Cindy Cheatham, interviewer.

Duration: 01:13:00.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 100 kilobytes, 133 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series L, University of North Carolina, interview L-0048, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 13 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.