Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, December 13, 1990
Subtitle: interview L-0064-3, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: McColl, Ann, 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: 2008
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Law teachers; Faculty; African American law students; Women law students; Students; University of North Carolina (1793-1962). School of Law; University of North Carolina (1793-1962); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. School of Law; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Other titles: Interview L-0064-3, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, December 13, 1990; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: This is the third interview in a nine-part series of interviews with civil liberties lawyer Daniel H. Pollitt. In this interview, Pollitt continues his discussion--begun in the second interview--about the faculty of the University of North Carolina School of Law: their character, their work both on and off campus, and their interactions with each other. He describes changes in the faculty as well as the student body during the late 1950s and 1960s, offering particularly revealing statements about the role of African American and women students. With both groups in the minority during his initial years as a professor at UNC, Pollitt witnessed some marked changes during his tenure. Of particular interest to researchers is Pollitt's retelling of how Julius Chamber, the top law student in the early 1960s, became the first African American editor-in-chief of the North Carolina Law Review. Pollitt goes on to explain that although more African American and women students were finding opportunities at UNC, they continued to experience an "icebox" atmosphere there. Pollitt concludes the interview by discussing some of his own interactions with students, particularly as a leader of the YMCA on campus, and he describes his participation, as well as that of UNC students, in the 1962 movement to desegregate the Chapel Hill movie theaters.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 12, 2008).

Interview participants: Daniel H. Pollitt, interviewee; Ann McColl, interviewer.

Duration: 01:17:00.

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, 141 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series L, University of North Carolina, interview L-0064-3, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 31 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.