Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, February 22, 2001
Subtitle: interview K-0215, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Potorti, David, 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; Civil rights workers; Civil rights movements; African Americans; Segregation; Race relations; Students; Political activity; Student movements; School integration; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Other titles: Interview K-0215, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, February 22, 2001; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Emerging from a family of progressive ministers, military servicemen, and attorneys, Daniel Pollitt came to link his religious and liberal racial beliefs to his civic duty. His forward-minded family heritage influenced his choice of careers. Pollitt worked as a clerk for a court of appeals judge and later served on the staff of Joseph Rauh, founder of Americans for Democratic Action. By the late 1940s, Pollitt discovered a passion for teaching and taught legal courses at American University and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. However, when asked to sign a loyalty oath stating non-involvement with racial justice organizations, Pollitt refused. Instead, he assumed a teaching position at the University of North Carolina School of Law. At UNC, Pollitt emerged as the liberal faculty supporter for civil rights causes. Although some students remained apathetic to social issues, Pollitt argues that UNC students, and more notably, local high school students, pushed civil rights issues to the foreground in Chapel Hill. Student activists opposed the Speaker Ban Law, which prohibited communist speakers from speaking on campus. Pollitt describes his efforts, along with those of Bill Alstyne and McNeil Smith, to defend the students. Smith's closing statement invoked the progressive tradition of UNC students, and the Speaker Ban was abolished. Pollitt also participated in nonviolent training to prepare blacks and student activists to resist segregationists' violent attacks, and he served as the faculty advisor to the student NAACP organization. He wrote favorable articles about southern integration for UNC law school dean Henry Brandis, including "Equal Protection in Public Education, 1954-61," "Dime Store Demonstrations: Events and Legal Problems of the First Sixty Days," and "Legal Problems in Southern Desegregation: The Chapel Hill Story." Pollitt's involvement with civil rights protests primarily consisted of picketing and legal defense of civil rights demonstrators. He actively sought ways to recruit black students to UNC. Pollitt ultimately found support from basketball coach Dean Smith, thereby helping to break the color barrier in UNC sports. Pollitt worked with several advocacy groups, including the North Carolina American Civil Liberties Union and the Association of American University Professors. His support of civil rights issues led to physical and verbal threats.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 13, 2008).

Interview participants: Daniel H. Pollitt, interviewee; David Potorti, interviewer.

Duration: 01:13:41.

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. 112 kilobytes, 134 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series K, Southern communities, interview K-0215, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 26 p.

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

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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