Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, February 22, 2001

Alternate 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.

Subjects

Links

• Documenting the American South full text and audio access