- Collection:
- Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement
- Title:
- Oral history interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, February 22, 1991
- Creator:
- Pollitt, Daniel H.
- Contributor to Resource:
- McColl, Ann
Southern Oral History Program - Date of Original:
- 1991-02-22
- Subject:
- Law teachers--North Carolina--Chapel Hill
Academic freedom--North Carolina--Chapel Hill
College teachers--Dismissal of--North Carolina--Chapel Hill
College administrators--Dismissal of--North Carolina--Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - People:
- Pollitt, Daniel H.
Paull, Michael, 1942-
Freymann, Moye, 1925-1996 - Location:
- United States, North Carolina, Orange County, 36.0613, -79.1206
United States, North Carolina, Orange County, Chapel Hill, 35.9132, -79.05584 - Medium:
- transcripts
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works) - Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- text/html
text/xml
audio/mpeg - Description:
- This is the fifth interview in a nine-part series of interviews with civil liberties lawyer Daniel H. Pollitt. In this interview, Pollitt describes some of the academic freedom cases he became involved in through his work with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Pollitt was an active member of the AAUP for the duration of his academic career, and during the academic year of 1968-1969, he served as the president of the AAUP at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Focusing primarily on the 1960s and 1970s, Pollitt explains that during those years he served as "sort of the unofficial council advisor to the faculty people . . . who have academic freedom problems." Pollitt briefly reflects on a case involving the dean of the dental school, but he devotes the interview to a detailed description of the cases of Michael Paull, a graduate student teaching assistant in the English Department, and Moye Freymann, the director of the Carolina Population Center (CPC). In the case of Michael Paull, who was dismissed as a teaching assistant after the national media (largely fueled by then WRAL-TV commentator Jesse Helms) misconstrued his assignment about Anthony Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress," Pollitt served as counsel to Paull as the university led an investigation leading to his eventual reinstatement. In describing the case of Moye Freymann, who was dismissed as the director of the CPC after establishing the institution in the mid-1960s, Pollitt raises questions about issues of academic freedom as they related to administrators. In both cases, Pollitt's comments reveal how issues of academic freedom unfolded at UNC during the 1960s and 1970s.
The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata. - Metadata URL:
- http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/L-0064-5/menu.html
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 13, 2008).
Interview participants: Daniel H. Pollitt, interviewee; Ann McColl, interviewer.
Duration: 00:57:19.
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. - Contributing Institution:
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)
- Rights:
-
