University leaders celebrate UNC's history of free speech

A ceremony celebrating a defining victory for free speech held special meaning for the University’s leaders — both past and present — on Wednesday.

Those leaders, faculty, students and alumni gathered at the wall between McCorkle Place and Franklin Street to honor the students and faculty members who led the protest against the 1963 Speaker Ban Law.

The law — which prohibited the University from allowing speakers with communist ties to speak on campus — was declared unconstitutional in 1968 after students filed a lawsuit challenging the ban.

About 10 former protesters attended the dedication.

A commemorative marker was placed at the spot where two communists were invited to challenge the Speaker Ban Law by addressing students just outside of campus, where the law didn’t apply.

Speakers at the event included Chancellor Holden Thorp, UNC-system President Thomas Ross, Student Body President Mary Cooper and Robert Dickson — brother of the late Paul Dickson, the main plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Speaker Ban.

Thorp said the event was a defining moment for the University.

“I think it shows that this is a place where student activism is acknowledged and appreciated and where it’s taken seriously,” he said.

Cooper said learning the story of the former students’ struggle against such intimidating obstacles was inspiring to her.

“This is what student government can do, working with other campus leaders and making things happen,” she said.

“Hearing what Paul Dickson and all the others did is inspiring and makes me want to go back and work even harder to make sure I’m doing everything I can to make this University a better place.”

Cooper said in a speech that she wants to challenge current students to show the same level of courage and collaboration that the student protesters exemplified in 1966.

“If there is something we can agree on, we can initiate change,” she said.

Dickson said the marker belongs to all of UNC’s students — past, present or future — who come to the University to hear ideas and argue about them freely.

“Free expression and free inquiry were the bedrock on which this, the University, was built, and it’s these freedoms that make it the special place it is,” Dickson said.

Ross said free speech must be protected.

“This event really stands for the fact that universities are about academic freedom and the opportunity to speak freely and debate issues.”

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