October 2015 – History on the Hill

The Student Section of the Communist Party (That Never Officially Existed)

President Gordon Gray’s reply to a concerned North Carolinian, 1952 (From the Office of President of the University of North Carolina (System): Gordon Gray Records, 1950-1955, #40008, University Archives)

In 1950, Secretary of the Army and Director of the Psychological Strategy Board Gordon Gray became president of the UNC system. Leading the university at the height of the McCarthy era, Gray received many letters from concerned citizens and parents of students about a supposed student section of the Communist Party at the university. Technically, there was a student chapter of the Carolina District Communist Party in Chapel Hill, but it was an independent local organization. Its publications and pamphlets made their way on to campus, in part, because of the efforts of Junius Scales.

Junius Scales was a labor organizer, civil rights activist, and chair of the Communist Party for North and South Carolina. He came from a wealthy family in Greensboro, North Carolina and secretly became a member of the Communist Party when he was 19. After serving in World War II, Scales finished his Bachelor’s degree at UNC Chapel Hill and started on a Master’s degree, which he did not finish. In the early 1950s, he became more involved with the Communist Party and began distributing publications in support of the Party on the UNC campus.

In writings by Scales found in the records of President Gray, he calls on the public to support peace efforts.

“We young people the world over want peace. We look forward to a college education, and not to military service. Those of us who are students realize that knowledge is found through the free flow of ideas, not through thought control in our colleges and universities and the lies, slanders and omissions of big-money newspapers. We wish for jobs, homes and families after graduation, and w know that in order to have these things the world must have peace.”

[From “A Student Publication, Fighter For Peace, Peace Will Conquer War,” the Office of President of the University of North Carolina (System): Gordon Gray Records, #40008, University Archives]

By indicating that the publications were produced by the “Student Section of the Communist Party” and distributing the publications on campus, Scales implied that his organization was a sanctioned student organization. However, there was no official student section of the Communist Party at the university. The address listed for the organization was a post office box in Chapel Hill, and local community leaders asked that the Post Office deny Scales use of the address. However, the Post Office had no legal recourse to stop renting the post office box to Scales.

The U.S. Postmaster General responds to the Mayor Chapel Hill. From the Office of President of the University of North Carolina (System): Gordon Gray Records (#40008)

Scales had been under investigation by the FBI since 1951 when he became the Communist Party of the United States District Organizer for the South. In this position Mr. Scales visited and advised Communist Party sections in the states of North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Mississippi. He was eventually arrested by the FBI in 1954 for “conspiring to advocate force and violence,” under the Smith Act. Though Scales himself had not committed an act of violence nor advocated for violence, he was charged for belonging to a party that was thought to do so. After Scales was arrested, the student section of the Carolina Communist Party ceased to exist. However, the overarching Carolina Communist Party, which consisted of the Communist Party sections in the states of North and South Carolina, continued sending out pamphlets to the students at Chapel Hill questioning the constitutionality of the Smith Act.

The Junius Irving Scales Papers are housed in the Southern Historical Collection.

Read more about freedom of speech at Carolina in the online exhibit A Right to Speak and Hear.

The Creation of the Department of Communication Studies

University Archives recently acquired records from the Department of Communication, located in Bingham Hall. The records highlighted one of the many departmental reorganizations that have shaped the university: the 1993 merger of the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures (RTVMP) and the Department of Speech Communication. The merger resulted in the Department of Communication Studies, which this month became the Department of Communication.

Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures (RTVMP): Three men with equipment, circa 1952 #P0031

WUNC’s John Young, Dr. Earl Wynn of what was then the Department of Radio, and an unidentified man in a radio studio, circa 1952. The Department of Radio, established in 1947, became the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures in 1954. From the UNC Photographic Laboratory Collection (#P0031), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archive.

In November 1990, the Daily Tar Heel published a series of articles reporting student and alumni dissatisfaction with the job preparation provided by the department. This was further compounded by the department’s refusal of an equipment donation by an RTVMP alumnus on the grounds of insufficient space in Swain Hall, high maintenance costs, and onerous gift conditions. Some RTVMP students and alumni thought the refusal indicated that the department was not dedicated to providing students with technical skills needed for careers in media production.

A 1993 external review of the department included four major recommendations:

1. That the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures at UNC-Chapel Hill be disestablished;

2. That four of its faculty lines be transferred to a new Curriculum in Cultural Studies (or to some other academic unit, temporarily, until permission for a new Curriculum can be secured); at least two of these lines should be filled by persons with media interests;

3. That the remainder of its faculty lines be collected into a new sequence in Media Arts within the Department of Speech Communication;

4. That the Department of Speech Communication’s name be changed to the Department of Communication Studies.

(From the Records of the Department of Speech Communication #40455, unprocessed)

The review was poorly received by many RTVMP students and alumni as it also proposed the elimination of “radio production, broadcast management, corporate video, studio production, and broadcast journalism.” Perceived lack of support for production classes was one of the primary complaints students and alumni reported in 1990, and it had remained a sticking point among students who planned to seek media production jobs following graduation.

The university largely followed recommendations set out in the review and on August 1, 1993, merged the Department of RTVMP and Department of Speech Communication into the Department of Communication Studies. The Daily Tar Heel reported in September 1993 that despite fears that the media production program would suffer as a result of the merger, the new department allocated “$38,500 for production equipment and maintenance—$25,500 more than the RTVMP department had to work with during the last academic year.”

UNC Department of Communication, from https://twitter.com/UNCDeptComm/status/649958554020020224/photo/1

From the UNC Department of Communication Twitter page

Now in its 22^nd year, the Department of Communication still offers specialization in Media and Technology Studies and Media Production.

Edward Kidder Graham’s 1915 Inaugural Address

In her University Day address earlier this week, Chancellor Carol Folt looked to the past, marking several turning points in the history of the University, including the inauguration of President Edward Kidder Graham in 1915. Chancellor Folt pointed to Graham’s presidency as the … Continue reading →

Edward Kidder Graham (left) with Kemp Plummer Battle on the UNC campus, ca. 1910s. NCC Photo Archives.

Chancellor Folt pointed to Graham’s presidency as the beginning of the rise of UNC toward becoming a major research institution. Graham also pushed UNC to look beyond Chapel Hill, fulfilling the university’s fundamental responsibility to serve the entire state of North Carolina.

Graham’s inaugural address, delivered on 21 April 1915, has been digitized by the UNC Library and is available for viewing online. It is a lengthy and lofty piece, but worth reading for anyone interested in the history of UNC and of higher education in general. Graham begins by examining the founding vision of the state university as expressed by Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia in the 18th century. But he argues that the internal conflict that led to the Civil War and the long period of recovery, especially in the South, prevented UNC and other state universities from reaching their true potential.

Edward Kidder Graham inaugural address, 12 April 1915.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, an era of rapid change and development, Graham looks to the university as a vital component of the “productive democratic state.” The University, he argues, must look beyond what at the time was a standard curriculum of strictly classical education and emphasize that “no knowledge is worth while that is not related to the present life of man.” This University’s extension program, serving people around the state, was a direct expression of this belief.

However, Graham argues that the University can be most useful to the state of North Carolina, and most effective in educating future leaders, by continuing its focus on the liberal arts. His strong defense of liberal arts education echoes many arguments we still hear today:

“[T]he college of liberal arts and sciences, has as its mission now as always the revelation of the full meaning of life in its broad and general relations, and to fix in the heart of its youth a point of outlook on the field of human endeavor from which to see it clearly and to see it whole. It fears no criticism of an interpretation of its mission as ‘impractical’ ; but it does regard as fatal any failure to evoke the best powers of its own student body.”

Graham supported the development of professional schools, but was quite clear in his commitment to providing more than just job training at UNC, saying, “It is not the function of the university to make a man clever in his profession merely. That is a comparatively easy and negligible university task. It is also to make vivid to him through his profession–not merely proficiency in making a good living, but productivity in living a whole life.”

Like Edward Kidder Graham, Chancellor Folt is leading the University at a time of dramatic change and in the middle of a lively debate about the purpose of higher education, especially at state universities. Her call for a need to embrace innovation and change in order to better serve the community, the state, and the world, build upon the words and actions of Edward Kidder Graham 100 years ago.

222 years old

Today marks the 222nd birthday of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Want to know more about the history of Old East? Check out a short UNC-produced video about the building.

The University of North Carolina’s “Old East” is the first state university building in the United States. William Richardson Davie, founder of the university, laid the building’s cornerstone on October 12, 1793. Hugh Morton made this photograph of the residence hall basking in warm sunlight circa 1973.

Today marks the 222nd birthday of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Want to know more about the history of Old East? Check out a short UNC-produced video about the building.

University Day, 1915

As the UNC community gathers today to celebrate the 222nd anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, I wanted to take a look at how UNC commemorated number 122. Faculty and students gathered on October 12, 1915, … Continue reading →

Daily Tar Heel, 14 October 1915. Image via Newspapers.com

As the UNC community gathers today to celebrate the 222nd anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, I wanted to take a look at how UNC commemorated number 122.

Faculty and students gathered on October 12, 1915, for a procession to Memorial Hall, speeches, and a day of celebration. The featured speaker was Chancellor J.H. Kirkland of Vanderbilt University, who spoke on “Patriotism, A New Interpretation.”

While the focus of Kirkland’s speech was on the looming threat of “the red flag of anarchy,” he started off speaking directly to the local audience with a stirring tribute to the University:

“[University Day] is not an ordinary celebration of one individual or to perpetuate some one name. It calls to mind the history of more than a century. The story of this small village enlarges to dimensions as large as the state and as wide as human interest. University Day becomes North Carolina Day and many names and different memories are recalled by the friends who take part in it.”

Following the speech, President Edward Kidder Graham read telegrams from alumni groups around the country, including “thirteen lusty young Tar Heels in banquet assembled” in Boston. Another notable telegram from Walter Murphy of Washington, D.C. proclaimed, “The University of North Carolina — the best asset of the State, and may the State realize it.”

While the procession and speeches sound similar to today’s events, the festivities following reflected a much smaller campus in a different era. President Graham and his wife opened up their house for a reception where “the receiving line was composed of members of the faculty and their wives.” For refreshments, “cream, cakes, and mints were served by young ladies present” and “On the lawn, Mrs. Dey and Mrs. Henderson presided at the punch bowl.”