In the winter of 1965, the Gamma Lambda Chapter of Phi Mu Sorority had moved into their new house at 211 Henderson Street. The move was festive and joyful. To celebrate the season, the sisters wrote their own version of the poem The Night Before Christmas.
We came across the poem in the scrapbook that the Gamma Lambda chapter recently loaned to us. The clatter that awoke the sisters in this poem, however, was not from reindeer on the roof but from “caroling boys with their bottles of cheer!”
Phi Mu’s rendition of “The Night Before Christmas,” 1965. Click for a larger version.
Happy holidays from everyone at University Archives and Records Management Services!
This picture was taken on 12 February 1990, the day after Mandela’s official release from prison. Folder 18, Box 2, the Records of the Black Student Movement, #40400, University Archives, Wilson Library.
Today, University Archives joins the world in remembering Nelson Mandela. Mr. Mandela passed away yesterday, December 5th.
An anti-apartheid activist and the first black president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela famously spent 27 years in prison for the charge of inciting workers’ strikes and leaving the country without permission. Mandela served as the president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999 after his unconditional release from prison on 11 February 1990.
A shanty during the 1986 protest. From the Records of the Black Student Movement, #40400.
Nelson Mandela and the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa were an inspiration to Carolina students in the 1980s. From 1985 to 1987, the student-run Anti-Apartheid Support Group called for divestiture of all UNC-CH holdings in companies operating in South Africa. The protests peaked in March and April of 1986 when student members erected a shanty-town in Polk Place in front of South Building. When the Endowment Board of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill voted to divest all of its holdings in companies operating in South Africa in October 1987, the group disbanded.
Check out coverage of the protests in Black Ink, the newspaper of the Black Student Movement.
The resolution passed by the Di-Phi Joint Senate on November 22, 1963. Di-Phi Joint Senate Records (#40153), University Archives.
Today, people around the country and around the world are commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of President John F. Kennedy, sharing remembrances of the president and of the day that shook the nation.
In Chapel Hill, the campus came to a standstill as news of the President’s death spread. The next day, Daily Tar Heel writers recalled the moment that the word entered the newsroom:
“There were no warning bells on the UPI wire in the newspaper office here, as is customary when big news breaks. The first knowledge was the editor’s cry, ‘What’s this on the wire about the President being killed?’ No one believed he was serious.”
As word spread, students gathered around radios and televisions, abandoning their preparations for the “Beat Dook” parade scheduled for that afternoon. The parade and other campus events were cancelled, including that weekend’s football game against Duke.
Many on campus thought back to the President’s visit to campus two years earlier, and UNC President William C. Friday, who had visited Kennedy at the White House several times, said that he was “stunned” by this “terrible tragedy for our nation.”
That evening, the Di and Phi Joint Senate passed a resolution expressing their grief and sympathy. They sent a telegram to Jacqueline Kennedy and the newly sworn-in President Lyndon Johnson, saying “the Di-Phi Senate wishes to express its profoundest shock and grief at the death of our beloved president. May God keep you.”
Note from President Lyndon Johnson received by the Di-Phi Joint Senate, Di-Phi Joint Senate Records (#40153), University Archives.Note from Jacqueline Kennedy received by the Di-Phi Joint Senate, Di-Phi Joint Senate Records (#40153), University Archives.
On this day in 1863, university president David Lowry Swain wrote to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, requesting exemption from conscription for university seniors. There were many exemptions to conscription, most resting on the petitioner’s class—one was automatically exempt for owning twenty or more slaves, and one could buy exemption for $300 (around $5,500 in 2013 dollars)—or social status (certain government employees and workers deemed necessary, such as railroad workers). Below is the response, dated November 3rd, from Colonel Peter Mallet, Commandant of Conscripts for North Carolina.
(University of North Carolina Papers (#40005), University Archives)(University of North Carolina Papers (#40005), University Archives)
President Bill Friday, 28 July 1977, From the NCC Photographic Archives. Black and White 120 Roll Film, 37875.
In 1982, UNC System President Bill Friday wrote suggestions to give before the House Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education. His suggestions were a response to President Reagan’s proposals to cut student financial aid. One of President Friday’s counterpoints to the proposed budget cuts follows.
“Transferring an increasing level of the cost of education from society to the current user of education services will create a new indentured class of individuals who may have borrowed more heavily for their education than their future earning power can accommodate.”
President Friday’s defense of his address to the subcommittee. From folder 1846, Box 50 of the Records of the Office of the President: William Friday, Collection 40009.
For many students, President Friday’s prediction of an indentured servitude may be becoming a reality. The Condition of Education 2013 was recently released by the Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics. According to this report: “In 2010–11, the average student loan amount, in constant 2011–12 dollars, was $6,800, which was a 39 percent increase from 2000–01, when the average student loan amount was $4,900. Of the 4.1 million students who entered the repayment phase on their student loans in fiscal year (FY) 2010, some 375,000, or 9 percent, had defaulted before FY 2011.” See the full report here.
A parent asks to be notified by telegram if his son catches the flu (University of North Carolina Papers, #40005, University Archives).
In the fall of 1918, students were preparing for battle. In August, Congress had lowered the draft age from 21 to 18, and as part of the Student Army Training Corps (SATC), students drilled daily, anticipating the day that their numbers would be called. However, before they could be sent to fight in Europe, they found themselves fighting a deadly enemy on their own campus—influenza.
The first wave of the global “Spanish Flu” pandemic began in the spring, followed by a much deadlier second wave in the early fall. By September 1918, it had spread to North Carolina. Concerned parents wrote to university president Edward Kidder Graham, fearful for their children’s health.
Graham’s response to a concerned parent (University of North Carolina Papers, #40005, University Archives).
The campus was quarantined in October, and second-year medical students and local nurses were recruited to work in the overflowing infirmary. Three students died in a span of less than two weeks, and on University Day, 1918, no public gathering was held. After a few weeks, the situation seemed to be improving. In an October 19th letter to a parent, President Graham noted that there were 30 students in the infirmary and 20 convalescing—significantly fewer than the nearly 130 hospitalized a week before.
However, just two days later President Graham himself fell ill. Within days, he developed pneumonia as a complication of influenza. As the campus grew concerned about his condition and hoped for his recovery, the SATC commander asked that students not disturb Graham by marching or performing drills near his house. After less than a week’s illness, Graham died.
A memorial to President Graham printed as a frontispiece to the Dec. 25, 1918 High School Journal(Edward Kidder Graham Papers, #00282, Southern Historical Collection).
The next day, all classes and military drills were cancelled, and students were asked to “demean themselves in a quiet manner” in respect for the president. On October 31, Dean Marvin Stacy was appointed chairman of the faculty and assumed leadership of the university. Over the next two months, the war ended, the SATC disbanded, and the health crisis began to wane. However, influenza remained a serious threat. In January, 1919, Stacy also died of pneumonia as a complication of influenza, just less than three months after the death of his predecessor by the same illness.
By the spring, the global pandemic was ending. Over the course of the epidemic on campus, over 500 were treated for influenza in the infirmary and seven died—students William Bunting, Larry Templeton, and Kenneth Scott; nurse Bessie Roper; President Graham; Mrs. W.J. Hannah, a mother who caught the disease while caring for her son; and Dean Stacy.
On December 5, 2012, the world lost one of its greatest Jazz musicians, Dave Brubeck. You may or may not be able to name his musical pieces, but you most certainly have heard some of them, especially “Take Five”, perhaps the best remembered piece of the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
The RTVMP records include audio recordings, a program, and program notes of the first performance of Brubeck’s oratorio, The Light in the Wilderness as well as audio recordings of an interview conducted with Brubeck.
On January 9, 1968, Brubeck premiered the oratorio at Hill Music Hall. According to the interviews, Brubeck chose UNC as the site of the premier because of his friendship with Dr. Lara Hoggard (1915-2007), Kenan professor of music at UNC from 1967-1980 and founder of the Carolina Choir. Dr. Hoggard conducted the oratorio, which also included the Chapel Hill Choral Club and the Carolina Choir.
Here is an article about Brubeck and the oratorio from the Daily Tar Heel:
Daily Tar Heel, Jan. 9, 1968, p. 1
A copy of The Light in the Wilderness Premiere Program (Source: Audiotape T-40086/205-206, Records of the Dept. of RTVMP, #40086, University Archives, Wilson Library):
The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 1The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 2The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 3-4The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 5-6The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 7-8The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 9-10The Light in the Wilderness Premier Program, p. 11
A copy of The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes (Source: Audiotape T-40086/205-206, Records of the Dept. of RTVMP, #40086, University Archives, Wilson Library):
The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes, p. 1The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes, p. 2-3The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes, p. 4-5The Light in the Wilderness Program Notes, p. 6-7
Listen to Brubeck discuss the oratorio, his reasons for choosing UNC for the premier of the oratorio, the disbanding of the Brubeck Quartet, and other things in these interview clips:
Thanks to Steve Weiss, curator of the Southern Folklife Collection, for bringing these materials to our attention, and to John Loy, audio engineer extraordinaire in the Southern Folklife Collection, for converting the audio recordings of the interview.
Letter from K.P. Lewis. (Race Relations: Langston Hughes and the Contempo Controversy, 1931-1932, in the Office of the President of the University of North Carolina: Frank Porter Graham Records #40006, University Archives.)
Eighty-one years ago this week, Langston Hughes visited UNC and gave a reading at Gerrard Hall, which was preceded by the publication of an essay by Hughes on the Scottsboro Boys in Contempo, a local periodical, alongside his poem “Christ in Alabama.” While not an official student publication, Contempo was coedited (along with Anthony J. Buttitta) by Milton Abernethy who was a law student at UNC at the time. (The magazine’s archive is held in the Southern Historical Collection.)
Hughes’s essay and poem caused quite a stir among some local residents and led to a flurry of editorials and articles as well as a slew of angry letters sent to then-President Frank Porter Graham. Many letters are collected in the Frank Porter Graham Records in University Archives.
One critical letter came from K.P. Lewis, secretary and treasurer of the Erwin Cotton Mills Company (see oral histories related to the company in the Southern Historical Collection). Lewis wrote to express his outrage and, since he was to become a university trustee the following year, inquire what university policy allowed “this Negro [. . .] to use the buildings at the University.”
President Graham's response to K.P. Lewis. (Race Relations: Langston Hughes and the Contempo Controversy, 1931-1932, in the Office of the President of the University of North Carolina: Frank Porter Graham Records #40006, University Archives.)
President Graham’s response to Lewis describes Buttitta and Abernethy as “taking advantage” of Hughes, convincing him to write a “sacrilegious poem and sensational article,” both of which Hughes read at the Gerrard Hall performance.
Contempo’s editor, Anthony Buttitta, also wrote to President Graham. His letter describes his fellow editor’s decision to leave UNC to join William Faulkner in New Orleans. Buttitta later did the paperwork and footed the bill to make Milton Abernethy’s withdrawal official.
Letter from A.J. Buttitta. (Race Relations: Langston Hughes and the Contempo Controversy, 1931-1932, in the Office of the President of the University of North Carolina: Frank Porter Graham Records #40006, University Archives.)
Not all of the letters to President Graham were negative, however. A librarian at the Virginia Theological Seminary and College wrote to President Graham to request that they be added to Contempo’s mailing list.
For more about this event, read Hughes’s description of his visit, “Color at Chapel Hill,” in The Langston Hughes Reader and this blog post from the Southern Historical Collection. The North Carolina Collection has copies of Contempo as well as a history and index of the magazine.
The UNC campus is no stranger to controversial art. The Confederate Monument known as “Silent Sam” has a long history of causing controversy. It was erected in 1913 to honor the university students that fought to defend the south in the Civil War. The “Unsung Founders Memorial,” a memorial to the unrecognized African American slaves and laborers who helped build the university, was designed as a counterpoint to “Silent Sam.” Yet it too has garnered its own amount of criticism. Considering the nature of public art as public, it is to be expected that this form of art will spark debate.
"The Student Body," with traffic cones over each figure's head. (Yackety Yack, 1991, p. 77)
In October 1990, the sculpture “The Student Body,” by artist Julia Balk, was installed in front of Davis Library. Almost immediately some UNC students expressed disapproval of some of the statues, which they believed promoted racial and gender stereotypes. The work consisted of a group of seven bronze figures, including an African American male figure twirling a basketball on his finger, an African American woman balancing a book on her head, an Asian American women carrying a violin, and a white woman holding and apple and leaning on her male companion’s shoulder.
The Daily Tar Heel, Black Ink, and the Chancellor’s office received hundreds of letters regarding the perceived racist and sexist overtones of the sculpture. Students, faculty and even the larger community got involved in the heated discussion. The debate even gained national attention, appearing in a New York Times article.
"The Student Body" vandalized, 1990, (in the Black Student Movement Records #40400, University Archives, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).
Some groups, like the Minority Caucus and the newly formed Community Against Offensive Statues, demanded the sculpture be moved to a less prominent location. Others wrote in defense of the sculpture and cited the oversensitivity of the offended parties as the problem, not the art. Although opponents of the sculpture acknowledged that the artist meant no harm, they still viewed the work as inappropriate. In a four page letter found in Chancellor Hardin’s files, the artist, Julia Balk, explains and defends her conception of the statues:
As its creator, I cannot help but respond to the debate that has arisen over my sculpture, “The Student Body.” Although I believe a work of art should speak for itself, in this case, unfortunately, my voice is not being heard. Nor is my sculpture being seen for what it is—seven students co-existing in a harmonious group [. . . .]
I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the four figures which have been the focal point of discussion. First, the basketball player [. . . .] The figure is rendered as an African American because it has been made with reverence for the talent of an extraordinary athlete. It is neither racist nor stereotypical. If I had made him a white male, I might just as easily have been criticized for ignoring the contribution made by African American Athletes to the University [. . . .]
(Letter by Julia Balk, from the Office of Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Paul Hardin Records #40025 University Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Letter from Chancellor Hardin to Balk, (in the Office of Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Paul Hardin Records #40025, University Archives, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).
Over the course of this dispute, the statues were repeatedly vandalized. At one point the figure of the basketball player was knocked over and the basketball was stolen. The picture above, which is from a recently acquired, unprocessed collection of photographs from Black Ink magazine, shows the sculpture in that compromised state. Another act of vandalism was acknowledged by Chancellor Hardin in a letter to Balk for which he apologizes and refers to the debacle as “an over-reaction.”
Shortly after the incident, university officials elected to repair the basketball player and it was decided that the sculpture would be moved from out in front of Davis Library to a spot behind Hamilton Hall. At a later date, the basketball player and the figure with the violin were removed without any explanation.
