Clipping from the Durham Morning Herald, from NCC Clippings Collection, CR378 UE7, pg 4216.
“Shall the Law School Association sponsor and pay for a dance this coming spring?” reads a ballot that was distributed to UNC School of Law students in January 1952. The student organization had sponsored a dance for a number of years, but the issue of whether or not the association would sponsor a Spring dance in 1952 came up for a vote because of a controversy surrounding the five black students that had enrolled in the School of Law the prior summer—since all School of Law students were default members of the Law School Association, which sponsored the dance every year, these five black students had the privilege, as did every other law school student, of attending the dance.
1952 Letter to Dean Brandis (p. 1), from the records of the School of Law, unprocessed
However, the University ruled that there were to be no integrated social functions held on campus, and the Law School Association debated whether the dance should be canceled or desegregated and held off University grounds. A slight majority of those that voted, fifty-six percent, voted to hold the dance despite the fact that black students would be in attendance, while forty-three percent voted to cancel the dance altogether.
The question of the dance, and the associated fears of race mixing and miscegenation that it raised, made headlines in newspapers across the state. Upon learning that there was a possibility of a desegregated dance, one concerned parent wrote to then-dean of the law school Henry Brandis imploring him to take action against “this socialistic trend” towards equality and posed the question, “Why should North Carolina pave the way for breaking down all traditions?”
1952 Letter to Dean Brandis (p. 2), from the records of the School of Law, unprocessed
Ultimately, the dance was never held because the association could not find an acceptable venue in the area that would permit an integrated dance.
The artist Josef Albers (1888-1976) had many ties to the state of North Carolina and to our own university. Born in Germany, Albers attended the Bauhaus in 1920 and, in 1925, became the first student to be offered a faculty position. He worked there until 1933, when the Nazis forced its closure. Albers and his wife Anni emigrated to America, where Albers became head of the art department at Black Mountain College near Asheville, NC. He remained there until 1949, when he left to become the chairman of the department of design at the Yale University Art School.
Letter from Josef Albers (from the Department of Art Records, #40077, University Archives).
Albers was already an established artist and well known professor when he arrived in the United States, and he was soon lecturing and exhibiting frequently throughout the country. During his tenure at Black Mountain College, he had three shows at UNC’s Person Hall Art Gallery, the precursor to the Ackland Art Museum.
In 1937, Albers wrote to the North Carolina State Arts Society to inquire about showing his abstract work in Chapel Hill. Russell T. Smith, the University’s first full-time teacher of art and head of UNC’s newly established art department, responded a year later, inviting Albers to exhibit at the Person Hall Art Gallery with W. Lester Stevens, a landscape painter from Massachusetts.
Receipt of Delivery (from the Department of Art Records, #40077, University Archives).
The show, which ran from January 8 to January 31, creatively juxtaposed 17 of Albers’s non-objective, “ultra-modern” works with the conservative, New England landscapes by Stevens.
Although there are no photographs, or even a program from the exhibition, since the show later traveled and the Gallery had to ship his paintings to the next venue, we know the titles of the works that were shown because of a receipt of delivery from the Addison Gallery of American Art in Massachusetts.
Letter from Albers (from the Department of Art Records, #40077, University Archives).
Albers exhibited again in 1943 and 1949 at the Person Hall Gallery. In 1943, his works were shown along side the weavings of his wife, Anni. His one-man show of 1949 would be his last at Person Gallery and his last as a resident of North Carolina. In June of that year the Albers resigned from their positions at Black Mountain and relocated to Connecticut.
In 1967, The UNC Art Department recognized Josef Albers with an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts for his many artistic and academic accomplishments.
You can find more records related to the Albers exhibitions in the Department of Art Records, collection 40077, in the University Archives.
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.
