Staff Pick: “Speaker Ban Law”

Letter expressing Poindexter’s frustration regarding the Speaker Ban Law to Gov. Dan K. Moore.

Special speaker ban issue, vol. 13, no. 4. Front page of four page bi-fold newsprint. July-August, 1965.

Source: “SPEAKER BAN LAW” folder, NCC Old Vertical File

Staff Person: Fred Harrison

Description:

North Carolina’s Speaker Ban or “Gag“ Law was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly on June 26, 1963. Essentially, it forbade anyone to speak on any University of North Carolina campus with known ties to the Communist Party or any subversive groups advocating overthrow of the U.S. Constitution.

The law was rushed with little debate at the end of a legislative session. A Federal lawsuit ultimately declared it invalid on Feb. 19, 1968, as unenforceable due to its ambiguity. Throughout the period, students, faculty and university administrators alike spoke out against the ban as an attack on free speech. Illustrative is a letter dated June 5, 1965, found in the Verona Langford North Carolina Collection’s Old Vertical File Collection from James E. Poindexter, Chairman of the Faculty of East Carolina College to Gov. Dan K. Moore, expressing frustration that legislative leadership had yet to rescind or modify the law.

A related item is a special edition issue of a Jul.-Aug.,1965 newsletter, “The University  Record” with extensive commentary on the Speaker Ban controversy. An affixed mailing label indicates the issue was a personal copy of former J.Y. Joyner Library Director Wendell M. Smiley.