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Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History

Committee for Free Inquiry

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In February 1966, UNC-SDS, Paul Dickson, and other campus leaders, including George E. Nicholson, III, chair of the Carolina Forum, and Ernest S. McCrary, editor of the Daily Tar Heel, formed the Committee for Free Inquiry. The primary objective of the committee was to mobilize students and faculty and pressure UNC officials to accept speakers on campus regardless of "their political affiliation or background." 

On February 7, 1966, the Committee for Free Inquiry held a rally in Memorial Hall. The attendees heard speakers condemn the law's violation of freedom of speech. After the rally, the attendees walked silently to the President's house to present a resolution to Friday and Chancellor Sitterson calling for the Trustees to adopt a more open speaker policy and allow Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker to speak on campus.