Campus Reacts To Tragedies

They were adding a new chapter to it.

Whether in congregation or protest, UNC's responses to national crises have maintained a certain importance on campus for more than six decades.

After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, then-UNC President Frank Porter Graham held a special convocation the next day at Memorial Hall. Two thousand students and faculty attended.

"We should have unity in this country, a unity without tyranny, without compulsion," Graham said.

Graham also stressed for students to "equip themselves in body and mind for any task that may be called upon them to perform for their country."

One student who answered that call was Clarence Whitefield, a sophomore in the winter of 1941.

Whitefield said he was studying in Wilson Library the night of the attack and emerged into a nation on the brink of war. "I didn't know that anything had happened until I walked to Franklin Street and saw the news on the front page of an evening edition," Whitefield said. "Emotions immediately ran high for all -- the U.S. had been attacked."

Whitefield said that after the attack many students wanted to fight for the cause. He joined the Army in October 1942 and later returned to UNC, graduating in 1948. "It was amazing how everyone came together," said Whitefield, who worked as a UNC administrator from 1970 to 1989.

Another tragedy prompted the campus community to come together again in fall 1963. After President John F. Kennedy was shot down Nov. 22, reaction was immediate and sorrow was widespread.

Chapel Hill joined a shocked and saddened nation Nov. 25 in observing a national day of mourning. Then-Chancellor William Aycock organized a campus service in Memorial Hall attended by 2,000 people.

UNC journalism Professor Jay Anthony was a freshman in 1963. He said he was returning to his room in Everett Residence Hall when he discovered the news.

"It was a real shock to everyone," he said. "The next couple of weeks everyone was sort of in a depressed stupor."

Anthony said that Kennedy's death was the beginning of a loss of innocence for his generation but that the event caused many to make positive personal actions. "Most of us realized that we needed to be involved in the real world and make an impact somehow," he said.

When Martin Luther King Jr. -- another young, inspirational leader -- was assassinated almost five years later, students also realized change was needed.

Bob Travis, then-student body president, was working in the student government office in Graham Memorial on April 4, 1968, when he heard the news.

Travis said King's murder came at a time when the social climate of the nation, with civil rights activism at a height and Vietnam protests raging, was in upheaval.

"I remember we all thought that America was being torn apart," Travis said. "There was numbness, real pessimism and a feeling of futility."

On April 5, Travis announced a memorial service to be held in conjunction with King's funeral. But campus reaction was not all ceremonial. Several marches, not only to honor King but to protest his slaying, were held over the next few days. At several colleges, clashes with police and riots were reported.

Todd Cohen, a sophomore in April 1968, covered King's death and subsequent campus protests for The Daily Tar Heel. "In all cases -- Kennedy, King, Sept. 11 -- the nation mourned, and in all cases young people were affected and reacted," Cohen said.

Bill Friday, UNC-system president from 1957-86, said that through the troubled times of history, the campus has supported discussions and allowed demonstrations. "In all of the cases of reaction to tragedies, we wanted to be sure that people had a right to express themselves but respect the rights of others," he said.

And for Friday, the campus responses to the tragedies suffered by the nation showcase a UNC tradition that carries on through time in unique ways.

"Each generation has responded quickly and with great compassion. It is one of the sterling qualities of our student body."

By Jordan Bartel, Assistant Features Editor