With over 300,000 living former students,[236] North Carolina has one of the largest and most active alumni groups in America. Many Tar Heels have attained local, national, and international prominence. James K. Polk served as President of the United States for a single term,[237] William R. King was the thirteenth Vice President of the United States.[238] North Carolina has produced many United States Senators including Paul Wellstone[239] and Thomas Lanier Clingman,[240] along with multiple House Representatives such as Virginia Foxx[241] and Ike Franklin Andrews.[242] Algenon L. Marbley[243] and Thomas Settle[244] have received positions of federal judgeship. Former Secretary of War and Secretary of the Army Kenneth Claiborne Royall[245] and the fifth White House Press Secretary Jonathan W. Daniels were graduates of North Carolina.[246] North Carolina has also produced 38 state governors, including Terry Sanford, Jim Hunt, and Roy Cooper, the current Governor of North Carolina. Peaches Golding was appointed by HM Queen Elizabeth II as High Sheriff of the City and County of Bristol 2010–2011, the first Black female High Sheriff and second only black High Sheriff in over 1,000 years. Stormie Forte was appointed as the first Black woman and openly LGBTQ female member of the Raleigh City Council. Carolyn Hunt served as the Second Lady of North Carolina and twice served as the First Lady of North Carolina. Margaret Rose Sanford served as First Lady of North Carolina. James E. Webb, the 2nd Administrator of NASA and an architect of the Apollo program during the Kennedy administration, was a Tar Heel. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the next generation successor of Hubble scheduled to launch in 2019, was named in honor of Webb.[247]
Chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly on December 11, 1789, the university's cornerstone was laid on October 12, 1793, near the ruins of a chapel, chosen because of its central location within the state.[26] The first public university chartered under the US Constitution, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of three universities that claims to be the oldest public university in the United States and the only such institution to confer degrees in the eighteenth century as a public institution.[27][28]
Notable leaders of the university include the 26th Governor of North Carolina, David Lowry Swain (president 1835–1868); and Edwin Anderson Alderman (1896–1900), who was also president of Tulane University and the University of Virginia.[66] On December 13, 2019 the UNC System Board of Governors unanimously voted to name Kevin Guskiewicz the university's 12th chancellor.[67]
During the 1960s, the campus was the location of significant political protest. Prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, protests about local racial segregation which began quietly in Franklin Street restaurants led to mass demonstrations and disturbance.[40] The climate of civil unrest prompted the 1963 Speaker Ban Law prohibiting speeches by communists on state campuses in North Carolina.[41] The law was immediately criticized by university Chancellor William Brantley Aycock and university President William Friday, but was not reviewed by the North Carolina General Assembly until 1965.[42] Small amendments to allow "infrequent" visits failed to placate the student body, especially when the university's board of trustees overruled new Chancellor Paul Frederick Sharp's decision to allow speaking invitations to Marxist speaker Herbert Aptheker and civil liberties activist Frank Wilkinson; however, the two speakers came to Chapel Hill anyway. Wilkinson spoke off campus, while more than 1,500 students viewed Aptheker's speech across a low campus wall at the edge of campus, christened "Dan Moore's Wall" by The Daily Tar Heel for Governor Dan K. Moore.[43] A group of UNC-Chapel Hill students, led by Student Body President Paul Dickson, filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court, and on February 20, 1968, the Speaker Ban Law was struck down.[44] In 1969, campus food workers of Lenoir Hall went on strike protesting perceived racial injustices that impacted their employment, garnering the support of student groups and members of the University and Chapel Hill community.
UNC basketball is in transition as coach Hubert Davis debuts. Will the Tar Heels drop off in the wake of Roy Williams’ retirement? Or are they a Top 10 team even without Dadgum Roy? Riley Davis kicks things off by explaining why he thinks North Carolina will be a Top 10 team. Jamie Shaw then plays the villain and argues against the Tar Heel hype. (Heat Check CBB)
