Oral history interview with Terry Sanford, December 18, 1990

Terry Sanford begins this interview with a discussion of the student demonstrations and protests that were sweeping Chapel Hill, North Carolina, during his years as the Governor of North Carolina (1961-1965). The protests, one of whose aims was to bring about open accommodations laws, were largely fueled by student activism. Sanford describes how Anne Queen, director of the YMCA/YWCA at the University of North Carolina, helped to calm demonstrating students. Sanford uses this episode to segue into a broader discussion of Queen's leadership at UNC during those tumultuous years, arguing that she turned the YMCA/YWCA into the "social conscience" of the University. He also describes his professional relationship with her during the early 1960s. Likening Queen's leadership style to that of Frank Porter Graham and William Friday, Sanford argues that universities (and specifically the University of North Carolina) played an important and unique role in the advance of social change during the mid-twentieth century. Sanford also briefly discusses his own support for civil rights and his bid for the governorship in 1961.