The Wartime Legacy of UNC’s Activist-in-Chief

Part 1

Rohan Rajesh

Note: This post is adapted from a research paper I wrote for ENGL 105i

“History teaches that, in time of war, we have often sacrificed fundamental freedoms unnecessarily,” wrote Fred Korematsu, a Japanese American who challenged the constitutionality of Japanese internment during World War II in the Supreme Court. During World War II, while the Allies, on the one hand, were fighting a war against totalitarianism, their actions at home left much to be desired. In the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order that forced Japanese Americans on the West Coast to move to internment camps. As for the United Kingdom, the British Indian government arbitrarily detained thousands of Indian independence activists who demanded that India be given independence before being made to fight the Axis powers. In times of war, the vanguards of the movement to protect our liberties, whose sanctity is often threatened by fear, are usually those affected by unjust laws. Rarely, however, do we hear of a university president advocating such causes.

One notable exception was President Frank Porter Graham, the first President of the consolidated UNC system. He is most noted for his advocacy of academic freedom, economic welfare, and civil rights, which catapulted the university to international recognition. However, his activism during the war is less discussed. Graham’s correspondences demonstrate that he stridently and publicly opposed Japanese internment and advocated Indian independence, and his wartime activism is an important forerunner in UNC’s history of speaking out against injustice. In this post, I will talk about his early career and his activism vis-a-vis Japanese internment.

Graham was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1886. During World War I, he became an instructor of history at UNC and later became a professor of history. During his time at UNC, he advocated for the rights of textile workers in North Carolina. His love of teaching led him to become a member of the President’s Committee on Education during the 1920s. During the Great Depression, he became the first President of the Consolidated University of North Carolina, which included UNC, NC State, and the Women’s College. At the same time, Graham advised the Roosevelt administration on economic policy and was a member of the National War Labor Board during World War II. During the war, our values – the very values America was fighting to preserve – were under threat from fear, and Graham worked hard to prevent the erosion of those values.

In response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during the second world war, Japanese Americans on the West Coast, including U.S. citizens, many of whom could only speak English and for whom America had been their only home, were forced by executive order into relocation camps. Among the detainees were around two thousand college-age students. Graham was outraged by the treatment of American citizens. He signed many letters that condemned President Roosevelt’s policy. One of these letters stated, “We have seen no evidence that [the policy of Japanese internment] is either constitutional or democratic. It approximates the totalitarian theory of justice practiced by the Nazis in their treatment of the Jews.”

But Graham’s activism was not limited to merely signing letters. The correspondences show that he worked with Quaker organizations to ensure that Japanese Americans could get a college education. Despite UNC dormitories being filled up by naval aviation cadets, Graham arranged for the admittance of Japanese American students. He also wrote that if not for the congestion at the university, he would have accepted even more students. Specifically, he sent UNC history professor Dr. Howard Beale to relocate interned Japanese American students to UNC. Graham later joined the executive committee of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council.

In my next post, I will discuss more about Graham’s wartime activism vis-a-vis Indian independence, his postwar activism, and his legacy at UNC, in North Carolina, and nationwide.