Pollitt, Daniel H.

Daniel Hubbard Pollitt was born in Washington, D.C., in 1921 to Mima Riddiford and Basil Hubbard Pollitt. Both parents were lawyers in the New Deal administration of President Franklin Roosevelt and committed to principles of social justice. In 1939, Pollitt set off to college at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in government. In 1943, he joined the United States Marine Corps and served as an infantry officer in the Pacific theater during World War II. After the war ended, Pollitt studied law at Cornell University, earning a LL.B. degree and graduating with honors in 1949.

Pollitt worked for a year in the private law firm of McFarland and Sellers, followed by another year as law clerk to Judge Henry W. Edgerton of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. From 1951 to 1955, he became associated with a Washington, D.C., law firm headed by two New Deal Democratic progressives, Joseph L. Rauh Jr. and John Silard. Working in this firm as a junior attorney during the McCarthy era, Pollitt gained experience in constitutional law cases as he assisted in the representation of controversial figures accused of subversive activities, including the playwrights Lillian Hellman and Arthur Miller, who had been called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) concerning their perceived Communist associations.

Eventually, Pollitt was drawn to teach law, and in 1955 joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas School of Law. However, two years later, all professors were required to sign oaths dismissing any membership to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as communist organizations. Pollitt refused on the basis of infringment of First Amendment principles, and thus resigned from his position.

In 1957, Pollitt joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina School of Law (UNC) as a constitutional and labor law professor. He was recognized as a committed teacher and mentor to his students and a well-respected member of the University faculty. He served as a member and chair of the University of North Carolina Faculty Council and chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee to the chancellor, among many positions of leadership. Pollitt was instrumental in shaping the University's arguments against the Speaker Ban in 1963. In recognition of his service and contributions to the University, he received the Thomas Jefferson Award and the Order of the Golden Fleece.

While at the University of North Carolina, he became involved in various extracurricular activities regarding civil rights, civil liberties, and labor matters. He fought for the racial integration of schools and establishments in Chapel Hill and throughout North Carolina by way of his contributions to legal cases as well as his scholarly writings and frequent community speaking engagements. He served in leadership roles for a multitude of liberal and progressive organizations on campus and off, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the North Carolina Civil Liberties Union; the American Association of University Professors (AAUP); National Sharecroppers Fund/Rural Advancement Fund/Rural Advancement Foundation International (NSF/RAF and RAFI-USA); American Friends Service Committee; the Southern Regional Council; Citizens Inquiry into Brookside Strike; Southerners for Economic Justice; and the North Carolina Labor Law Center.

Throughout his teaching career, Pollitt continued his association with Rauh and Silard in Washington, D.C., working nearly every summer on civil rights, civil liberties, and labor cases. Pollitt also worked closely with several members of Congress, especially Frank Thompson of New Jersey and Charlie Rose of North Carolina, on policy positions and legislation, often on labor topics such as alternative resolutions to national emergency labor disputes. He served as counsel to Frank Thompson and other congressmen who were caught up in ABSCAM, beginning a long and sustained interest in congressional ethics. He also consulted for several government agencies and commissions, including the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission); the National Labor Relations Board; House Committee on Education and Labor and its Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations; and the Quiet Brain Trust, a group of scholars organized by Eric Goldman to advise President Lyndon Johnson on domestic problems. Pollitt argued one case, Hobby v. United States, before the United States Supreme Court.

Pollitt retired from teaching in 1992, but remained prolific in his research, writing, and activism. He continued to publish on topics such as free speech, student rights, impeachment, war, Supreme Court justices, and civil liberties in times of crisis. He was particularly active in his work for and writings about inmates facing the death penalty. He received a number of lifetime achievement awards, including the Order of the Long-Leaf Pine, the North Carolina Civil Liberties Union Frank Porter Graham and Finlator Awards, and the Robert Seymour Award from People of Faith Against the Death Penalty.

In 1951, Pollitt married Jean Ann Rutledge, the daughter of Supreme Court Justice Wiley B. Rutledge and Annabel Person Rutledge. He and his wife of 55 years had three children: Daniel, Phoebe, and Susan. Widowed in 2006, he married Ellie Kinnaird in 2009. Daniel Pollitt died 5 March 2010 in Chapel Hill, N.C.

From the guide to the Daniel H. Pollitt Papers, 1935-2009, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)