William Link
Fayetteville Technical Community College is pleased to welcome noted author and professor Dr. William Link to deliver his lecture, “Frank Porter Graham and the Rise of Modern North Carolina.”
The lecture, presented in partnership with the Lafayette Society, is Sept. 9 at 2 p.m. in the Tony Rand Student Center Multipurpose Room on FTCC’s Fayetteville Campus. This free event is open to the public, and faculty and staff are encouraged to consider it an opportunity for professional development, personal interest, and extra credit for students.
William A. Link has written extensively about the history of the South, including Paradox of Southern Progressivism (1992), Roots of Secession (2003), Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism (2008), and Atlanta, Cradle of the New South (2013). Additionally, he wrote a two-volume history of the South, Southern Crucible (2015). Most recently, he has written a biography of Frank Porter Graham titled Frank Porter Graham: Southern Liberal, Citizen of the World.
Frank Porter Graham (1886–1972) was one of the most consequential white southerners of the twentieth century. Born in Fayetteville and raised in Charlotte, Graham became an active and popular student leader at the University of North Carolina. After earning a graduate degree from Columbia University and serving as a marine during World War I, he taught history at UNC, and in 1930, he became the university’s fifteenth president. Affectionately known as “Dr. Frank,” Graham spent two decades overseeing UNC’s development into a world-class public institution. But he regularly faced controversy, especially as he was increasingly drawn into national leadership on matters such as intellectual freedom and the rights of workers. As a southern liberal, Graham became a prominent New Dealer and negotiator and briefly a U.S. senator. Graham’s reputation for problem solving through compromise led him into service under several presidents as a United Nations mediator, and he was outspoken as a white southerner regarding civil rights.