Beyond the Wall (2005) (NR)

synopsis

"Beyond the Wall," explores some of the parallels between infringements upon civil liberties, including freedom of speech, during the 1960s and today. Specifically, it documents how student activists, including leaders of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), at the University of North Carolina overturned North Carolina's anti-Communist speaker ban law (1963-1968). More than 3000 students turned out to hear American Communists, Herbert Aptheker and Frank Wilkinson, speak across a wall separating the town of Chapel Hill from the University in 1966, testing a law which was eventually found unconstitutional in federal court after students brought suit against the University and the State of North Carolina.