The marker recognizes student leaders who spoke out against the 1963 Speaker Ban Law. Rushed through the North Carolina General Assembly on the last day of the legislative session without debate or deliberation, it forbade members of the Communist Party and those who had invoked the Fifth Amendment in investigation of Communists from speaking on the campuses of universities receiving state funds. It is placed near the spot where, in March 1966, two controversial speakers addressed students across the wall while standing off University property.