Restrictions to Access

Use of audio tapes may require production of listening copies.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Tom Wicker Papers #5012, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Tom Wicker of Rochester, Vt., in February 2000 (Acc. 98555) and from Pamela Hill Wicker in June 2015 (Acc. 102247).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by; John Foster, 2001

Revisions by: Nicole Cvjetnicanin and Nancy Kaiser, April 2019

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Attica Correctional Facility.
• Authors, American--North Carolina--20th century.
• Ehrlichman, John.
• Family--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Hamlet (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973.
• Journalism--Study and teaching (Higher)--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Journalists--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Journalists--United States--History--20th century.
• Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.
• New York times
• Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913- .
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1951- .
• North Carolina--Race relations.
• Presidents--United States--Biography.
• Prison riots--New York (State)--Attica.
• Prisons--New York (State).
• Sailors--United States--Correspondence.
• United States--Politics and government--1945-1989.
• United States--Race relations.
• United States. Navy--History--World War, 1939-1945.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--Social life and customs.
• Wicker family.
• Wicker, Tom.

Thomas Grey Wicker was born in Hamlet, N.C., on 18 June 1926 to Delancey David Wicker and Esta Cameron Wicker. He joined the Navy's V-12 program in 1944 and attended the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., graduating with an A.B. in journalism in 1948.

After working for a number of smaller newspapers in North Carolina, Wicker was hired as a copy editor by the Winston-Salem Journal in 1950. He eventually became the first Washington editor for the Journal. Wicker was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, 1957-1958, and then served as associate editor of the Nashville Tennesseean in 1960. That same year, he was hired by the New York Times as a staff writer. From 1964 to 1968, he was the chief of the Washington bureau of the Times. He served as associate editor of the Times from 1968 until his retirement in December 1991.

In 1971, Wicker was called upon by prisoners at the Attica Correctional Facility at Attica, N.Y., to act as an observer during their standoff with prison officials and was present through the conclusion of the incident. He later described the event in A Time to Die (1975).

Other non-fiction works include Kennedy Without Tears (1964), JFK and LBJ (1966), On Press (1978), One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream (1991), and Tragic Failure: Racial Integration in America (1991). In addition, he worked on a number of scripts and treatments for television, most prominently acting as a consultant for the movie Attica, which was based on A Time to Die.

Among Wicker's works of fiction are three novels published under the pseudonym Paul Connolly: Get Out of Town (1951), Tears Are For Angels (1952), and So Fair, So Evil (1955). Novels published under his own name include The Kingpin (1953), The Devil Must (1957), The Judgement (1961), Facing the Lions (1973), Unto This Hour (1984), and Easter Lilly (1997).

The papers of Tom Wicker, a white writer, primarily relate to his work as a journalist, bureau chief, and editor, chiefly for the New York Times, and as a writer of fiction and non-fiction works. Included are drafts of his major works and research materials for some books, especially A Time to Die (1975), which is represented by items collected during and after Wicker's participation as an observer at the 1971 prison riot standoff at the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, N.Y., and One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream (1991). Also included are drafts of his unpublished memoir "Hall of Fame," articles on various topics, and some materials relating to freelance work he undertook in the 1990s.

Professional correspondence mostly relates to the publication and distribution of Wicker's books; other professional papers include briefs and press releases accumulated during Wicker's tenure at the New York Times.

Many writings and professional materials relate to Richard M. Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, or John Erlichman, and to politics, government, and/or race relations in the United States and in North Carolina.

Personal papers include a few writings and other papers relating to Wicker's early life in Hamlet, N.C.; letters from his time as a student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1944-1948; letters to his parents while he served in the United States Navy during World War II and in the early 1950s; letters relating to the death of his mother, Esta Cameron Wicker, in 1989; and letters to Wicker's father, Delancey David Wicker, from his employer, the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad.

Audiocassettes (C-05012/1-30)

Extra Oversize Paper Folder (XOPF-5012/1)

Image Folder (PF-5012/1)

Born Digital (DF-05012/1-2)