Frank Alexander hadn't thought of the cardboard box stashed away in his closet in almost 50 years. The simple gray container holds dozens of records from his time in college.
He's a Tar Heel, class of 1973, and it wasn't until he heard the story of another student at UNC-Chapel Hill that he was inspired to once again open that box.
Alexander first read about Laura Saavedra Forero in early January via a Daily Tar Heel article. The paper had been following her experience as a pro-Palestinian activist at UNC. This included her getting knocked out of her wheelchair at a large campus protest to getting served a search warrant.
In February, the DTH broke a story about the Morehead-Cain Foundation stripping Forero of her full cost-of-attendance scholarship. The controversial and seemingly unusual decision followed months of Forero's participation in pro-Palestinian protests.
But for Frank Alexander, the move wasn't unheard of at all.
That gray cardboard box in his closet wasn't for keepsakes or mementos. It's filled with records documenting an almost identical experience.
"As I read the story of what Laura's path was, (the) protests, and then the suspension of the Morehead — it set off all kinds of bells in my mind and in my heart," Alexander said. "That sounded so familiar to me, and so I wanted to meet her."
'It's incredible how similar the language is'
The first time Alexander and Forero met, they'd planned to talk for 30 minutes. The introductory chat instead turned into a two-hour conversation about their passions and motivations, with Alexander giving Forero advice on how to navigate life as a student and activist.
"Sometimes being in that position is a bit lonely and isolating when you receive a lot of negative pushback," Alexander said. "And I wanted Laura to know that I would do anything to back her up during this really rough time for her."
Soon, they were communicating nearly every day. As the weeks passed, Forero showed Alexander all of her correspondence with the Morehead-Cain Foundation.
By February, Alexander was meeting with Forero in-person with his gray cardboard box of documents in tow.
They sat at a restaurant in Eastgate for four hours chatting and examining their documents side by side; Alexander with his physical copies and Forero's compiled in an online document.
"We compared our letters — our suspension letters, the letters that we sent to try and keep our scholarship," Forero told WUNC in April. "And it's incredible how similar the language is over 50 years later."
Along with their activism occurring during different time periods, Alexander and Forero were also fighting for two different causes. Alexander lost his scholarship amid his advocacy for civil rights.
'I wasn't going to hide or run'
It was two weeks before Thanksgiving in 1971 when police arrested Alexander for parading without a permit.
He and two dozen other UNC students went to Ayden, North Carolina to protest a state highway patrolman killing a Black man in Pitt County.
The group had traveled to march to the post office with members of a local Black church congregation. The plan was to mail letters, asking North Carolina's governor to open an investigation into the incident.
At the time, it was one of many demonstrations and the local police had issued a 7 p.m. curfew. The post office march started at 7:30 p.m.
The group was barely 75 yards in when the arrests started. Police apprehended the first couple dozen people and transported them to the local jail. Alexander shared his cell with about four other protesters.
"We were considered to be 'outside agitators' coming to disturb the peace in these rural communities in eastern North Carolina, some would just call us 'Chapel Hill communists," Alexander said. "We were all very frightened (by) the guards, who were spraying mace at us, were shouting at us, laughing. That first night was a long night where all of us were hurting."
Police released Alexander on bond 24 hours later. There wasn't much reception for him or the other demonstrators when they returned to campus since the protest was so far away. And other than a DTH article about the jail macing, Alexander's life returned back to normal.
That was until he decided to send a letter to the Morehead Foundation, alerting them to his arrest.
"A month earlier (the Morehead Foundation) had issued, for the first time, its minimum standards," Alexander said. "And I respected, then and now, the Morehead Foundation for the high moral leadership that they proclaimed. I wanted to be above board with everything — I wasn't going to hide or run from any of this."
'The awkward ironies of the Morehead Foundation'
The Morehead-Cain Foundation's requirements for scholars have had different iterations over the years, but it all started with four minimum standards: academic achievement, extracurricular achievement, personal responsibility, and legal responsibility.
The last — an expectation for scholars to comply with state and federal laws — stated that if any student was convicted of a criminal offense, trustees could revoke their award.
Within a month of Alexander's letter, the Foundation's trustees decided he was in violation of this standard. Even though he hadn't been convicted, they voted to suspend Alexander's scholarship until the misdemeanor charge was resolved.
The trustees claimed they chose to suspend Alexander because he went to the protest knowing there was a high risk he'd be arrested and ignored advice from his peers not to go. But Alexander believes the trustees' true reason behind the punishment was because he was taking a stand on racial justice issues.
Because at the same time Alexander was fighting to recover his scholarship, he said he had friends in the Morehead program who were charged with public drunkenness or driving while intoxicated.
"And the position of the Morehead Foundation was to keep it very quiet and to support those colleagues of mine who were incurring those," Alexander said. "And then when they took the opposite position with an off-campus demonstration of parading without a permit and decided to make that a moral test? It was awkward back then, trying to figure out was the Morehead Foundation really walking its talk."
Alexander said even 50 years later, he believes the Morehead Foundation is still wrestling with how it applies its standards to scholars speaking out on controversial issues.
"I think the way they handled it in Laura (Saavedra Forero's) case and in my case, the visible image is that the actions of the Foundation were in response to the subject matter of the protest," Alexander said. "For me, it was civil rights and for Laura, a different form of civil rights. So, the problem is the lack of clarity on where you stand."
"When the governing institutions, whether it's the foundation or the university, claim the moral high ground and free speech as an important value but then act contrary to it?" Alexander continued. "That's where the problem occurs."
The Morehead-Cain Foundation has repeatedly refused to explain why it revoked Forero’s scholarship. In a statement to WUNC for this story, it said “The Morehead-Cain Foundation does not disclose confidential information about any current or former Morehead-Cain Scholar.”
The Morehead-Cain Foundation also refused to release any data on how many scholarships it has revoked over the years.
'It's time for us to have some real serious discussions'
When news spread of the Morehead Foundation suspending Alexander's scholarship, people in the community, including institutional leadership in the Chancellor's office, were quick to condemn the decision. Several community members also collectively raised enough money to fund a new scholarship to cover Alexander's losses.
Two months later, the Foundation's trustees voted to reverse its position and reinstate Alexander's Morehead scholarship. He never ended up being convicted of the Pitt County charge.
Alexander graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill a year early, partly because of his frustration with the Morehead Foundation situation, but also because he was eager to get more involved with social change. He moved to Atlanta to work with a civil rights group full-time and later went to law school.
Over the decades, he practiced law, started nonprofits to advocate for affordable housing, and traveled to help communities recover from natural disasters — mission trips he still leads in his 70s. Alexander retired as a professor from Emory University School of Law in 2018, where he founded the school’s law and religion program. These days, he's spending time with his family as a married father of three and grandfather of ten.
In reflecting on his experience with the Morehead Foundation, Alexander said he was fortunate to get his scholarship back. But as with Forero's case, future scholars may not be as lucky.
"I think the possibility certainly exists that Moreheads who care about certain topics and want to express their views on certain topics may have second thoughts about the Morehead-Cain scholarship," Alexander said. "... I hope that the Morehead-Cain Foundation will use the events of Laura (Saavedra Forero) to say it's time for us to have some real serious discussions. Not just about the minimum standards, but how to support people who they claim and seek to be moral leaders in the years to come."
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