#unchapel

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC, is home to a Confederate monument titled “Silent Sam.” It is located on McCorkle Place, the University's upper quad, facing Franklin Street, due North. As many Confederate monuments do, it faces North purposely, as to face THE North. The statue was erected in 1913, nearly 50 years after the end of the Civil War, and still greater than 40 years away from when it would integrate to allow African Americans to attend in 1955. The monument was funded by University Alumni and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Its alleged purpose is to memorialize the Confederate alumni who lost their lives during the War. Its dedication reads, "…the sons of the University who died for their beloved Southland 1861-1865." According to UNC’s website, more than 1,000 male students fought in the War. It is also noted that more than 40 % of its students were enlisted, which is unmatched by any other institution in the US at that time. [source] At the monuments unveiling in June of 1913, Chapel Hill-born industrialist Julian Carr, commemorated not only UNC Confederates, both those across all Southern campuses:

 “The educational institutions of the South here a conspicuous part in respect to the number of students who represented them in the ranks of the army of the Confederacy. Nowhere in all the South was the approaching conflict more keenly scented than in the universities and colleges, and the gallant boys, then pursuing their studies, lost no time in preparing themselves for the hour when the call should come… On every battlefield they gave good account of themselves, and with their life-blood the sealed the compact of patriot and hero.” (source)

Today, however, much of the UNC Chapel Hill community feels very differently about this monument than the honor and respect called for by Julian Carr. While the monument may have sparked interested and controversy alike, noticeable protest began to take place on campus by August 2017, shortly after protesters removed a Confederate monument in the city of Durham, NC. In September 2017, students staged a large sit-in for the cause of removing the statue, and promised to continue to protest until action was taken. For months now, many have called for the removal of Silent Sam. A Twitter account has been created to organize the thoughts and actions of those at UNC to share their happenings on a larger scale. On March 6, 2018, UNC’s student-run newspaper The Daily Tarheel reported that a statement was issued by a group of 270 faculty, staff, students, alumni and other affiliates of the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) to the department’s dean that called for the removal of Silent Sam. The article read, “The statement said Silent Sam's presence opposes the department's mission to ‘improve the quality of life for diverse local, national, and global communities,’ as well as restricts ‘access, use, management, and stewardship of information.’”