McCorkle Place

A Collective Response to Anti-Blackness

Document Description: In November 2015, a coalition of student organizations, including members of the Real Silent Sam Coalition delivered “A Collective Response to Anti-Blackness” to the University’s administration, the UNC Board of Governors, and the North Carolina General Assembly. Separating demands into eleven sections across fourteen pages, the students’ fifty demands included several relating to the “racialized geography of campus.” Citing the pro-Confederate rally of the previous month, the students wrote “We DEMAND public condemnation of the anti-Black Confederate rally that occurred on this campus and their terroristic intimidation of Black students at UNC. We DEMAND the removal of the racist Confederate monument Silent Sam and ALL confederate monuments on campuses in the UNC-system.” Other demands relating to the campus landscape included the renaming of Carolina Hall to honor Zora Neale Hurston, the creation of a space to honor the contributions to the campus by members of Black Greek organizations, and reclamation of control of Upendo Lounge by the BSM. The demand of removal of the University’s Confederate Monument has remained a constant since the delivering of the document, and “A Collective Response to Anti-Blackness” remains the most comprehensive document of student demands to the University’s administration towards social, economic, and racial justice at the institution.

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Organization:
Real Silent Sam Coalition, Student Action with Workers, Students United for Immigrant Equality, Sierra Student Coalition, UNC Board of Governors Democracy Coalition

Date: 11/19/2015

Document Type: Demands

Campus Space: McCorkle Place

Citation: “A Collective Response to Anti-Blackness.” ABC11. 19 November 2015. PDF.