The University’s Confederate Monument, which has been known since the 1950s as “Silent Sam,” operated for over a century as the institution’s most striking symbol to white supremacy. As early as 1965, there had been numerous calls and demands from Black students and workers to remove or historically contextualize the monument. In August 2018, organizers pulled down the Confederate soldier, and in January 2019, the base of the statue was also removed from the campus. The Confederate Monument remains a flashpoint for continued protest on campus.
The University’s Confederate Monument, which has been known since the 1950s as “Silent Sam,” operated for over a century as the institution’s most striking symbol to white supremacy. As early as 1965, there had been numerous calls and demands from Black students and workers to remove or historically contextualize the monument. In August 2018, organizers pulled down the Confederate soldier, and in January 2019, the base of the statue was also removed from the campus. The Confederate Monument remains a flashpoint for continued protest on campus.
Organization: Black Student Movement, Real Silent Sam Coalition, Students Seeking Historical Truth, #StrikeDownSam Anti-Racist Coalition
Space Use: Monument or Memorial
Spatial Organizing Approach: Contestation
Date Created: 1913
Campus Space: McCorkle Place
Citation: Interview with Michelle Brown by Charlotte Fryar, 2 March 2018, in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007), Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.