McCorkle Place

Maya Little Contextualizing the Confederate Monument

Document Description: On April 30, 2018, Maya Little, a graduate student in the History Department and organizer in the Silent Sam Sit-In since August 2017, escalated the activities of the movement, smearing a mixture of red ink and her blood on the statue. Little explained that the University’s Confederate Monument, like all monuments to the Confederacy, “were built on Black blood…without that blood on the statue, it’s incomplete, in my opinion. It’s not properly contextualized.” In her act of “contextualization,” Little followed in the footsteps of both Students Seeking Historical Truth and their decoration of Saunders Hall as “their own memorial to show what Saunders was,” and the Real Silent Sam Coalition, which used performance art as an alternative form of commemoration to activate students to their cause.

Date: 4/30/2018

Document Type: Photograph

Creator: Adam Lau

Document Collection: The Raleigh News and Observer

Campus Space: McCorkle Place

Citation: Maya Little, Graduate student in History Department, pouring a mixture of paint and blood onto the Confederate Monument, Photo by Adam Lau in the Raleigh News and Observer, 30 April 2018.