Beginning in August there was "a year of sit-ins, rallies and protests involving students, faculty and community members". It would be unwise and imprudent for the University to take any action regarding the monument without additional legal clarity, and we would expect no less from our chancellor. The Confederate Monument, University of North Carolina, commonly known as Silent Sam, is a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier by Canadian sculptor John A. Wilson, which stood on the historic McCorkle Place of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) from 1913 until it was pulled down by protestors on August 20, 2018. [191], At the end of August, 37 Chapel Hill faith leaders wrote an open letter saying that "returning Silent Sam to its previous location furthers the goal of those who originally put it there: venerating white supremacy, and denigrating people of color."[187][192]. [107] At her trial on October 15, she admitted her guilt, but the judge withheld the verdict ("continued judgment"), so she received no sentence, and court fees and restitution were waived. Members of the Silent Generation (born between 1928 and 1945) continue to be the least supportive of legalization: Only 35% favor legalizing marijuana, while 64% are opposed. [14][109] At about the same time, the Project printed posters with a picture of Silent Sam, an X over him, and the words "We need REAL heroes", and students put them up on the campus. [204], According to the Carolina Journal in September 2018, the controversy surrounding Silent Sam was becoming a political issue that could affect the 2018 elections in the state,[184] "a development that, in most cases, would hurt Democrats". Grapples Anew With the Fate of Silent Sam", "UNC System asks judge to help get Silent Sam Confederate statue and its $2.5 million back", "Judge says most — but not all — of $2.5 million from Silent Sam deal must go back to UNC", "North Carolina Statewide General Election Poll Crosstabs September 4 – 7, 2018", "Silent Sam may speak loudly in national conversation on free speech", "Slavery and the Making of the University", "The University of North Carolina's Silent Sam Statue Represents a Legacy of White Supremacy", "Removing Confederate Symbols Is a Step, but Changing a Campus Culture Can Take Years", "North Carolina's Heritage Protection Act: Cementing Confederate Monuments in North Carolina's Landscape", "A Guide to Resources about UNC's Confederate Monument", "Why UNC's Toppled 'Silent Sam' Statue Has Been a Focus Point of Protest for Decades", "NC Influencers weigh in on Confederate monuments", "Silent Sam Was Toppled. Chapel Hill, N.C. (photograph)", "Confederate Monument and students in uniform, 1918 (photograph)", "As Time Goes By Sam Seems to Get Noisier", "Why Silent Sam was built: A historian's perspective", "Real Silent Sam movement holds protest focused on statue's history", "NC NAACP President To Speak At Silent Sam 100th Anniversary Sunday", "As Time Goes By, Sam Seems To Get Noisier", "Confederate statue on UNC-CH campus vandalized again", "Pro-Confederate Rally Coming To UNC Campus Sunday", "Demonstrators Gather To Support, And Oppose, Silent Sam", "Objections to 'Silent Sam' disrupt UNC University Day", "Man Arrested for Spray-Painting Silent Sam", "Hundreds protest on UNC campus against Confederate statue", "Hands off? This disparaging and marginalizing symbol has no place at the core of an inclusive learning environment.... We also believe that the message it sends undercuts the University's mission "to teach a diverse community of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to become the next generation of leaders. About two-thirds (69%) of those ages 18 to 29 say it should be legal for both types of use, compared with 48% of those ages 65 and older. [123], Later that night, campus staff loaded the statue, which did not seem to be seriously damaged,[124] onto a flat-bed dump truck and removed it from the site. [13] A story developed that "Sam" would fire his gun if a virgin walked by, but never did (he was silent) because he never saw any. Support for marijuana legalization continues to rise, Four-in-ten U.S. drug arrests in 2018 were for marijuana offenses â mostly possession, 63% of Republican Millennials favor marijuana legalization, Defining generations: Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins. These statues symbolize the violence toward Black people. [59], In late July 2015, the North Carolina General Assembly passed SL 2015–170, the Cultural History Artifact Management and Patriotism Act of 2015, which states that "An object of remembrance [defined as "monument, memorial, or work of art"] located on public property may not be permanently removed". [64], On October 12, 2015, University Day, a group of about two dozen students, calling itself The Real Silent Sam Coalition, interrupted a speech by Chancellor Folt, shouting "Tear it down, tear it down, or we'll shout you down". As mentioned above, they will be examined by outside investigators. A Four-Part Plan presented by UNC-Chapel Hill to the UNC Board of Governors", "Chancellor Folt announces resignation, orders Confederate Monument pedestal to be removed intact", "University of North Carolina Gives 'Silent Sam' Statue to Confederate Group", "Judge Voids UNC's Controversial Settlement Over Confederate Statue 'Silent Sam, "A Nursery of Patriotism: the University at War, 1861–1945—Civil War—Conscription", "A guide to resources about UNC's Confederate monument: Timeline", "UNC's Silent Sam and Honoring the Confederacy", "A guide to resources about UNC's Confederate monument: Archival Resources", "Civil War 'Silent Sentinels' still on guard in North, South", "Confederate Monument (a.k.a. Harvard might skew 80-20 in terms of Democrats vs. Republicans, 90-10 in terms of liberals vs. conservatives, but maybe 99-1 in terms of Blues vs. Reds. [135] At least 25 other people had been arrested on charges of misdemeanor riot, misdemeanor defacing of a public monument, causing damage to property, causing a public disturbance, defacing a public building, concealing one's face, resisting arrest, simple assault, and affray (fighting). ... "The letter exuded a weakness and hand wringing that does not accurately reflect the Board's opinion about how the potential of campus unrest should be treated", said the letter, which was dated August 22. [83]), On October 26, 35 professors from the School of Law posted a statement saying: "To many in our community, the armed soldier expresses the idea that some in our community are not equal. Legal requirement to put it back on the pedestal, in the same spot, Proposals for reinstallation elsewhere on the campus, Opposition to reinstallation in its previous location, Proposals for removal from the campus altogether, Settlement and transfer to Sons of Confederate Veterans. Given that the North Carolina Historical Commission had not yet made any ruling related to the 2015 law, and that Governor Cooper, through the North Carolina Department of Administration, had filed a petition to relocate three monuments located on the State Capitol grounds, "We are carefully following these proceedings, which we hope will shed light on what standards the commission will be using to evaluate such matters. With this new law, it is relatively easy for many individuals to speculate about its meaning or offer possible loopholes as ways to operate around the law. The use of an undercover officer was bitterly resented by some Silent Sam protestors, and was brought up repeatedly during later protests. The morning after the toppling, UNC issued a statement on Twitter which read: A later statement from Chancellor Folt, UNC President Margaret Spellings, and other university leaders[131] said, "Last night's rally was unlike any previous event on our campus. The September 11 meeting had over 75 participants and was moved to the Chapel Hill Public Library. DuBois' seminal 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk — 158 being, according to the student, the number of years between the foundation of the university and its admitting black students. [31] In 1967, poet John Beecher "debated" Silent Sam, reading to the statue from his book of poetry To Live and Die in Dixie. [13], Beginning in the 1960s, the statue faced opposition on the grounds of its racist message, and it was vandalized several times during the civil rights movement. Asked if Folt reached out or was planning to reach out to Cooper in response to the letter, Joanne Peters Denny, a UNC spokesperson, said these conversations were not happening: "We don't make our policy decisions based on threats from unauthenticated, anonymous groups". "Once statues like this become weaponized by the white supremacist[s] and the Nazis, keeping it up is untenable, I think it has to go. CNN RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based format for sharing and distributing Web content, such as news headlines. [126] (See Flaggers.) [118][122] Some police are reported to have been smiling. Some of these protests led to arrests for assault, resisting arrest, and inciting a public disturbance. 5 About half (48%) of American adults say they have ever used marijuana, according to the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.That is lower than the shares who say they have ever consumed alcohol (86%) or ever used tobacco products (66%). At the unveiling on June 2, 1913, local industrialist and UNC Trustee Julian Carr gave a speech espousing white supremacy,[3][4][5] while Governor Locke Craig,[6] UNC President Francis Venable[7][8] and members of the UDC[9] praised the sacrifices made by students who volunteered to fight for the Confederacy. [186], On September 4, 2018, a letter from 450 UNC faculty members, supporting Folt's preference for relocating the statue, was sent to the Board of Governors, Board of Trustees, and key administrators. [133] The chair of the UNC board of governors, Harry Smith, said on August 22, 2018, that the board would engage an outside firm to investigate the actions of the university and police at the protest, adding that Chancellor Folt had not herself ordered police to take a hands-off approach. "[68], "The push to get UNC to remove the statue...took off in earnest in August 2017",[68] after the proposed removal of Confederate statues in Charlottesville, Virginia led to the Unite the Right rally on August 11–12, and on August 14, the toppling of the Confederate Soldiers Memorial in nearby Durham. [110], In a press release dated August 15, the North Carolina Historical Commission stated that it "has received requests from private individuals to relocate the 'Silent Sam' monument at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but has not received a petition from the university, the UNC system, or its governing body, the Board of Governors. Most adults 65 and over nonetheless favor legalization in some form. "[43] In it, Carr emphatically praised the student-soldiers and soldiers of the Confederate Army for their wartime valor and patriotism,[3] adding that. Millennial Republicans also broadly favor legalizing marijuana use; in fact, Republicans in this generation are almost as supportive of legalization as Millennial Democrats (71% vs. 78%). [95], A November 1 statement (posted November 9) from the Department of Communication stated "We understand 'Silent Sam' to be a symbol of the history and legacies of racial slavery, anti-black racism, and white supremacy that persist in the state of North Carolina, the university, and our country.... [W]e have a moral obligation to remove this symbol of violent oppression from our midst, and continue the work of dismantling systemic racism. Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World. [83], Folt received considerable criticism from UNC-CH students and faculty for not taking a stronger position on the removal of Silent Sam.