Earlier this week, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor Dr. Carol Folt announced that she was working with university trustees to create a relocation plan for the Confederate statue “Silent Sam” by a November 15 deadline. Hundreds of university faculty called for the polarizing statue to not be restored to its original location. Now, 59 Black UNC faculty are calling for it to be removed permanently, saying any efforts to re-install “Silent Sam” on campus “herald for the nation and for the world that UNC is not a welcoming place for Black people.”
Their full statement follows:
Statement from UNC Black Faculty on Silent Sam
As UNC Black faculty, we occupy a unique position relative to the Confederate monument known as “Silent Sam.” When the Daughters of the Confederacy commissioned the monument for the university, when university donors offered resources to support its completion, when the university paid the remaining balance and UNC Board of Trustees member Julian Carr delivered his racist remarks at its dedication, we doubt any envisioned Black faculty as vibrant and necessary members of the university’s intellectual, cultural, and social community. In 1913, the Confederate monument did not stand in opposition to the stated values and mission of the university. In 2018, it most certainly does. It has done so since the university chose to admit the first Black student or offer the first Black faculty member a contract for employment. We have witnessed a monument that represents White supremacy in both the past and present be venerated and protected at the same time that we have been asked to serve as examples of diversity and inclusion. That is a demoralizing burden.
A monument to White supremacy, steeped in a history of violence against Black people, and that continues to attract White supremacists, creates a racially hostile work environment and diminishes the university’s reputation worldwide. For us, arguments of moral equivalency are extremely problematic; there are not two morally valid sides to the history the monument represents nor to its current significance. Without brave acts of civil disobedience that changed the moral character of the nation and advanced the cause of justice, Black faculty, staff and students would not be here. To reinstall the Confederate monument to any location on UNC’s campus is to herald for the nation and for the world that UNC is not a welcoming place for Black people.
We, the undersigned faculty, urge the Chancellor, Provost, Board of Trustees and Board of Governors to permanently remove the Confederate statue and its pedestal from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There is no way to re-erect the statue without valorizing an incomplete version of history. A symbol of racism, violence, and White supremacy has no place on our 21st century campus often called the “University of the People.”
1. Elizabeth A. Adams, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
2. Anna Agbe-Davies, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
3. Michele Tracy Berger, Associate Professor, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies
4. Maya Berry, Assistant Professor, African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
5. Cedric Bright, Associate Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine
6. Antonio A. Bush, Assistant Professor, Eshelman School of Pharmacy
7. Kia Lilly Caldwell, Professor, African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
8. Eileen R. Carlton Parsons, Professor, School of Education
9. Claude A. Clegg III, Lyle V. Jones Distinguished Professor, African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
10. Shauna M. Cooper, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
11. Renee Alexander Craft, Associate Professor, Department of Communication
12. Crystal Wiley Cene, Associate Professor, School of Medicine
13. Deen Freelon, Associate Professor, School of Media and Journalism
14. Livis James Freeman Jr., Teaching Assistant Professor, School of Media and Journalism
15. Samuel Ray Gates, Assistant Professor, Department of Dramatic Art
16. Amelia Gibson, Assistant Professor, School of Information and Library Science
17. Keisha Gibson, Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
18. Rachel W. Goode, Assistant Professor School of Social Work
19. Taylor W. Hargrove, Assistant Professor, Sociology
20. Sherick Hughes, Professor, School of Education
21. Jerma A. Jackson, Associate Professor, Department of History
22. Meta DuEwa Jones, Associate Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature
23. Joseph Jordan, Stone Center
24. Jacqueline Lawton, Assistant Professor, Department of Dramatic Art
25. Derrick D. Matthews, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Behavior
26. Rahsaan Maxwell, Associate Professor, Political Science
27. Sean McLean, Associate Professor, School of Medicine
28. Trevy A. McDonald, Associate Professor, School of Media and Journalism
29. Kenya McNeal-Trice, Professor, Department of Pediatrics
30. Terence McIntosh, Associate Professor, Department of History
31. Genna Rae McNeil, Professor, Department of History
32. Fabian Monrose, Kenan Distinguished Professor, Department of Computer Science
33. Carlton Moore, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
34. Enrique Neblett, Associate Professor, Psychology and Neuroscience
35. Donna L. Nixon, Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Law
36. Terence Oliver, Reese Felts Distinguished Associate Professor, School of Media and Journalism
37. Patricia Parker, Associate Professor, Department of Communication
38. Kathy Perkins, Professor Emerita, Dramatic Art
39. Charlene Regester, Associate Professor, African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
40. Dana Rice, Assistant Professor, Gillings School of Global Public Health
41. Liana Richardson, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
42. Michelle Robinson, Associate Professor, Department of American Studies
43. Lillie Searles, Associate Professor, Department of Biology
44. Theodore M. Shaw, Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Civil Rights
45. Tanya L. Shields, Associate Professor, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies
46. Karla Slocum, Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair, Associate Professor, Anthropology
47. Deborah Stroman, Clinical Associate Professor, Gillings School of Global Public Health
48. William Sturkey, Assistant Professor, Department of History
49. J. Michael Terry, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics
50. Brendan J. Thornton, Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies
51. Kimberly P. Truesdale, Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition
52. Karolyn Tyson, Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor, Sociology
53. Anissa Vines, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health
54. Candis Watts Smith, Assistant Professor, Public Policy
55. Eric King Watts, Associate Professor , Department of Communication
56. Becky L. White, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
57. Kathryn Williams, Teaching Associate Professor, Department of Dramatic Art
58. Lyneise Williams, Associate Professor, Department of Art and Art History
59. Erika K. Wilson, Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair, Associate Professor, School of Law
