TO THE EDITOR:
We, the undersigned, are faculty, staff and graduate students in the UNC departments of geography and religious studies, housed in Saunders Hall.
We write today in solidarity with the efforts of The Real Silent Sam Coalition to address the history of racial violence that is cemented into the very bricks and mortar of the Chapel Hill campus. We support the coalition’s demands: to mark the statue of Silent Sam with a plaque explaining how it commemorates a history of white supremacy; to provide all incoming first-year students with educational material addressing the history of racialized violence on campus; and to rename Saunders Hall.
William L. Saunders was the chief organizer of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina. The administration continues to affirm his legacy and deny the University community’s demand to rename the building. As a public institution with commitments to diversity and inclusion, UNC can neither honor nor tolerate racial violence. We refuse to remain complicit with the continued legacy of racism on campus. Rename Saunders Hall. Black lives mattered then, and they matter now.
In solidarity,
Amy Braun and Mike Dimpfl, Co-Presidents, Graduate Association of Geography Students, on behalf of 84 members of the Departments of Geography and Religious Studies, whose signatures can be viewed here:
Editor's note: This letter's signature, as it appears here, has been adjusted from its print formatting to better reflect the wishes of its signatories.
