TO THE EDITOR:
We delivered a letter last winter to Chancellor Holden Thorp, asking him to break the loud tradition of silence at UNC in regards to its history and continued legacy of racism.
In this letter, we asked Thorp to help us tell the truth. We asked for a plaque on the Confederate Monument, otherwise known as Silent Sam.
At our most recent meeting, Thorp recommended that instead of a plaque on Silent Sam, we place one on the Unsung Founders Monument, located directly across from Silent Sam on McCorkle Place.
Since its creation, the Unsung Founders Monument has been met with criticism for perpetuating the namelessness of former enslaved people who built this University.
While the idea of placing a plaque by the Unsung Founders Monument opens up possibilities of how we can celebrate the enslaved people who built this University, it fails to address the larger issue at hand: Silent Sam.
Nearly 100 years ago, Julian Carr’s speech during Silent Sam’s unveiling ceremony on our campus in 1913 demonstrated the motivation behind the statue. He stated the importance of “preserving the Anglo-Saxon race” and celebrated the violent abuse and intimidation of a black woman on Franklin Street.
As we approach the centennial anniversary of the Confederate Monument on June 2, the necessity of a plaque on or adjacent to Silent Sam continues.
Such a plaque must bring to light the white supremacist context in which the monument was conceived and erected.
Before you leave our university, Chancellor Thorp, we ask you to take a stand and break the loud tradition of silence.
This letter was written on behalf of the Real Silent Sam Committee.
Grace Phillips ’13
Philosophy
Geography
