Letter to the editor: What Sam stood for

Dear Board Chair Smith and Board Members,
I urge you to return Silent Sam to his place on Polk (McCorkle) Place. At the same time I urge you to erect a new statue next to him. It should show Julian Carr whipping a Black woman; on the base of the statue should be inscribed Carr’s own words, spoken at the unveiling of Silent Sam in 1913:

“One hundred yards from where we stand . . . I horse-whipped a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady.”

The pairing of the two statues would show what Silent Sam stood for when he was given his place of honor, and how the forces that created our Civil War remain alive today, enshrined on the UNC campus.

Yours sincerely,
Paul M. Brinich, PhD
Clinical Professor (emeritus)
Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry
UNC-Chapel Hill