University Of North Carolina Confederate Statue Vandalized: Should ‘Silent Sam’ Be Removed?
A Confederate statue at the University of North Carolina was vandalized over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. The “Silent Sam” statue was dedicated to 321 Chapel Hill alumni who died while serving as Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.
The University of North Carolina Confederate statue is a stone memorial that had the words “Murderer,” “KKK,” and “Black Lives Matter” spray-painted onto it. The Confederate memorial on the Chapel Hill campus was commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter. The statue of a Confederate soldier holding a rifle was sculpted by John Wilson.
“We welcome all points of view, but damaging or defacing statues is not the way to go about it,” University of North Carolina spokesman, Rick White, said. “We understand that the issue of race and place is both emotional and, for many, painful. Carolina is working hard to ensure we have a thoughtful, respectful and inclusive dialogue on the issue. The extensive discussions with the Carolina community this past year by the Board of Trustees and University leadership, and the work we will be doing to contextualize the history of our campus is a big part of advancing those conversations.”
The Silent Sam Confederate statue has reportedly been vandalized in previous years, and underwent restoration in 1986. The University of North Carolina Confederate memorial was installed on the Chapel Hill campus in 1913. The graffiti has now been painted over.
A Confederate monument in Maplewood Cemetery in Durham that honored local soldiers fighting for the South during the Civil War was also defaced by vandals. Honoring local Confederate soldiers was similarly vandalized. The words “Tear it Down” and “Black Lives Matter” were spray-painted on the Confederacy memorial.
South Carolina lawmakers began debating the removal of the Confederate Flag from the statehouse today. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, a movement to have the Confederate battle flag removed from a public area began after the Dylann Roof Charleston church shooting. Multiple stores have since removed popular Confederate flag items from their shelves, and TV Land yanked the classic hit television show, the Dukes of Hazzard, from its line-up.
What do the think about the University of North Carolina Confederate statue vandalism and the ongoing Confederate flag controversy?
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