Time for a Change

Abstract

Silent Sam is a Confederate monument that stood at the gateway of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s campus since 1913 to honor Confederate soldiers who had fought in the civil war. The monument depicts a soldier facing north while grasping his rifle firmly in both hands. He lacks a cartridge box for ammunition, which is how the name of the statue came about. On the front of the monument a brass plaque depicts a woman clad in classical dress, representing North Carolina, resting her hand on the shoulder of a seated student, convincing him to take up arms. The monument costs 7,500 dollars, which was completely funded by the North Carolina Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and some of the University of North Carolina Alumni.

The alumni of UNC who funded the Silent Sam statue are the same people who fund the majority of buildings and other monuments that are placed on campus. These individuals all have some form of background in common — they are all caucasian and they all attended the university back when Chapel Hill’s doors were only open to people of their same race. Julian Carr, a white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan supporter, spoke at the dedication of the monument in 1913. His speech recounted the heroic efforts of the men the monument honored as well as the women on the home front. The speech also spoke to the racialized nature of the commemoration as Carr tells this story: “100 yards from where we stand, less than 90 days perhaps after my return from Appomattox, 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.” Although it is argued that the statue stood to memorialize a confederate soldier who fought in the civil war, Silent Sam also stood as a threat to African American culture, especially those who sought to enroll in the university.

The American Civil War of 1861 to 1865 started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. When Abraham Lincoln won election in 1860 as the first Republican president on a platform pledging to keep slavery out of the territories, seven slave states in the deep South seceded and formed a new nation, the Confederate States of America. Northern victory in the war preserved the United States as one nation and ended the institution of slavery that had divided the country from its beginning. The southern states fought to defend slavery, a cruel system by which African Americans were owned by ignorant white supremacists for the purpose of personal labor.

Silent Sam and other confederate monuments stood to honor the victims of the war who fought for an unjust system such as slavery, an atrocity of American history that completely goes against the idea of equal rights for every citizen in the country, no matter the race or ethnicity of the individual.

Silent Sam was erected in 1913, but the American Civil War ended in 1865, which is almost 50 years afterwards. It is reasonably arguable to defend the stance that the statue stood to remember a fallen soldier as a hoax, when it really stood to threaten individuals who were forced into slavery and other African Americans whose ancestors were also, to embrace the idea that white supremacy still exists in the minds of the racists who put up the statue in the first place. Student activists on UNC’s campus saw Silent Sam as a symbol of racism also, for that in August of 2018, they gathered around the statue and protested that it be taken down, in which they took the responsibility of doing so themselves. UNC is currently a diverse campus, so it is completely reasonable to take action in removing a statue from campus that resembled a man who fought for slavery when African American individuals who attend the university might have come from a family that was forced into the corrupt system of slavery.

The removal of the Confederate monument is technically illegal according to the laws set forth by the North Carolina government because the statue is classified as an object of remembrance. Silent Sam should not be considered an object of remembrance when it stands to honor a white supremacist, but lawfully, an object of remembrance on public property may not be removed permanently. The government that makes these laws and considers confederate monuments as an “object of remembrance” is composed of almost entirely white males. The idea that a non-diverse group of people should dictate a law that discomforts and makes African American and Black individuals feel unsafe is absolutely preposterous.

As well as the government, the alumni of UNC who funds the construction of buildings and monuments are completely composed of white males. The university officials might not be able to overrule the government, but they certainly have power over the people who fund the university. On the otherhand, they do not have the upper-hand in making decisions such as the removal of monuments that represent racism, like Silent Sam, in fear that they will no longer receive the funds needed to let the campus thrive. The whole hierarchy system between the government, UNC alumni, university officials, and the students currently enrolled is corrupt, for that the students are on the bottom of the pyramid. Although the students who stood up for their beliefs in the process of tearing down the dehumanizing statue, some were arrested and most were taken to court, which then leads to the fear that student activists cannot partake in fighting for justice.

For those who need reminding, it is 2019. The Civil Rights Act was set forth in 1964 to outlaw discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, and racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations. The Silent Sam statue, for example, counteracts the law set forth over 50 years ago, for that it completely violates the end to racial segregation, and in this case, on UNC’s campus.

As the Black Lives Matter movement has gained momentum in the United States, this sentinel statue, which faces north to commemorate fallen Confederate Soldiers, has been an organizing site for demonstrations of many political slants. In conjunction with University Day, members of the student and community group, “The Real Silent Sam,” organized a rally, which concluded with the removal, the silencing for say, of the statue. Their actions represented their symbolic demand, a signal that they urge the University of North Carolina to send, one that would be interpreted as a reckoning with the institution’s history of discrimination. Rallies and protests conducted by student activists are extremely important in expressing our rights to free speech as citizens of the United States, as well as that it educates others of how certain hate symbols makes the student body feel unsafe and very uncomfortable in an environment in which they live in, which is completely unfair.

Educating students on the racial issues and their impacts on individuals in history is crucial in ensuring that mistakes such as slavery and racial discrimination should never be repeated, although, as disheartening as it is, still exists in society today. Racism should be eliminated, and the removal of monuments such as Silent Sam is a step in silencing the thoughts and actions of racist, poorly-educated white supremacists. One can blame the ancestors of these people for that they grew up learning to discriminate others based off of their race, but as said earlier, it is the twenty-first century and it is time to put an end to racial prejudice because those ideas are of the past and should be used to teach society to do better and treat all as equal with complete respect.

Confederate monuments are also an act of the past and should be taken down for that it is not accepted by most rational individuals today, and that idea should be accepted and understood by the funders of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Easier said than done, but we should all stand up and take action for what is deemed appropriate on campus and racist symbols do not qualify, thus Silent Sam should be kept removed off of campus and hopefully never put up again in any location but the garbage chute.

Citations

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