One day after 800 people gathered at McCorkle Place at UNC-Chapel Hill Tuesday night, calls to remove the Silent Sam statue continue.
One UNC-CH student and at least two individuals unaffiliated with the university were arrested during the rally.
A state law passed in 2015 and signed by former Gov. Pat McCrory forbids the removal of any such monument on public property without approval from a state historic commission.
However, in a letter written by Gov. Roy Cooper Monday night, he gave the University his blessing to remove the statue, which was erected in 1913, if its leaders believed “there is a real risk to public safety.”
This comes just one week after Cooper publicly called for Confederate statues to be removed from state grounds, as reported by Technician.
“It’s time to move forward,” Cooper said last week. “These monuments should come down.”
UNC-CH responded Tuesday by releasing a statement declining Cooper’s advice, just hours before the protests began.
“Despite how it is being interpreted in the media, the University has not been given the clear legal authority to act unilaterally,” UNC-CH said in the statement.
In a statement released Tuesday, state House Speaker Tim Moore praised the decision by the university not to intervene by removing the statue.
“I am pleased the University of North Carolina responded to threats of criminal vandalism in the measured and thoughtful manner our state can expect from one of the leading universities in the world,” Moore said. “It is clear their utmost priority is the public’s safety and the protection of the campus community.”
Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger has called for the monument to be removed from its location on campus, and instead placed in an environment to be used for educational purposes.
“I think it needs to be used as a teaching tool and I think it can be moved to a museum or to a historic building or something, and where there is a description about it and to be used as a teaching tool and a reminder of our past,” Hemminger said. “A past not to be repeated.”
A version of this story was published on August 24 under the headline “Silent Sam protests”.
