UNC removes Confederate pedestal from campus overnight
Source: Associated Press
Jonathan Drew, Associated Press
Updated 4:37 am CST, Tuesday, January 15, 2019
FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2018, file photo, police stand guard after the Confederate statue known as Silent Sam was toppled by protesters on campus at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C. The chancellor of North Carolina's flagship public university said Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, the school will remove the pedestal where the Confederate statue stood until protesters tore it down.
Crews removed remnants of a Confederate statue from North Carolina's flagship public university early Tuesday, hours after the school's outgoing chancellor ordered that the empty pedestal be put into storage because of safety concerns.
The University of North Carolina sent a statement around 1 a.m. Tuesday confirming that removal of the pedestal was under way at its Chapel Hill campus. In a statement Monday, Chancellor Carol Folt had announced the plan to remove the empty base for the statue known as "Silent Sam" from a main quad. She also said she was stepping down at the end of the school year.
The statue itself has been in storage since it was toppled last August by protesters who say it was a racist symbol. Folt said the massive pedestal and bronze memorial plaques will also go into storage while their fate is decided.
. . .
"Silent Sam" was toppled in August by protesters who decried its origins, including a racist speech by a former Confederate when it was dedicated.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/education/article/UNC-removes-Confederate-pedestal-from-campus-13534305.php
Silent Sam, unpopular in 1968, too.
= new reply since forum marked as read
