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15 dated events match your filters.
Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–15.Back to highlights
- Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
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The Leonidas Polk Chapter of the UDC holds Confederate memorial exercises
On May 10, 1905, the Leonidas Polk Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy held memorial exercises in Gerrard Hall, reading the roll of students who had served in the Confederate army. Children and adults then carried flowers to decorate soldiers' graves in the village cemetery.
People: Thomas Hume
Subject: Gerrard Hall · Old Chapel Hill Cemetery
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UNC trustees approve the United Daughters of the Confederacy's request to build a Confederate monument on the campus
The board of trustees approved a request from the North Carolina Division of the UDC for a monument on the campus. President Francis P. Venable took part in the planning and fund-raising and later committed university money when UDC and alumni contributions fell short.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
People: Francis Preston Venable
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Bettie Jackson London publishes the design for the campus monument and appeals for the $7,500
Writing from Pittsboro as chairman of the UDC monument committee, Mrs. Henry A. London described the monument designed by the sculptor John Wilson, a soldier above a bronze tablet of the State calling a student from his books, and warned that the chapters had not met their pledges and the unveiling at the semicentennial commencement was in doubt.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
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The Tar Heel reports the monument's unveiling put off from the 1911 commencement for want of funds
The paper reported that the UDC chapters had been unable to fulfill their pledges toward the $7,500, so the monument could not be unveiled at the June 1911 commencement, the fiftieth anniversary of the war's beginning, and would certainly be unveiled in 1912. It was in fact dedicated in June 1913.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
Subject: The Daily Tar Heel · Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument)
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UNC's Confederate Monument is dedicated
On the second day of commencement Major H. A. London introduced Governor Craig; Mrs. London presented the monument to the trustees for the UDC, President Francis P. Venable accepted it for the university, and Julian S. Carr spoke for the students of 1861. Carr's speech, which praised the Confederate army and recounted his horsewhipping of a Black woman in the village in 1865, is the part now most remembered.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
People: Julian S. Carr · John A. Wilson · Locke Craig
- Recent decades · 1976–2026
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Yonni Chapman founds the Freedom Legacy Project at UNC
While a UNC history graduate student, Chapman founded and directed the Freedom Legacy Project, a student group that documented the history of racial justice struggles at the university and publicly questioned the Silent Sam statue and the naming of Saunders Hall.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
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Demonstrators re-read Julian Carr's 1913 dedication speech at the monument and unveil a mock plaque
A campus demonstration read Carr's dedication-day speech aloud at the statue and unveiled a new plaque of its own giving the monument's history. The Daily Tar Heel reported a further Real Silent Sam movement protest on the statue's history later that month.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
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Saunders Hall is renamed Carolina Hall
UNC trustees approved the name change in May 2015; the building received its new name that August.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
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Silent Sam is toppled
On the evening of August 20, 2018, the eve of fall classes, about 250 protesters pulled UNC's Confederate monument in McCorkle Place from its pedestal at around 9:20 p.m. The toppling followed a year of campaigning for removal after the 2017 Charlottesville rally, and campus authorities took the statue to an undisclosed location.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
Subject: Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument) · McCorkle Place (with the Davie Poplar)
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The UNC Board of Governors gives Chapel Hill until November 15 to propose a 'lawful and lasting' plan for the monument
Eight days after the toppling, the Board of Governors met for nearly two hours in closed session and adopted a resolution directing Chancellor Folt and the trustees to present by November 15 a plan offering 'a lawful and lasting path that protects public safety, preserves the monument and its history'. Thom Goolsby cast the lone no vote, and the board ordered an outside review of the University's handling of the August 20 protest. The trustees met the same day.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
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UNC trustees vote to house the monument in a new $5.3 million University History and Education Center
At a special meeting the Board of Trustees approved a four-part plan for the Board of Governors: relocate the statue and tablets into a new free-standing building at the former Odum Village site on south campus, add a McCorkle Place gateway with plaques, and continue contextualizing campus history. The center was priced at $5.3 million with $800,000 a year to operate; Folt said police advised that the statue could not safely return to McCorkle Place.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
Subject: Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument) · McCorkle Place (with the Davie Poplar)
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The Board of Governors rejects the history center and appoints a task force with a March 15 deadline
After a nearly three-hour closed session the Board of Governors declined the trustees' $5.3 million history center, citing cost and public safety, and named five of its members to work with Folt and the trustees on a new proposal by March 15, 2019. Folt said the plan 'hasn't satisfied anyone' and that the campus would now look at off-campus options.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
People: Margaret Spellings
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Folt orders the Silent Sam pedestal removed and announces she will step down
Folt ordered the removal on the Monday and announced in a campuswide email that she would resign, saying the remaining parts of the monument threatened the safety of the community. The university said at 1 a.m. on Tuesday that removal had begun, and by 2:40 a.m. a crew had taken the last of the base from the quad.
Part of Toppling of Silent Sam, 2018
Subject: Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument) · McCorkle Place (with the Davie Poplar)
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The UNC System gives Silent Sam to the Sons of Confederate Veterans with a $2.5 million trust in a same-day consent judgment
The North Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans sued the UNC System and Board of Governors over the monument and a consent judgment was entered the same day in Orange County Superior Court. The System handed over the statue, to be kept outside the fourteen counties with a System campus, and endowed a $2.5 million charitable trust from non-state funds for its care and display. Board chair Randy Ramsey said the deal let the University 'move forward'.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
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Judge Allen Baddour voids the Silent Sam settlement in Hillsborough for lack of standing
At a hearing in Hillsborough, Orange County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour ruled that the Sons of Confederate Veterans had no standing to bring the suit and set aside the consent judgment and the $2.5 million trust. Five UNC students and a faculty member represented by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law had sought to intervene; their motion was denied but the judge took up the standing question they raised.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 2, 2026.
