Toppling of Silent Sam, 2018

In the chronology

Chronology entries for this event, in date order. See these 9 dated events in the chronology →

1. August 2017 UNC leaders warn Governor Cooper that Silent Sam may be pulled down UNC System President Margaret Spellings, Chancellor Carol Folt and the chairs of the Board of Governors and the campus trustees wrote to Governor Roy Cooper that police believed an attempt to pull down Silent Sam could come at any time. Cooper answered that state law let the university remove the monument if its leaders saw a real risk to public safety. People: Margaret Spellings, Carol L. Folt Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Carol Folt, Roy Cooper · Also mentions: Silent SamSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel: Cooper gives UNC permission to remove Silent Sam
2. August 20, 2018 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. Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: McCorkle PlaceCommemorative Landscapes of North Carolina: Confederate Monument, UNC (Chapel Hill)
3. August 21, 2018 UNC leaders ask the SBI to help investigate the toppling of Silent Sam The day after protesters pulled down Silent Sam, Spellings and Board of Governors chair Harry Smith called the act unacceptable, dangerous and incomprehensible. A later joint statement with Chancellor Folt and trustees chair Haywood Cochrane said the administration never told police to let the monument fall and that the SBI had agreed to help investigate. People: Margaret Spellings, Carol L. Folt Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Harry Smith, Carol Folt, Haywood Cochrane · Also mentions: Silent SamSearch the index · NC Newsline: UNC leaders: SBI investigating 'Silent Sam' toppling
4. August 28, 2018 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. People: Carol L. Folt Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Carol Folt, Thom GoolsbyWRAL: UNC-CH board has until November to devise plan for 'Silent Sam'
5. December 3, 2018 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. People: Carol L. Folt Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Carol Folt · Also mentions: McCorkle Place, Odum VillageUNC-Chapel Hill: BOT recommends four-part plan on Confederate Monument, campus contextualization
6. December 14, 2018 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. People: Carol L. Folt Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Carol FoltWUNC: Board of Governors Rejects Plan To Build History Center To House Silent Sam
7. January 14 and 15, 2019 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. People: Carol L. Folt Place: McCorkle Place, Chapel HillSearch the index · NPR: On Her Way Out, UNC Chancellor Orders Removal Of Silent Sam Pedestal
8. November 27, 2019 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'. Place: Orange County · Also named: Randy RamseyWRAL: UNC System, Sons of Confederate Veterans reach settlement on Silent Sam
9. February 12, 2020 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. Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Allen BaddourNPR (via WESA): Judge Voids UNC's Controversial Settlement Over Confederate Statue 'Silent Sam'