Maya Little, a PhD student in UNC’s Department of History, threw a mixture of red ink and her own blood on Silent Sam Monday afternoon. No, she wasn’t driven crazy by the pressures of finals week; she was fed up with the statue’s racist history and the fact that the monument is still allowed to stand on UNC’s campus.
The Confederate monument colloquially named Silent Sam stands in McCorkle place, the northernmost part of our campus. The statue was gifted to the university by the North Carolina chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1913, over 50 years after the beginning of the Civil War. At the statue’s dedication, Julian Carr, a Confederate veteran, gave a speech in which he bragged about how he “horse-whipped a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds” on Franklin Street, less than 100 yards away from the statue.
Understandably, the statue’s presence on campus has been protested since the 1960s. This past year, however, protests have increased exponentially. After the events in Charlottesville, VA, where dozens were injured and one woman was killed during protests surrounding a Confederate statue on UVA’s campus, and the removal of a Confederate statue in Durham, Silent Sam’s existence has been questioned even more. Little is the latest in a long line of protestors active this year, as students have participated in rallies, protests, sit-ins and a boycott in the hopes of removing Silent Sam from campus.
Little released a pre-written statement to the press (full statement below) taking responsibility and explaining why she covered the statue in red ink and her own blood. As she predicted in her statement, the university finished cleaning the statue within an hour of Little painting it. According to The News & Observer, Little was arrested by campus police but released on promise to appear in court for charges of defacing, striking, marking or injuring a public statue.
Whether or not you agree with her methods, Little’s goal of continuing a conversation about the Confederate monument on UNC’s campus has been met. If you’re interested in getting involved with the Movement to Take Down Silent Sam, below are 5 ways you can help. Additionally, you can read Little’s full statement here.