Silent Sam’: A racist Jim Crow-era speech inspired UNC students to topple a Confederate monument on campus
In 1913, Julian Carr, a prominent industrialist and supporter of the Ku Klux Klan, was invited to speak at the unveiling of a statue of a Confederate soldier on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It had been placed there by the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Carr’s lengthy address made clear the symbolism of the statue. First, he credited Confederate soldiers with saving “the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South,” adding, “to-day, as a consequence the purest strain of the Anglo Saxon is to be found in the 13 Southern States — Praise God.”
Then, he went on to tell a personal story.
“I trust I may be pardoned for one allusion, howbeit it is rather personal,” Carr said. “One hundred yards from where we stand, less than ninety days perhaps after my return from Appomattox, I horse-whipped a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady, and then rushed for protection to these University buildings where was stationed a garrison of 100 Federal soldiers. I performed the pleasing duty in the immediate presence of the entire garrison, and for thirty nights afterwards slept with a double-barrel shot gun under my head.”
On Monday night, when the statue that he’d dedicated was pulled from its pedestal by a crowd of protesters, Carr’s boastful reference to brutally beating a black woman wasn’t far from mind. The rally began as a demonstration of solidarity with Maya Little, who was arrested in April after reading aloud from Carr’s speech and covering the statue with red ink and her own blood. Little, a graduate student in history, faces charges of defacing a public monument, according to the Daily Tar Heel.
Early Monday evening, student activists covered the statue — now known as “Silent Sam” — with gray fabric banners. One read, “For a world without white supremacy.”
Another listed victims of racial violence, beginning with “Unnamed Black woman beaten by Julian Carr.”
Hours later, after darkness fell, those banners ended up providing cover for protesters. They tied ropes around the statue and toppled it to the ground, according to the Daily Tar Heel. Cheering and shouting, they began covering the statue with mud and dirt.
“I watched it groan and shiver and come asunder,” Dwayne Dixon, an Asian studies professor at UNC, told the Daily Tar Heel. “I mean, it feels biblical. It’s thundering and starting to rain. It’s almost like heaven is trying to wash away the soiled contaminated remains.”
Early Tuesday morning, the statue was hauled away in a dump truck.
The rest of the story.....
‘Silent Sam’: A racist Jim Crow-era speech inspired UNC students to topple a Confederate monument on campus
In 1913, Julian Carr, a prominent industrialist and supporter of the Ku Klux Klan, was invited to speak at the unveiling of a statue of a Confederate soldier on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It had been placed there by the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Carr’s lengthy address made clear the symbolism of the statue. First, he credited Confederate soldiers with saving “the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South,” adding, “to-day, as a consequence the purest strain of the Anglo Saxon is to be found in the 13 Southern States — Praise God.”
Then, he went on to tell a personal story.
“I trust I may be pardoned for one allusion, howbeit it is rather personal,” Carr said. “One hundred yards from where we stand, less than ninety days perhaps after my return from Appomattox, I horse-whipped a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady, and then rushed for protection to these University buildings where was stationed a garrison of 100 Federal soldiers. I performed the pleasing duty in the immediate presence of the entire garrison, and for thirty nights afterwards slept with a double-barrel shot gun under my head.”
On Monday night, when the statue that he’d dedicated was pulled from its pedestal by a crowd of protesters, Carr’s boastful reference to brutally beating a black woman wasn’t far from mind. The rally began as a demonstration of solidarity with Maya Little, who was arrested in April after reading aloud from Carr’s speech and covering the statue with red ink and her own blood. Little, a graduate student in history, faces charges of defacing a public monument, according to the Daily Tar Heel.
Early Monday evening, student activists covered the statue — now known as “Silent Sam” — with gray fabric banners. One read, “For a world without white supremacy.”
Another listed victims of racial violence, beginning with “Unnamed Black woman beaten by Julian Carr.”
Hours later, after darkness fell, those banners ended up providing cover for protesters. They tied ropes around the statue and toppled it to the ground, according to the Daily Tar Heel. Cheering and shouting, they began covering the statue with mud and dirt.
“I watched it groan and shiver and come asunder,” Dwayne Dixon, an Asian studies professor at UNC, told the Daily Tar Heel. “I mean, it feels biblical. It’s thundering and starting to rain. It’s almost like heaven is trying to wash away the soiled contaminated remains.”
Early Tuesday morning, the statue was hauled away in a dump truck.
The rest of the story.....
‘Silent Sam’: A racist Jim Crow-era speech inspired UNC students to topple a Confederate monument on campus
