The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is receiving major backlash for donating $2.5 million to the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
What We Know:
- The SCV is dedicated to “remembering the bravery, defending the honor and protecting the memory of our beloved Confederate Veterans, which includes their memorials, images, symbols, monuments and gravesites for ourselves and future generations”. The group opposed the removal of the Silent Sam statue, a confederate monument, from the Chapel Hill campus.
- Raleigh’s News & Observer reported that the UNC System and its Board of Governors agreed to allow the SCV to take possession of the statue and paid the group the settlement to preserve the monument using money from interest accumulated in the UNC-Chapel Hill endowment.
- The school paid the confederate group the large amount to provide “a lawful and lasting path that ensures the monument never returns,” trustees told the press.
- Students and alumni of the university were infuriated by the large settlement. UNC Student Body President, Ashton Martin, voiced her frustration in a speech. She said, “We want to see you publicly denounce hate, and provide actionable solutions for the minority populations who have been harmed time and time again because of this statue.”
Ashton Martin, (Sappony) the first Native American student body president at UNC, used her time in a speech to call out the entire BOG who oversaw the transfer of 2.5 million to a white supremacist group, spoke the truth, and demanded better.#SilentSam #SilentSham https://t.co/P59ys8QKbw
— Lauren White (@laurenalaine) December 14, 2019
How do you think they should’ve handled this?
