Waiting For A Decision On Silent Sam

Waiting For A Decision On Silent Sam, Experts Weigh In
By LAURA PELLICER & FRANK STASIO • NOV 6, 2018



Podcast, The State of Things, at the link.

Host Frank Stasio is joined by UNC doctoral student Maya Little, scholars William Sturkey, political commentator Karen Cox, and John Hood, president of the John William Pope Foundation, for their perspectives on whether Silent Sam belongs back in McCorkle Place. Stasio is later joined by Roger Ehrlich, co-creator of the Swords to Plowshares Belltower, a 24-foot traveling memorial on which anyone can inscribe a message or share their personal experience with war.


By November 15, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt and the school's Board of Trustees will present their plan for the future of the Confederate Silent Sam monument that was topped by protestors in late August. The statue is currently being stored at an undisclosed location.

After the statue came down this fall, UNC-CH leaders announced they would hold listening sessions to better understand the perspectives of the students and faculty who share a campus with the monument. But do the various community stakeholders feel listened to?

Karen Cox is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the author of “Dixie’s Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture” (University Press of Florida/ 2003) which is set to be re-released in early 2019; William Sturkey is an assistant professor of history at UNC-Chapel Hill who specializes in the history of race in the American South. The pair take a look back at the context under which Silent Sam was first erected.

Little, the student who doused the statue with blood and red ink back in April, shares updates from her honor court proceedings and argues against the statue being returned to its former location on campus.

Stasio also talks to Roger Ehrlich, co-creator of the Swords to Plowshares Belltower. The 24-foot traveling memorial is comprised of silver plaques on which anyone can inscript a message or share their personal experience with war. Ehrlich talks about the inspiration behind the memorial and shares some of the stories from the plaques. The Swords to Plowshares Belltower will be at the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh until Sunday, Nov. 11.

Complete podcast is at the link.

http://www.wunc.org/post/waiting-decision-silent-sam-experts-weigh#stream/0

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