Tempers flare as pro-Confederate and anti-racist demonstrators clash in Chapel Hill

CHAPEL HILL -- Silent Sam supporters and anti-racist activists met again in Chapel Hill on Saturday, moving across the street from campus this time but bringing the same insults, arguments and chants that have animated their clashes for months.

Heirs to the Confederacy, a pro-Confederate monument group, had a permit from Chapel Hill to demonstrate in front of the post office on Franklin Street downtown. Since last fall, the group has held gatherings in and around McCorkle Place on campus, where Silent Sam stood until activists toppled it in August 2018.

But recently, at least three members of the Heirs group have been ordered to stay off campus or face trespassing charges.

So about a dozen members of the group took to the steps of the post office, several of them holding Confederate flags. They were immediately swarmed by at least twice as many anti-racists who were preparing for a counter-demonstration and potluck meal on McCorkle Place across the street.

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