By Brianna Atkinson
The following is WUNC's Series Entry for the 2025 awards contest.
On April 30, a pro-Palestinian protest on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus exploded in violence. The most famous scene from that day was then-interim Chancellor Lee Roberts, surrounded by law enforcement, returning an American flag to the flagpole on Polk Place, a short time after demonstrators had replaced it with a Palestinian flag.
Two students, Laura Saavedra Forero and Brendan Rosenblum, played central roles on that day, albeit in different ways and for different reasons. But for all their differences, they share a commitment to their cause and a deep humanity that has gotten lost in all that happened that day — and since.
WUNC’s Brianna Atkinson spent considerable time with both and tells their stories, one year later.
The entry: