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UNC Students, Community Members Mark Aniversary Of Silent Sam's Fall

UNC students and members of the Chapel Hill community celebrated the anniversary of Silent Sam's fall on Tuesday, August 20, 2019.
Josie Taris
/
WUNC

UNC students and members of the Chapel Hill community celebrated the anniversary of Silent Sam's fall Tuesday evening.
A year ago, activiststore down the confederate statue. The remnants have since been moved to an undisclosed location.  

On Tuesday, activist groups led a crowd past other campus landmarks. Speakers criticized the university for maintaining markers honoring white supremacists, including buildings named for slave owners.

But John Fuller, a Chapel Hill resident, says the removal of Silent Sam is progress.  

"Coming into UNC as freshman… they don't have this shadow of blatant racism hovering over them as they walk this campus anymore," Fuller said.

The event attracted about 150 supporters, but few counter-protestors. Members of the Sons of the Confederacy were present on Franklin Street, on the edge of campus, earlier in the day.

Josie Taris left her home in Fayetteville in 2014 to study journalism at Northwestern University. There, she took a class called Journalism of Empathy and found her passion in audio storytelling. She hopes every story she produces challenges the audience's preconceptions of the world. After spending the summer of 2018 working in communications for a Chicago nonprofit, she decided to come home to work for the station she grew up listening to. When she's not working, Josie is likely rooting for the Chicago Cubs or petting every dog she passes on the street.
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