UNC history professors give Silent Sam global context at "Monumental Histories"

A controversial monument, a student protest, debates about history, memory and race, a public university's role in the conversation and the permanent removal of a statue. 

Although similar, this is not the story of Silent Sam. This is the story of a historical monument as told by UNC history assistant professor Lauren Jarvis at “Monumental Histories," an event held Wednesday night at the FedEx Global Education Center about historical monuments and memorials. 

Jarvis talked about a controversial statue of Cecil Rhodes that was formerly located on the campus of the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The statue was removed by university officials in 2015 after students protested the monument and called it a symbol of institutionalized racism. 

Co-sponsored by the UNC Department of History and the UNC Curriculum in Global Studies, “Monumental Histories” was a panel discussion comprised of five faculty members from the UNC history department who talked about the contextualization of problematic monuments and memorials in South Africa, France, Germany, China and beyond. 

The idea of the event was first proposed in early September during a UNC history department faculty meeting. Konrad Jarausch, a professor of European civilization, pitched the idea for the panel discussion as a response to the ongoing debate on UNC’s campus about Silent Sam. 

History associate professor Michelle King organized the event.

“I’m the diversity liaison for the history department, so I sent an email to the entire faculty and said, ‘Whoever’s interested in participating, please let me know, and we’ll set something up,'" King said. “As historians, we really think this whole issue of Silent Sam really brings to the forefront how important history is to understanding the contemporary society that we live in.”

Art history and history professor Daniel Sherman began the discussion with a presentation on post-World War I monuments in France. He stressed the importance of looking into the context of a monument or memorial. 

“They are political, and they are about us and if we start by recognizing that, perhaps we can find a satisfactory solution to the problem of commemoration,” Sherman said at the end of his presentation. 

After Sherman, Jarausch presented on post-World War II monuments in Germany. Jarausch talked about the history, removal and preservation of monuments erected during the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Germany. 

“The overthrow of monuments is part of an effort to transform public memory. The choice is always between total displacement of prior memory or critical discussion on remaining memorials,” Jarausch said during his presentation. “Therefore, the removal of monuments is only the first symbolic step, and one needs to have a public discussion in order to reshape an entire culture.”

History associate professor Flora Cassen discussed anti-Jewish artwork in early Modern Europe. She touched on the history and the current presence of anti-Semitic images and artwork in some Christian churches in Europe, and the controversy surrounding those images. 

The panel discussion portion of “Monumental Histories” ended with a presentation from King about the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the absence of monuments acknowledging this time period. 

During the Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to 1976 under China’s communist leader Mao Zedong, historians believe between 500,000 to two million people died, King said. Few historical monuments have been erected in China, but the time period is memorialized through Cultural Revolution-themed restaurants. 

“Young people say things like, ‘People in my generation rarely ever hear or read anything about the Cultural Revolution, so restaurants are really fun for us,'” King said during her presentation. “For older people who actually lived through the experience, who were actual Red Guards at the time, it’s a sense of nostalgia. Needless to say, (these restaurants) are very disturbing for some people – people who lost family members, who experienced persecution themselves.” 

Through these five presentations, the UNC history and global studies departments hoped to give the conversation surrounding Silent Sam a broader global and historical context. 

“Silent Sam is not just a statue – it represents so many more things. These issues and problems of historical memory are not singular to UNC or North Carolina,” King said. “These are big issues that lots of different places have tried to deal with in different ways, and I think our panel can help give that broader comparative context that is really illuminating for students, faculty and interested community members.”

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