Three months after the UNC System announced it would transfer ownership of Silent Sam to The North Carolina Division Sons of Confederate Veterans Inc., the future of the monument is in question once more.
On Wednesday, a judge dismissed the $2.5 million settlement between the UNC System Board of Governors and the SCV because the Confederate group did not have legal claim to the monument. The decision came after UNC students and faculty partnered with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in a motion to intervene with the settlement.
Though we are grateful to the lawyers and plaintiffs for their work in making this happen, and that the judge chose to do the right thing, the Editorial Board recognizes that this is not a victory — it is simply an undoing of what should have never happened in the first place.
While in this instance we celebrate the legal outcome, we do not view this as evidence that the legal process always serves justice. The settlement was overturned due to a technicality related to contract law, not because it was morally wrong and irresponsible for the UNC System to give a Confederate group a $2.5 million trust and an additional $74,999.
Keep in mind, the courts are still being used to intimidate and discourage the activism which rid our campus of Silent Sam in the first place. In April, two activists were charged in the toppling of the statue and are still facing the consequences of that legal decision. And just last week, the Chatham County District Attorney filed new and redundant criminal charges against Maya Little — an hour after they were acquitted for charges filed by neo-Confederate activists — in order to coerce a plea bargain.
The settlement has been vacated, but the fight is not over. With the fate of Silent Sam still undetermined, the BOG must go back to the drawing board to make a decision about the monument’s future. Surely, the coming weeks and months will result in more emotional labor for those who have pressured the UNC System to pursue a just solution to the monument’s relocation.
It’s worth noting that the only solutions put forth by the University and the UNC System thus far have involved investing millions of dollars in the preservation and advancement of white supremacy, eroding any faith we once had in their ability to handle Silent Sam’s future in a morally and fiscally responsible way.
These 'solutions' — including a proposal for a $5.3 million freestanding building on UNC’s campus as well as the BOG’s bogus settlement with the SCV — have been disgraceful and wholly disrespectful to marginalized students, who have suffered at the hands of this institution for far too long.
Silent Sam isn’t just a statue. It never has been. It’s a symbol of institutional racism, of the University’s past and present disempowerment of Black students. And though the monument itself may be gone from our campus, the systemic injustices it stood for live on, entangled firmly in the embrace of the UNC System's administration.
