Hundreds of protesters, many of them college students, gathered around the statue called Silent Sam tonight at 7:00 PM on the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill to voice their concerns about the presence of the Confederate monument. Buoyed by the recent national exposure white supremacy has been receving in the media, and emboldened by the actions of activists in neighboring Durham, the action was expected to draw large crowds and possibly some opposition. In response, Governer Roy Cooper informed UNC leaders that the 2015 law forbidding removal of monuments such as these contained a provision that would allow for their removal in the case of public safety concerns. UNC declined to remove the statue.
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