UNC System asks judge to help get Silent Sam Confederate statue and its $2.5 million back
The UNC System and its Board of Governors asked an Orange County judge Monday to help them get the Silent Sam Confederate statue back and then advise them what to do with it.
Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour dismissed the lawsuit and voided the settlement between the UNC System and the North Carolina Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) that gave the SCV ownership of the statue and access to $2.5 million to preserve and display it.
Baddour, who had approved the deal in November, determined the SCV lacked the legal standing to sue in the first place, but didn’t explain his reasoning. At a hearing earlier this month, he asked if the UNC System wanted direction about the fate of the monument in his written order dismissing the case.
In a letter Monday, Ripley Rand, a lawyer for the UNC System, asked the judge to include several stipulations in the order, including that the SCV return the statue to UNC within 45 days of the order.
The UNC system also wants the judge to order that the $2.5 million trust fund be dissolved and the money returned to UNC, plus an accounting of money spent through the trust, including the trustee’s fees.
The UNC System and Board of Governors also asked that the court order them to make appropriate arrangements that recognize certain “safety and security risks” in getting the monument back and making a final decision on what to do with it in compliance with North Carolina law.
The relevant law is called the Monument law signed by former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in 2015. The state law restricts the removal, relocation or altering of monuments, memorials and other “objects of remembrance” on public property without permission from the N.C. Historical Commission. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has told UNC-Chapel Hill leaders they can remove Silent Sam if there’s an ‘imminent threat,’ The News & Observer previously reported.
Silent Sam stood in McCorkle Place on UNC-CH’s campus for more than 100 years before it was illegally torn down by protesters in August 2018. The university and the UNC System Board of Governors had been working to find a solution for more than a year, which is how the lawsuit and settlement with the Confederate group came about.
The SCV’s attorney, Boyd Sturges, told The N&O that now, the SCV would like to see the monument put back up in Chapel Hill. Sturges said the group will work on getting the statue back to the university and he is not working with the SCV on pursuing other ways to get ownership of the statue.
With the judge’s decision, the UNC System and its Board of Governors will again be tasked with deciding what to do with it. When the judge submits his written order on the case, it could reveal whether or not the UNC System has sole ownership of the monument and influence the legal options for the fate of the statue.
This story was originally published February 18, 2020 at 3:37 PM.
