Law school faculty’s strong chorus on ‘Sam’

Chancellor Carol Folt’s excuses for not ordering the removal of “Silent Sam,” the statue on a prominent spot on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus honoring Confederate veterans, are growing weaker. The chancellor has expressed support for removing the statue but says the university lacks the legal authority to do so under a state law passed in 2015 by Republicans prohibiting the removal or alteration of monuments on public land. But Gov. Roy Cooper told the chancellor the statue could be removed if there was a public safety concern, which given demonstrations around other such statues, there clearly is.

Folt’s doubtless under pressure to back off from some alumni who want the statue – dedicated with a speech by Confederate veteran and businessman Julian Carr in 1913 that referenced his whipping “a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds” – to be left alone.

But now the UNC-CH law school faculty has stated its support for getting a court judgment on removing the statue, which the faculty members said “has no place at the core of an inclusive learning environment.”

Folt’s listening to her own lawyers, but now some pretty good lawyers elsewhere on her campus have expressed a different view. They’re right.

This story was originally published October 30, 2017 at 10:29 AM with the headline "Law school faculty’s strong chorus on ‘Sam’."