UNC Investigating 2 ‘Racist Actions’ on Campus Sunday

UNC Police are investigating multiple “racist actions” that were carried out on the campus on Sunday.

“Two individuals defaced the Unsung Founders Memorial, writing racist and other deplorable language on it,” interim chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz wrote in a message to the campus Sunday evening.

Unsung Founders Memorial. Photo via Blake Hodge

The Unsung Founders Memorial was a donation from the class of 2002 honoring “The university’s unsung founders – the people of color bound and free who helped build the Carolina that we cherish today.” The vandalism on the Unsung Founders Memorial was carried out at roughly 1:30 a.m. Sunday.

UNC Police also discovered “hateful language and racial slurs” were on an installation outside Hanes Art Center, according to Guskiewicz.

“University Police are in the process of obtaining a warrant for the arrest of one of the individuals who is known to be affiliated with the Heirs to the Confederacy and was identified on surveillance tape.”

The review of the tape attempting to identify suspects is ongoing, officials said.

Guskiewicz wrote that the instances “challenge not only our most fundamental community values, but also the safety of our campus.”

Anyone who receives threats or feels threatened, “including on social media,” is asked to call 911.

The Unsung Founders Memorial is on McCorkle Place, near the former site of the Confederate monument known as Silent Sam on the campus. Protesters pulled the statue down on August 20, 2018, and the remaining pedestal was removed in mid-January.

Multiple protests bringing Silent Sam supporters and opponents to the campus have been held since the statue was toppled, leading to more than two dozen arrests.

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UNC Investigating 2 'Racist Actions' on Campus Sunday

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