Silent Sam protest sign by Jeanine Tatlock, MFA student, UNC-Chapel Hill, Class of 2018
Pauli Murray applied to UNC-Chapel Hill twice and was denied due to being Black, despite being descended from one of UNC’s founding trustees, a white family that enslaved her ancestors. This plaque was placed at the pedestal of UNC’s Confederate monument “Silent Sam” as part of a protest series to direct attention to the protected existence of monuments, buildings, and plaques produced specifically to honor oppressors. Organizers connected these physical symbols to years of racism, sexism, and abuse and used this sign to urge onlookers to rethink who should be honored on campus.