February 13, 2025

Column: Black people built our university. UNC must build to remember them. – – The Daily Tar Heel

The Unsung Founders Memorial is located in McCorkle Place and was built to commemorate the enslaved men and women and their descendants who built the University.
Black History Month is a time to celebrate the endless places, economies and minds revolutionized by Black music, movements, food, inventions, traditions and so much more. Although we should recognize the contributions and sacrifices Black people have made every day, Black History Month is a perfect time to reenvision how we observe African American contributions.
UNC should reconsider who they observe in history alongside other schools and states. We cannot begin to tell the history of our university without properly memorializing and monumentalizing the Black Americans who built and sustained this institution. 
In August 2018, protestors tore down Silent Sam — a Confederate statue installed in 1913 honoring UNC alumni who joined the Civil War as Confederate soldiers — symbolizing oppression rather than honor. Protests began during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, but the statue was not fully removed until 2019. The removal of Silent Sam marked a significant turning point in the University’s confrontation with its complex legacy.
The Unsung Founders Memorial, dedicated in 2005 to the free and enslaved Black people who built and served our campus, tells a different story. The monument sits in McCorkle Place and depicts detailed bronze figures holding up a stone table where people can sit. Although the intention behind the ability to physically interact with the monument was for people to become a part of it symbolically and metaphorically, it’s often disrespected and disregarded. 
In the past, visitors have noted how poorly maintained the memorial was: covered in cobwebs, bird poop and spilled food. In other instances, people fail to value the power behind the monument and reduce it to a casual study spot. To make matters even worse, the already two-foot-tall memorial appears even less significant due to environmental factors causing it to sink into the ground
The message behind the Unsung Founders Memorial is to showcase how our university was built on the backs of African Americans. Without us, our country, let alone our university, wouldn’t be near what it is now — progressively or industrially. 
Why are we still serving others even in our memorials? Why are students allowed to come and eat, study and put their feet up without much thought or even a ‘thank you’? Yet, while Silent Sam stood tall in all its glory for decades, students easily took notice and looked up to the monument towering before them. 
I acknowledge that the artistof the Unsung Founders Memorial had no ill intent when designing it. Regardless, the difference between the handlings of the memorial and Silent Sam by the University makes a stark, unspoken statement. Silent Sam, a symbol of continued bondage and a lack of rights for Black people, was worthy of a grand memorial. But, a proper commemoration to honor the people this campus has taken advantage of is unworthy of a monument of not-even-equal grandeur and notoriety. 
UNC must do more than remove problematic statues after waiting to be told. They need to take the initiative to build Black monuments that do individuals justice and denounce any symbols supporting slavery and bigotry. Most importantly, the University should actively collaborate with Black communities to design memorials that praise their contributions.
We must transform how we remember the systematically marginalized in a way that encourages dialogue and reflection and teaches the raw truth of Black history. Black History Month challenges us beyond retelling the stories we have always known and to work toward restoring narratives strategically erased or partially told. 
The beautiful part about attending an institution with local history is the opportunity we are given to elevate the inspiring stories of everyday Black Americans who walked along the same paths we did. We deserve more than just the Unsung Founders Memorial.
@dthopinion | opinion@dailytarheel.com
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