The early history of the controversial “Silent Sam” statue at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will be the topic of a free public lecture Jan. 22 at the Wilson Special Collections Library.
Beginning at 5 p.m., attendees can view a small exhibit about Silent Sam drawn from the special collections in Wilson Library. The program, “Silent Sam in History and Memory,” will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room. For information, contact Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, at (919) 548-1203 or liza_terll@unc.edu.
Fitz Brundage, professor of history at UNC, and doctoral student Adam Domby will discuss the history of the Confederate memorial and changing views of the statue over time. Will McInerney and C.J. Suitt, members of the Real Silent Sam Coalition and the Sacrifical Poets, will perform an original poem about the history of racism in Chapel Hill.
The lecture will also mark the formal release of the Library website “Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina” (http://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/). Brundage was scholarly advisor to the site, which documents the state’s history through its monuments, shrines and public art.
Silent Sam is one of 200 current entries, each one described, geo-referenced and linked to a database of thousands of digitized postcards, photographs, print publications and manuscript materials. Brundage and his students continue to add to the site.
