Slave Narratives read for 24 hours ahead of UNC protest
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- Picture perfect weather brought many people out for a stroll of the UNC-Chapel Hill campus on Sunday. Some passed the Silent Sam statue, a familiar symbol of the university.
On this day, in the statue's shadow, a small group of students sat behind a table with a banner announcing "24 Hour Slave Narrative Reading." They read aloud, in thirty minute shifts, from works like "Incidents In The Life of a Slave Girl," written in the 1860s by Harriet Jacobs.
UNC senior Zakyree Wallace told Eyewitness News that she and others are "giving a voice to enslaved people and also to the folks who were responsible for helping build this university, and bring it up to what it is today. So I think it's very important to read their narratives."
On the UNC website there's a page called Slavery and the University, with links documenting "the roles of African American slaves in early university life, from constructing the physical campus to serving students and faculty."
Visit the Slavery and the University page here.
While UNC acknowledges that difficult period of its history, critics say there remain too many memorials to the Confederacy on campus.
Wallace knows some defenders of the statue may see the demonstration and say "'you're just making personal insults against him,' and that's not our goal here. Our goal here is to bring to light history that has been erased, history that has been buried, and to bring it tp light to bring a better, a full picture."
One campus visitor from Massachusetts was unaware of the controversy before speaking with a reporter and watching the students read those slave narratives.
"The Civil War was roughly 150 years ago," said Howard Kendall, "so I think we have to move on, and all perspectives need to be listened to. And I would hope that things offensive today, that there would be some modification of that."
The 24 hour reading of those narratives will be followed by a protest rally near Silent Sam on Monday morning, beginning at 9 a.m.
