Education / Schools, Justice

UNC Says Law Is 'Unclear' About Removal Of Confederate Statues

Is Now The Time For Some Old School Civil Disobedience?

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Silent Sam at UNC

The University of North Carolina thinks that the safety of its students would be best served if its Confederate monuments came down. The current Governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, thinks that the university should take “immediate measures” if they think the statues pose a risk to public safety. Nazis are trying to use these statues are rallying points, and since they offer no value other than the celebration of oppression, removing them seems as logical as taking out the trash so you don’t get rats in your kitchen.

But there’s a catch. The former Governor of North Carolina, Pat “Lord of Urination” McCrory, signed a law saying that the North Carolina Historical Commission has to approve any alteration to any government monument. Remember, before protecting Confederate statues was a Nazi call to action, it was a standard GOP platform plank (make of that what you will).

Cooper says that the law doesn’t apply to issues of public safety, but officials at UNC say the legal issue is unclear.

That’s certainly true. There is legal ambiguity here. A logical response might be to take the statue down and let the courts sort it out. I’d love to see just who wants to go to the mattresses for the restoration of Confederate iconography. But, you know, the demographic destiny of North Carolina has not fully played out yet, and officials there have to be sensitive to the “many fine people” on the Nazi side of the debate.

Here’s how UNC describes the statue at issue:

The North Carolina division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy commissioned this memorial in 1913 in honor of the UNC alumni who “answered the call of duty” as Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. The relief beneath the statue of the soldier depicts a woman (representing the state of North Carolina) exhorting a student to drop his books and join the cause. The soldier himself carries a gun but no ammunition, which led to the nickname “Silent Sam.”

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UNC didn’t even start admitting black students until 1951 (he was a law student). But sure, let’s hang onto monuments commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (they sound lovely), in 1913, when no black students were even allowed to be around to voice their dissent.

Classes started yesterday, and there is a planned rally by non-Nazis. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that a fence has been erected around the statue to prevent the destruction of public property.

A fence, y’all.

I’m reminded of the glorious night of November 9th, 1989. East Germany announced it was easing travel restrictions, and thousands of people gathered around the Berlin Wall, waiting peacefully for legal guidance before ripping off chunks of the symbol of oppression. It’s always better to ask permission before throwing off the yoke of divisive tyranny — said only tyrants.

Look, residents in the very state of North Carolina kind of know how to do this. Last week, some people tore down a statue in Durham, and hundreds lined up to turn themselves in for the “crime.” I mean, are the denizens of UNC just going to let Duke out-activate them?

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Of course, when dealing with college kids, you can’t talk about civil disobedience without reminding them of CONSEQUENCES — those pesky things that all young people forever know little about. It’s important to remember that civil disobedience is… DISOBEDIENT. You could “get in trouble.” In fact, the very point of the thing is to get in trouble, with civility. Snowflakes need not apply.

But right now a bunch of college kids say they want something taken down, and the only thing the adults have erected to defend it is a fence? Like, not guard dogs? Not an automated laser turret that never, ever sleeps? But a stupid fence? I swear, the Trumpsters really put too much stock in the protective powers of chain-link.

The statue at issue exhorts students to “drop the books” and “join the cause.” If you want that statue down, you and 100 of your friends can follow the statue’s advice. A quality sledgehammer costs one beer run. I’ve seen college kids run naked like heathens to “celebrate” finals. I’ve seen college kids literally urinate on every campus attraction ever. From a certain point of view, a fence around a statue is just a university-sponsored “dare.”

I’m almost 40; my memories of petty vandalism are some of the only things I have to remind me that I was once alive. Would that any of it was in furtherance of a cause and not an externality of intoxication.

But you could be hurt. You could be arrested. You could be expelled. You could find that you desire the protection of the laws more than you care about the justice of the laws.

Welcome to college. Welcome to a higher education.

UNC Says It Can’t Legally Remove Confederate Statue, Despite Governor’s Guidance [Chronicle of Higher Ed]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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