A North Carolina state judge rejected a $2.5 settlement by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to take care of a "Silent Sam" Confederate statue, New York City's Daily News reported.
Students and faculty accused the university of supporting a white supremacist group by offering $2.5 million to take care of the "Silent Sam" that was erected in 1913 but torn down by protesters in August 2018.
UNC approved a deal in November with the North Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, offering a $2.5 million charitable trust, according to the report.
North Carolina Regional Office of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law attorney Elizabeth Haddix called the judge's rejection an "important victory for the people in confronting the false and divisive Lost Cause narrative and the racist ideology it entrenches," according to a statement, the Daily News reported.
UNC Chancellor Carol Folt had proposed an on-campus indoor facility for the Confederate statue, costing an estimated $5.3 million and another $800,000 in annual operating costs, but the settlement with Sons of Confederate Veterans would keep it out of any of the 14 countries UNC has campuses, per the report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.