The Silent Sam Confederate statue at the University of North Carolina was defaced with blood and red ink by a protester Monday in a continued demonstration against the monument this year, the News & Observer reported.
Maya Little, a graduate student at the university and activist, was seen in a video posted on social media being led away by campus police with protesters shouting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, this racist statue's got to go!" and "Sam is silent; we are loud," the newspaper said.
WNCN-TV wrote that Little, a doctoral candidate, has been charged with vandalism in the incident. Little is scheduled to appear in court May 7, according to the television station.
"Silent Sam is violence; Silent Sam is the genocide of black people; Silent Sam is antithetical to our right to exist," Little wrote in an email statement to the media, per the News & Observer. "You should see him the way that we do, at the forefront of our campus covered in our blood."
Little is connected with The Move Silent Sam group on campus and she said that she has led Silent Sam Sit-In since September, the newspaper noted.
The North Carolina Historical Commission is reviewing a request from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to move Confederate statues from State Capitol grounds to a Civil War battlefield in Johnston County, the News & Observer reported.
WNCN-TV wrote that legislative approval is needed to remove Confederate monuments, according to a 2015 state law that generally prevents their removal. The television station reported that the North Carolina division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy commissioned the statue in 1913 to honor UNC alumni who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.
The News & Observer wrote that the Silent Sam statue has been the target of protesters for years, but last August's "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that turned violent has intensified the effort with large demonstrations and sit-ins since.
"The statue, a symbol of UNC’s commitment to white supremacy, has been defaced and protested since 1968," Little charged in her statement. "Yet the statue remains on campus 50 years later."
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