The town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Friday removed a Confederate road marker and a black history marker ahead of dueling protests scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger said Friday that the plaques were temporarily moved due to public safety concerns surrounding the protests.
“Our Town is committed to our shared values of being a welcoming and inclusive place for everyone,” she told The Daily Tar Heel. “To that end, we will continue to support our community’s ongoing work to identify and commemorate the people, places and events in our history that have helped shape the community we are today.”
The University of North Carolina police said in a statement to the Raleigh News & Observer that it was aware of two groups plans’ to demonstrate near the former site of “Silent Sam,” a long-standing Confederate monument that was toppled last year at the beginning of UNC’s fall semester.
“The University is aware that two groups plan to demonstrate near the previous site of the Confederate Monument on Saturday,” the university’s statement said. “Anytime a group demonstrates at the University, UNC Police works to ensure the safety of everyone and follows best practices for crowd management.”
The town decided, in turn, to remove a Jefferson Davis Highway marker and a new marker honoring the black woman referred to as “negro wench” by UNC donor Julian Carr at Silent Sam’s dedication.
Activists with Take Action Chapel Hill and Defend UNC are expected to be involved in one of Saturday’s protests, according to a Facebook event.
Take Action Chapel Hill called on town officials to remove the last remnants of Confederate markers from the town and to replace them with monuments honoring black leaders.
“Public monuments are not neutral. Adding public black history monuments to and removing white supremacist monuments from the landscape is not sufficient to reckon with white supremacy, but it is a powerful and necessary part of the process,” the group said.
Another group, called Heirs to the Confederacy, is expected to raise a Confederate flag where Silent Sam once stood, according to a Facebook post. The group said it would raise Confederate flags elsewhere on UNC’s campus and in Chapel Hill.