UNC Students March, Protest Confederate Statue Settlement

Protesters at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill marched to an administration building to criticize a legal settlement that will give ownership of a toppled Confederate statue to a group of Confederate descendants.

A judge approved the settlement last week in response to a lawsuit filed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The decision turns over ownership of the statue to the group. The News and Observer reports the university system also will use non-state funds to endow a $2.5 million trust for the statue's preservation and possibly a facility to house it.

UNC officials said the settlement complies with a 2015 state law restricting the removal of Confederate monuments.

About 200 campus community members met Thursday at the location where the monument once stood. Leaders of black student groups expressed disappointment and outrage with the settlement.  One student leader said the decision shows the university has “invested in white supremacy.”

Silent Sam stood in a main quad of the campus for more than a century until activists toppled it in August 2018.