University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has shared multiple, rich collections with Project Stand which include university documents, photographs, publications, ephemera, and tweets on a myriad of student interests. These collections include:

  • Black Student Movement Records: Records, clippings, and photographs documenting political and social activities of the Black Student Movement at UNC-Chapel Hill. Materials related to student activism document student advocacy for a Black Cultural Center on the UNC campus, invited speakers, and the BSM’s list of demands to the UNC Chancellor in 1997.
  • Confederate Monument Protest Materials: “Silent Sam” was a Confederate monument which stood on UNC’s campus on the historic McCorkle Place from 1913 until it was pulled down by protestors on August 20, 2018, after a decades long effort to have the statue removed. The Confederate Monument Collection consists of two smaller collections, including a campus ephemera collection of fliers and brochures created by student activists, as well as a Twitter collection of tweets gathered during campus protests in Fall 2017.
  • Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History Records: These records document the establishment and operation of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at UNC-Chapel Hill. The early records in the collection document the work of student activists over many years who successfully advocated for a free-standing Black Cultural Center at UNC. Their efforts, initially opposed by university administration, received national attention in the early 1990s.
  • John Kenyon Chapman Papers: Papers of historian, activist, and organizer John Kenyon “Yonni” Chapman. As a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapman was active in movements to rename campus buildings and awards, helped to organize the Campaign for Historical Accuracy and Truth, and was an advocate for campus housekeepers.
  • Student Publications: UNC student publications are a rich source for studying the history of student activism. Important titles include Black Ink (Black Student Movement), Lambda (LGBTQ+), She (Association of Women Students), and many anti-war publications from the late 1960s / early 1970s.

Primary contact: Nick Graham (bio)

Featured Collection

Confederate Monument Protest Materials

Silent Sam with graffiti, April 8, 1968

Silent Sam with graffiti, April 8, 1968

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Protester at the 1997 Martin Luther King Day March