AP Photo/Gerry Broome Protesters topple Confederate UNC statue Police stand guard after the confederate statue known as Silent Sam was toppled by protesters on campus at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Monday, Aug. 20. The Associated Press reports that the Confederate statue in the heart of North Carolina’s flagship university was toppled during a rally by hundreds of protesters who decried the memorial as a symbol of racist heritage. Many students, faculty and alumni have called the statue a racist image and asked officials to remove it, though some argued it was a tribute to fallen ancestors. UNC leaders including Chancellor Carol Folt had previously said state law prevented the school from removing the statue.
