pioneers

UNC Black Pioneers Ask BOG To Rescind Funds For The Sons Of Confederate Veterans

Chapel Hill, NC – The UNC Black Pioneers, an organization including many of the surviving members of the first generation of African-American students at Chapel Hill, has joined the ranks of individuals and organizations criticizing the UNC Board of Governors for their reported agreement to pay $2.5 million to a trust for the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) to resolve issues involving a controversial Confederate monument, and have called on the board to rescind that action.

In an email sent to the Board of Governors Sunday (12/15) night and copied to interim system president William L. Roper the Pioneers said the Board should rescind the agreement if that can be done legally, and if that cannot be done they asked that an equivalent $2.5 million be provided for scholarships that usually go to African-American students at the university and for the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History on the Chapel Hill campus.  They said such funds could be used to “begin to counteract the negative effects of the funds being given to the Sons of Confederate Veterans.”

The Pioneers’ email bore the names of 18 UNC-Chapel Hill African-American alumni from around the country and said they represented the thinking of many more of their colleagues.  They said the first generation of Black students at UNC were those whose class years were during the first twenty years of integration on the campus, 1952-1972.  

The message sent by the Pioneers said  they were “appalled at UNC Board of Governors reported effort to resolve the issue of the Confederate monument known as Silent Sam by putting $2.5 million into a trust for the Sons of Confederate Veterans.”  They said some African-American alumni and others were withholding making donations to the university because of the board’s action.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans is an organization “known for promoting discord and spreading false versions of history.”

Below is the entire text of the email to the Board of Governors:

Statement to the Board of Governors