Many critics cited the explicitly racist views espoused in the dedication speech that local industrialist and UNC Trustee Julian Carr gave at the statue's unveiling on June 2, 1913, and the approval with which they had been met by the crowd at the dedication.[62] Shortly before the beginning of the 2018–2019 school year, the Silent Sam was toppled by protestors and damaged, and has been absent from campus ever since.[63] In July 2020, the University's Carr Hall, which was named after Julian Carr, was renamed the "Student Affairs Building."[64] Carr had supported white supremacy and also the Ku Klux Klan.[64]