In the context of Silent Sam, explore the 1960–1970s of the Controversies and protests.
The monument has been a subject of controversy and a site of protest since the 1960s. In 1965, a discussion about the monument's meaning and history occurred in the letters to the editor of the UNC student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel. In 1967, poet John Beecher "debated" Silent Sam, reading to the statue from his book of poetry To Live and Die in Dixie. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, the monument was vandalized with orange, green, red, and yellow iridescent paint, including a hammer and sickle. In the early 1970s, the monument was the site of several demonstrations by the Black Student Movement.
Daily Tar Heel John Beecher Black Student Movement hammer and sickle The Daily Tar Heel Tar Heel assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Dixie Martin Luther King Jr.