--- title: UNC Students Protest the School’s KKK Legacy description: Dotting the University of North Carolina campus are reminders of the school’s Confederate roots. Now, a group of students say ‘enough.’ canonical: https://time.com/3697578/unc-students-protest-kkk-legacy/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-06T17:31:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:11:27.715Z article:section: Ideas og:title: UNC Must Confront Its KKK Legacy og:description: Dotting the University of North Carolina campus are reminders of the school’s Confederate roots. Now, a group of students say ‘enough.’ og:url: https://time.com/3697578/unc-students-protest-kkk-legacy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2d2fe1c2982868d/69877dd206f2c1930e333d55/north-carolina-at-chapel-hill.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: Virginia Tech v North Carolina og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: UNC Must Confront Its KKK Legacy twitter:description: Dotting the University of North Carolina campus are reminders of the school’s Confederate roots. Now, a group of students say ‘enough.’ twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2d2fe1c2982868d/69877dd206f2c1930e333d55/north-carolina-at-chapel-hill.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # UNC Must Confront Its KKK Legacy > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=f137b20a-a1fc-4e55-b37b-762fd7fc3e9b&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Subscribers | 430,000 | TIME, August 2026 | | Open rate | 50.7% | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Sam Jacobs, Editor-in-Chief | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership Globally minded knowledge seekers. Readers who turn to journalism to understand the world, with meaningful concentrations among educators, students, media professionals, civic institutions and knowledge workers. ### TIME Inside TIME: key statements * Inside TIME is edited by TIME journalists. Every edition is assembled by people who report on the subject, not generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923, and its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting. Readers can trust what they read. * Inside TIME is free. Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=f137b20a-a1fc-4e55-b37b-762fd7fc3e9b&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/subscribe?i=f137b20a-a1fc-4e55-b37b-762fd7fc3e9b&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is Inside TIME? Inside TIME is a twice-weekly newsletter written by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs. It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. It reaches 430,000 subscribers with a 50.7% open rate as of August 2026. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Michael Muhammad Knight](https://time.com/author/michael-muhammad-knight/) ## Michael Muhammad Knight Feb 6, 2015 5:31 PM UTC  A general view of the Bell Tower on the campus of the North Carolina Tar Heels before their game against the Virginia Tech Hokies at Kenan Stadium on Oct. 4, 2014 in Chapel Hill, N.C. A general view of the Bell Tower on the campus of the North Carolina Tar Heels before their game against the Virginia Tech Hokies at Kenan Stadium on Oct. 4, 2014 in Chapel Hill, N.C. Streeter Lecka&—Getty Images by [Michael Muhammad Knight](https://time.com/author/michael-muhammad-knight/) ## Michael Muhammad Knight Feb 6, 2015 5:31 PM UTC In 1913, during the dedication of a Confederate soldiers’ memorial at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, industrialist Julian Carr praised the monument as a tribute to those UNC alumni who had died in defense of the “Anglo Saxon race.” Boasting of his own participation in that effort, he proudly recalled having “horse-whipped a Negro wench” just 100 yards from where the memorial had been erected. Last Friday, as over 500 members of the UNC community assembled in front of that memorial to demand that UNC correct the racism of its landmarks, several African American women repeated Carr’s words in unison: “Negro wench.” One of those women, rally organizer Omololu Babatunde, then answered Carr’s 1913 dedication speech with a devastating address of her own. “These are the words and hateful sentiments that fall on my body and other Black bodies,” she told the crowd, referring to the numerous sites honoring the university’s white supremacist past that still litter the UNC campus. Now, a rising student-led movement is demanding that the university properly confront and contextualize its history, making changes to the campus map to more fully represent UNC’s community as it exists in 2015. As a geography major at UNC, Babatunde regularly works in Saunders Hall. It was for William L. Saunders’s efforts gathering historical records that the university named the building after him in 1922\. In addition to his contributions as an archivist, however, Saunders was also a leading figure in local chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. “As I cross the threshold of this building in all my Black womanhood,” Babatunde told the gathering, “I am struck with a wave of mind-numbing fury.” The fury, she explained, is directed less at the historical person of Saunders himself than at a university administration that continues to honor him, thus preserving the Klan’s legacy of racially motivated terrorism. For decades, members of the UNC community have sought to rename buildings such as Saunders Hall and to contextualize the Confederate soldiers’ memorial. These efforts have not yet been successful, even despite reports of African American students becoming physically ill when having to enter Saunders. As a PhD candidate in the university’s Religious Studies department, I also work in Saunders Hall, and have repeatedly observed the shock and disgust on undergraduates’ faces when they first learn this history. So many of these students take tremendous pride in representing the Carolina blue, and students coming from within the state especially treat UNC as embodying North Carolina itself. Though it may not be surprising that an institution founded over two centuries ago possesses a complex history, they are stunned and shamed by the university’s continued indifference towards that history. Many are heartbroken by the university’s willingness to honor a KKK leader at the expense of living members of its community: the students, faculty, and staff who are institutionally coerced into recognizing Klan violence when they work at Saunders Hall. The organizers of Friday’s “Kick out the KKK” rally have made three demands that they describe as the “bare minimum.” First, Saunders Hall must be renamed Hurston Hall, after anthropologist and author Zora Neale Hurston, who secretly studied at UNC prior to integration. In addition, the university’s Confederate memorial must bear a plaque that confronts its history. Finally, the organizers have demanded that UNC design a curriculum that contextualizes its racial history as part of orientation for incoming students. In a statement, UNC Chancellor Carol Folt responded that the Board of Trustees would be “taking a close look” at what has been a grievance of UNC students for decades. Board of Trustee Chair Lowry Caudill additionally expressed concern over responding to the protests without “imposing today’s social norms on the past and ignoring our history, either good or bad.” Unfortunately, the Board has been less concerned with imposing _yesterday’s_ world on UNC’s present. And if there is any danger of ignoring UNC’s history, it is on the side of a university administration that has allowed these troublesome legacies to go uncorrected. Building on the momentum from Friday’s event, the demonstrations continue. Monday, students of color assembled in front of Saunders Hall wearing nooses around their necks, bearing signs that read, “This is what Saunders would do to me.” The group also distributed reproductions of documents from the university’s historical collections at Wilson Library, confirming Saunders’s KKK affiliation. Later this week, emphasis will turn from the horror of the Klan and Confederacy to what Babatunde calls a gathering of “joy, performance, and love” in honor of Zora Neale Hurston. The transformation from Saunders Hall to Hurston Hall does not simply attempt to erase the university’s memory of racism, violence, and exclusion; it celebrates the history of those who have struggled against all odds to make UNC a more inclusive place. As a student at UNC before her admission could have been a legal possibility, Hurston personifies that history. Exploring conversations about UNC’s troubled landmarks throughout social media, I repeatedly encountered remarks suggesting that if people don’t like the university’s Confederate memorial statue, affectionately nicknamed “Silent Sam,” then they should leave. Sadly, this was the precise message of the statue itself: in 1913, Silent Sam marked the UNC campus as a site of white supremacy, making it clear to people of color that they were not welcome. A century after the statue’s dedication, Silent Sam continues to send that message: if you don’t like white supremacy, this is not the place for you. The UNC community has demanded that the university confront and correct the meanings that have been inscribed on its memorials and buildings, creating a campus that more completely welcomes all. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3697578/unc-students-protest-kkk-legacy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3697578/unc-students-protest-kkk-legacy/"},"headline":"UNC Must Confront Its KKK Legacy","datePublished":"2015-02-06T17:31:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:11:27.715Z","description":"Students are asking the school to remove troubling vestiges of its Confederate past","url":"https://time.com/3697578/unc-students-protest-kkk-legacy/","keywords":["Education"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2d2fe1c2982868d/69877dd206f2c1930e333d55/north-carolina-at-chapel-hill.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michael Muhammad Knight","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/michael-muhammad-knight/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2d2fe1c2982868d/69877dd206f2c1930e333d55/north-carolina-at-chapel-hill.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Virginia Tech v North Carolina","caption":"Virginia Tech v North Carolina","creditText":"Streeter Lecka&—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/education/","name":"Education"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3697578/unc-students-protest-kkk-legacy/","name":"UNC Must Confront Its KKK Legacy"}}]}] ```