$2.5 million deal for Silent Sam struck before lawsuit demanding it was filed

After months of secret negotiations, a flurry of court filings sealed Silent Sam's fate last week, keeping the Confederate monument off campus at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The filings were essentially a formality, cementing a deal worked out ahead of time. Shortly after 11 a.m., on the day before Thanksgiving, the N.C. Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans sued UNC-CH and the state university system's Board of Governors, asking a judge to force the university to return the monument to where protesters tore it down last year.

Seven minutes later, based on court-filing time stamps, a consent decree judgment forging a settlement in the suit was filed at the Orange County courthouse. The University System's interim president, Bill Roper, signed that agreement the day before the Sons of Confederate Veterans filed their complaint, based on the date beneath his signature.

The coordination followed months of talks, and now private university donations will fund a $2.5 million trust to give Silent Sam a new home, as long as that home isn't in one of the 14 counties that's home to a state university.

The agreement is an effort to get around a state law that the North Carolina General Assembly passed in 2015 to protect Confederate monuments. There was a renewed push that year to remove these monuments after a white supremacist murdered nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.

In its complaint, the Sons of Confederate Veterans said that if the court didn't order the monument returned to campus, it could give them the monument, along with a trust fund. The group also declared itself the monument's rightful owner, saying the university forfeited ownership when it failed to comply with the law and that the monument "reverted to personal property."

The statue had been given to the university in the early 1900's by the United Daughters of the Confederacy with the understanding that it would remain on campus "forever" as a monument to students who fought in the Civil War, the lawsuit states. The United Daughters has since signed its rights to the monument over to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the suit states.

In August of 2018, shortly after the monument was toppled, the UDC's president wrote the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees chair to say she was saddened that the monument had "been so misconstrued" and that "he no longer belongs on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill."

UNC Interim Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz wasn't involved in negotiations to get rid of the monument, but he said Monday that the agreement is "a move in the right direction."

"This ensures that it's not coming back to our campus," he said. "Part of my job as chancellor is to make sure we have a safe campus where everybody feels welcome."

Durham attorney Greg Doucette, who was on the Board of Governors years ago as a student representative, was apparently the first to notice the timing of the lawsuit and settlement.

"Smells like a willing shakedown," he said on Twitter.

Others questioned spending $2.5 million on the monument.

"You think about it," UNC student Wyatt Plaga said, "you could spend that money on tons of scholarships for people of color."

It's not yet clear just where the private donations will come from or where Silent Sam will be displayed. The agreement says no state funds will be used.