CHAPEL HILL -- Several hundred students rallied on UNC Chapel Hill campus Friday afternoon, calling for university leaders to meet three demands.
"We simply want UNC's history to be confronted and, you know, conceptualized and we're angry of being silenced because our own history gets swept under the rug," said co-organizer Omololu Babatunde.
First to change the name of Sanders Hall, which is named after William Saunders, the founder of the North Carolina Ku Klux Klan. Students want the name changed to Hurston Hall, after writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston.
"When the new plaque is put up, we want something to say this was named after William L. Saunders, who's had the KKK to show that a unversity had the courage to look history in the face and say 'wow, this is our history and this is where we are now,'" said Babatunde.
Second, students would like to see a plaque on the statue of a Confederate solider known as Silent Sam, explaining its history. And third, students are asking that the school's racial history be included in freshman orientation.
Senior Dylan Su-Chun Mott says these types of demonstrations have been going on for many years with little success.
"It's time for [administrators] to change what you're doing and to actually show us that you actually care enough to make even these small concessions," said Mott.
Another student demonstration is scheduled for Monday in front of Saunders Hall from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Time Warner Cable News has yet to receive an official comment from UNC Chapel Hill on this story.