CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- A plaque that was removed from public property in Chapel Hill during Black History Month has been recovered.
- Reported last week: Plaques Placed at UNC to Honor Victims of Racial Violence
- The plaque will be returned to the artist as soon as contact is made.
- There is a lot of back and forth about who really took the monuments down.
Chapel Hill Police Department attempted to contact the designer of the plaque that was removed Friday evening from East Franklin Street near the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway marker. The plaque will be returned to the artist as soon as contact is made.
The other plaque, which was placed on UNC property, was removed by the university for violating the university's use policy. According to the Daily Tar Heel, that policy requires items in the Pit to be removed at the end of an event and not left up overnight.
Neither plaques were approved by the town or the university.
One of those monuments was dedicated to a black woman who industrialist, former Confederate soldier and UNC student Julian Carr once described as whipping at UNC’s gates. Carr is also the man who dedicated the Silent Sam statue.
The other monument was dedicated to James Cates, a black man murdered on campus by white supremacists back in 1970.
But there's a lot of back and forth about who really took the monuments down. One group, Confederate 901, took to Facebook claiming the plaque dedicated to the woman is in the “hands of the Confederates.” The group accused of taking it down, however, did not own up to it.
Police say they received word that someone was seen Friday night loading the plaque into the back of a pickup truck and driving away. The truck was stopped a short time later and the plaque was returned to police to determine its ownership.
The truck is said to have been associated with a pro-confederate Facebook page from Alamance County.