CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Chapel Hill officials have removed two markers from Franklin Street.

They removed the "Jefferson Davis Highway" memorial marker and a plaque dedicated to the woman who Julian Carr referenced beating at his 1913 dedication to Silent Sam.

• Two markers were removed from Chapel Hill Friday.
• One was a Jefferson Davis Memorial marker, installed in 1959.
• The other was a marker dedicated to the "negro wench" who Julian Carr referenced beating at the dedication of Silent Sam.

They say they took these actions out of concern for public safety.

The Jefferson Davis Memorial Marker has been a point of protest in the community for many years. Davis was the president of the Confederacy.

The marker was dedicated in 1959.

The plaque honoring the “Negro Wench” was placed on Franklin Street earlier this month.

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Student activist group Defend UNC took to Facebook Friday pointing out that the Confederate monument was only removed once a black history monument was placed there as well.

The group says they were told earlier that the town could not remove the marker because it wasn’t authorized to do so. 

In a statement released by the town Friday they say, “The Attorney General’s Office determined the marker was not on University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or state property and that according to their research the property ‘appears’ to be owned by the Town of Chapel Hill.”

The town says they will return the markers to their rightful owners.

This comes ahead of planned protests in the area on Saturday.