See No Evil.
The campus at UNC-Chapel Hill is much as you would expect. Stately ancient trees, including the (locally) famous Davie Poplar, an estimated 300 - 375 years old.[1] The tree is named for William Richardson Davie, a Founding Father of the United States (as well as founder of UNC), Revolutionary War hero, and delegate to the 1782 Constitutional Convention. At that convention, he strongly supported the 3/5ths Compromise, because it benefited him personally as a slave holder. Of course, you wouldn’t know that from looking at a tree.
Among the buildings on campus, the oldest (Old East) dates from 1793 – the oldest state university building in the nation. There are also buildings named for various luminaries, not to mention a few White Supremacists, including (until recently) Aycock Residence Hall, the Carr Building and the Daniels Building. The Aycock and Carr buildings have been renamed, as of a couple of years ago. It only took 100 years, give or take.
Carr, in particular, was a nasty piece of work: he is credited with not only giving a speech at the dedication of a Confederate Statute later to become known as “Silent Sam,” he also took the time to mention “horse-whipped a negro wench” in public for disrespecting a white woman, and lauded the Confederacy for saving “the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South.” You can pretty much figure that if a building at UNC is more than 100 years old and named for a white man, there’s slavery or Confederacy in the mix. Of course, you wouldn’t know that to look at the architecture.
Returning to Silent Sam for a moment – a statue dedicated to the Confederacy, boldly so, and erected through support from the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1913. “Nineteen thirteen?” you ask. Yes, like much of the “Confederate” statuary in the South, this celebration of treason was erected during Jim Crow, as White Supremacy (re)surged across the country. After about 60+ years of student protests, students and their allies had finally had enough, and seeing that the administration was unlikely ever to act, well, they tore the fucking thing down. So sad.
It is a truly glorious campus, and well worth the visit. Be sure to stop by the Old Well, a drinking fountain based on the Temple of Love at Versailles, featuring wooden pillars, marble bases, and a copper dome.[2] (Now, that’s a drinking fountain.) While you’re at it, wander down Franklin Street and stop in at Sutton’s for a milkshake and a look at all of Carolina’s glory – photos of basketball heroes, past and present.
Speak No Evil.
Carolina, as UNC-Chapel Hill is affectionately known, is known for many things, including accomplishments in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Frankly, those things pale in the face of Carolina’s Greatest Glory: the UNC Tar Heels basketball team.
If you matriculate at Carolina (as did yours truly) you quickly learn that “the Tar Heels” are a sacrosanct topic. Wins are cause for great celebration and mighty back-slapping, as if the entire body of the University is somehow participant in these great feats of cunning, derring-do, and outside shooting. And if the win is against the team eight miles down the road – the DUKE BLUE DEVILS – OMG. Cars are overturned, bonfires are lit, semi (or not-so-semi) naked dancing in the streets. Coach K (whom I am duty-bound to deny as having any appreciable qualities whatsoever, other than FORTY-TWO seasons at the head of the Duke squad) once described his counter-part at Carolina – Dean Smith, for whom roads and stadiums are named – as “God.” No one disagrees.
On the other hand, if Carolina loses, just shut up. Leave us alone and don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. The morning after, people are haggard and hung-dog, and shaking heads at one another. It is a sad day. Classes are called off; grad students wander aimlessly along the corridors. There is nothing to be said, except perhaps a hollow mumbled “we’ll get them next time.”
Be of good cheer. If the Tar Heels aren’t blessed by God, then why is the sky Carolina blue? As is pretty much everything in Chapel Hill, including the fire trucks.
Next time: Hear No Evil.
[1] Wikipedia, mostly.
[2] https://museum.unc.edu/exhibits/show/water/the-old-well
I married two Carolina men; my first graduated dental school and my second played football for the Heels(‘57-‘61). He married a local girl(first wife)and went on to play professionally in the Canadian Football League. After they split we married and had 41 wonderful years together. But with both of my guys, Carolina football and basketball were always the order of the day. GO HEELS!
Well written Bud.
I love Chapel Hill. UNC was one of my final choices when I was deciding where to sign. I really wanted to go to a great academic institution as well so Michigan, Cal, UCLA, Georgia, Florida, Colorado and UNC were all public Ivy schools on the quarterfinals list. Then I’d whittled it down to Michigan, Florida and UNC as public ivy finalists.
Question: when we lived Charlotte, we lived on “Cindy Carr Lane.” Any relation to UNC Carr? (We always joked about wanting to rename it Lloyd Carr Lane. 😁)