As UNC-Chapel Hill continues to reckon with its past, it is important that we share the following important acknowledgments:

Native Land

We want to acknowledge that this is Indigenous land and was first inhabited by the First Peoples of this Land, our American Indian People. This land was stolen from them.

North Carolina is home to the largest population of any state east of the Mississippi River. North Carolina is home to eight state-recognized tribes, which include:

• Occaneechi Band of Saponi Indian Nation
• Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe
• Waccamaw Souian Indian Tribe
• Sappony Tribe
• Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina
• Meherrin Indian Nation
• Coharie Indian Tribe
• Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians

It is also home to the Tuscarora.

We recognize and respect their brilliance, gifts, and contributions past, present, and future. They are a living legacy.

Black Bodies

Black Labor 

We acknowledge that, as the nation’s the first public university founded during a period of African enslavement in the US, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was built by African descended people who were kidnapped from their homeland, treated as property, and whose labor was exploited. Further, the University admitted the first Black graduate students to the Law School in 1951 and the first Black undergraduate students were not admitted until 1955. The University hired its first Black faculty member in 1966.  The Carolina Black Caucus was established in 1974 by Black faculty and staff to help engage, empower, and advocate for Carolina’s Black community.

We acknowledge injustice and honor Carolina’s Black Pioneers as well as the generations of African descended faculty, staff, and students who continue to expand their legacy.