The Unsung Founders Memorial is a black granite tabletop supported by 300 bronze figurines and surrounded by 5 black granite seats. It was dedicated in 2005. It was a class gift by the Class of 2002 and was one of the most successful endeavors for fundraising for a class gift to the university. The class sent about seventy requests to various artists and heard back from 11. They narrowed the choices down to four and three came to Chapel Hill for interviews, with Do-Ho Suh eventually being selected. He had an artistic background with work that exemplifies the concepts of collective versus individual and identity vs anonymity.
In the dedication speech, UNC Chancellor James Moser said “What we do today will not rectify what our ancestors did in the past, but this memorial, I believe, attests to our commitment to shed light on the darker concerns of our history…this piece does for us what the people it honors did for us – that is, makes Carolina a better place to be” due to its function as a table.
It has been the center of some controversy due to its proximity to and overshadowing by the larger Silent Sam, a memorial for UNC’s Confederate soldiers, as well as the fact that it can used as a table and its lack of additional contextualization. Artist Do-Ho Suh, however, envisioned a memorial where visitors would physically interact with the artwork. He created the work after visiting the campus and talking to students. He was inspired by the unadorned stones that mark the graves of unknown African Americans in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. He sought to draw people to the art with the design, saying that “When you touch it and sit on it and use it, you become part of it symbolically and metaphorically”. The memorial serves as an anti-monument due to its size, placement, and use. The small stature compared to neighboring obelisks and its function as a table invokes feelings of excessive comfort for those who notice it. According to Suh, he uses the small size to make meaning by drawing cold, glaring attention to the injustices of these men and women as a result of their human condition.”
The inscription on it reads “The Class of 2002 Honors The University’s Unsung Founders – The People Of Color Bound and Free – Who Helped Build The Carolina That We Cherish Today”. Due to increasing call by students for the university to re-examine its history with slavery, the movement to relocate Silent Sam has extended to amplified recognition for the memorial. Since August of 2017, bouquets of fresh flowers have been decorating the table every day.