Protesters knock down Confederate statue at North Carolina university

Hundreds of protesters knocked down a Confederate monument on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Silent Sam" is a statue by John Wilson, a former Confederate soldier. It's been a fixture on the campus since it was erected in 1913. Students, faculty and alumni have called the statue a racist image.

Protestors gathered to call for university leaders to take action and remove the Confederate monument on Monday night, WTVD reported.

At some point, the group took matters into their own hands and toppled the statue to the ground.

Twitter user Ryan Michaels captured the scene on video of protesters cheering as the statue came down. In the video, you can see the statue was covered with large signs and banners.

There were some tense moments between police and protesters. One person was arrested and charged with concealing one's face during a public rally and resisting arrest.

TRENDING STORIES:

Gov. Roy Cooper had called for removing Silent Sam and other rebel symbols on public land. A state historic panel is set to meet this week to debate Cooper's request to remove other Confederate monuments at the state Capitol.

Still the Democratic governor issued a statement on Twitter on Monday night arguing the protesters took the wrong approach to removing the statue.

"The Governor understands that many people are frustrated by the pace of change and he shares their frustration, but violent destruction of public property has no place in our communities," said the tweet from his official account.

The university echoed the sentiment in a statement issued after the statue came down.

"Tonight's actions were dangerous, and we are very fortunate that no one was injured. We are investigating the vandalism and assessing the full extent of the damage," the university said in a tweet.

ABC News contributed to this report.

Cox Media Group