UNC frat members who protected American flag recount chaotic protest: 'Blew my mind'

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.– A group of fraternity members at the University of North Carolina (UNC) captured the attention of the nation last week when they held up the American flag as pro-Palestinian protesters tried to replace the Stars and Stripes with a Palestinian flag.

After enduring nearly an hour of screaming, slurring and flying objects, the fraternity brothers held up the fallen American flag until it could be restored in a display that many considered a heroic act of patriotism. A GoFundMe was started to throw a party for the fraternities involved, which raised over half a million dollars by the time donations closed. 

Will, a member of UNC's Phi Delta Theta chapter, told Fox News Digital that in the lead-up to last Tuesday's protest, he spent time talking to people to better understand exactly what they aimed to achieve with their demonstrations. Will said he and his friend Ben went to see the protest in the early afternoon, but ultimately left. Once they heard the American flag had been ripped down and replaced by the Palestinian flag, they rushed back to campus. 

UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Anti-Israel agitators replaced the American flag with the Palestinian one during the demonstration. (Parker Ali/The Daily Tar Heel)

"We were kind of baffled," Will said of his experience watching the Palestinian flag raise up on the flag pole at the American university.

"My biggest fear was that they had taken it down, it was under their feet or they're gonna try to light fire to it or something, but it ended up being taken by police," he added. "We hung out, [but] we were getting increasingly frustrated because we're both relatively neutral in the conflict. At the end of the day, it's a world away from here and we can't make much of a difference from North Carolina. It immediately became an issue for me and for a lot of other people that the American flag came down."

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Colby Kelley, president of UNC's Turning Point chapter and member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, told Fox News Digital that members of Turning Point held up a smaller American flag while the Palestinian flag was on display. 

"We were over there holding a smaller American flag to try to show that there was a presence here on campus, that what their actions were doing was a large disgrace to the country at large," he said.

At that point, Will said they witnessed police officers mobilizing and saw Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts approaching the protest to address students. At that point, Will said he and his friends removed themselves from the immediate action since they were within ten feet of the flagpole as the pro-Palestinian crowd started to get "increasingly violent towards the police."

"I watched police officers get hit with these water bottles, food, chairs, people were throwing anything they could find," he said. "So we're walking out and all of a sudden it looked like from our point of view that something happened, I think the protesters rushed the police."

Ben said that once police intervened, the pro-Palestinian protesters linked arms probably three rows deep around the flag to keep everyone out.

"They were fighting back against the police," he said. "It was honestly shocking, I was standing close enough because I wanted to see what was going on and get a video of it."

After the American flag was reinstated the first time, Ben said one person yanked the part of the flag that clipped onto the pole, so it came tumbling down a second time. 

UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Anti-Israel agitators replaced the American flag with the Palestinian one during the demonstration. (Parker Ali/The Daily Tar Heel)

"We saw, I guess it was somewhere from 10 to 25 people rushing in, and started holding it [the flag]," Ben recalled. 

"At this point in time, I'm visibly upset and my roommate, one of my really good friends I've known for a long time was one of the guys holding the flag, and me and Ben are right up in there and I'm basically just yelling at these protesters like … y'all are actually children," Will said. "They're throwing food, they're just screaming expletives at anyone, they're not making any sense and that's when I was approached by two protesters who were just basically screaming at me, just utter nonsense."

Will said the two protesters "looked and seemed more like students," but then another guy, who was "clearly not a student" came up to him to provoke an altercation. 

"He's like, ‘Why are you so angry, man,’" Will recalled. "'This flag means nothing to you' and I’m like, 'Well, it means a lot to me, because my family has served in the military and I'm proud to be an American citizen.' I’m getting a little fired up even thinking about it … When y'all took the American flag down, y'all changed this protest from a nonviolent protest to a violent protest."

"I kid you not, this blew my mind, he turned on me and said, ‘Good, we never wanted it to be nonviolent, we wanted it to be violent from the start,'" Will said.

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Will said he felt like there were definitely outside agitators coming in who were masked and "just appeared out of the woodwork." He said he witnessed another man screaming at a group of three fraternity brothers, "just losing his mind at them." 

"Any chance you had at empathy and people having support for your cause kind of went out the window as soon as you took the flag and you started getting violent," Ben said. "We support peaceful protest as everyone else does, and he's like, 'Well, we don't want this to be peaceful.'"

Many pro-Palestinian protesters have expressed ire toward Chancellor Roberts over his strong stance against agitators who took down the American flag, but many also applauded him for the remarks he gave after restoring it. 

The American flag is surrounded by a temporary barrier at Polk Place at the University of North Carolina on May 1, 2024 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  ((Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images))

"This university doesn’t belong to a small group of protesters. It belongs to every citizen of North Carolina," Roberts said. "The flag represents all of us. Take down that flag, and put up another flag, no matter what flag it is – that’s antithetical to who we are, what this university stands for."

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"The broad majority of this campus knows how to express their views … without violating university policy," he continued. "That flag will stand here as long as I’m chancellor." 

Kelley applauded the chancellor's comments as the proper way universities should handle anti-American sentiment. 

"Personally, I think he acted very honorably," Kelley said. "He stayed true to the neutrality position that UNC is supposed to take. But even beyond politics, no matter which side of the aisle or which side of a position you find yourself on, you're supposed to respect our flag, so I'm very glad that he did that."

After the protest, school administrators erected barriers to prevent anyone from getting near the flag, along with automated spotlights should someone breach the barrier. 

In a statement issued to students on Friday, the administration said it supports the safety and security of the entire campus and surrounding community, acknowledging the recent protests on the campus included "actions and rhetoric [that] prove they are willing to escalate their tactics to the point of putting everyone in danger."

"In recent days, members of this group and others have caused damage to Polk Place, broken into academic buildings after hours, propped doors open to locked buildings, torn down barricades, pounded on windows and attempted to push through officers to forcibly enter South Building, hit police and other vehicles, thrown furniture in front of police vehicles injuring officers, entered classrooms during finals to cause disruption, taken down the American flag flying over Polk Place twice, and throw waters bottles and fluids at University workers, police and administrators."

The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (Kendall Tietz)

By the end of the protest, Will said he felt "fired up" and "hopeful for the future of the country" by the show of patriotism as people protected the flag and a crowd chanting "USA" began to gather. 

Another Phi Delt named Luke said the protest went from "just a people-watching thing" to "an anti-American protest."

"We don't pick sides, but when it comes down to taking the American flag down, it's more pro-American than pro either side," he said. 

Luke said probably $60,000 of the $516,647 raised by the GoFundMe will be used for a benefit concert and the rest will likely be donated to a pro-American cause. 

"It’s not just going to be free beer and a cool artist, it's going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars to a charity," he said. "Half the people that we've talked about getting to come for a concert have been saying they'll do it completely for free. "

"A lot of good will come from the 500 grand besides just free beer," he added. 

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UNC directed Fox News Digital to the statement it issued to students on Friday.