Late on the night of August 30, the Confederate monument that loomed over downtown Edenton for generations was finally taken down. The removal—quiet, unannounced, and carried out under cover of darkness—came only after nearly three years of relentless protest and mounting legal pressure.
The move followed an August 18 ruling by Superior Court Judge Wayland J. Sermons, who overturned an injunction that had shielded the monument for years. First installed outside Edenton’s 1767 Courthouse in 1909 and later relocated to South Broad Street in 1961, the statue stood as a towering tribute to white supremacy for more than a century.
Since 2021, local residents have refused to accept its presence. Week after week, they gathered in protest—facing harassment, counter-demonstrations, and legal roadblocks. Their persistence was bolstered by legal advocates, including Emancipate NC attorney Jaelyn Miller and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, who defended protestors’ rights and challenged the claim that Confederate monuments deserve public honor. Emancipate NC also helped local activists obtain a billboard that stood on the highway into town; the billboard issued an apology to visitors for the persistent presence of the offensive monument.
Officials have tried to frame the relocation as a matter of logistics—tying it to Edenton’s $25 million Harbortown waterfront project. But for activists, every Saturday spent in protest was about reclaiming public space from a symbol of racial terror. As the Move the Monument Coalition made clear: no courthouse—or any public land in 2025—should play host to a monument glorifying the Confederacy.
Even in victory, the fight isn’t over. The Town of Edenton has promised to transfer the monument to Chowan County and reinstall it near Veterans Memorial Park. Lawsuits challenging that plan are still moving through the courts, and community leaders have vowed to resist until the statue is permanently removed from public land.
For those who stood in its shadow since 2021, the monument’s removal is long overdue. But their movement—rooted in grassroots persistence and legal advocacy—shows no signs of slowing until the fight for true public accountability is won.