The Move the Monument Coalition Edenton-Chowan and Emancipate NC have been fighting for over a year to have the town of Edenton take down its Confederate monument once and for all. Members of the coalition protest weekly in front of the monument to name the harm inflicted by this symbol of white supremacy. Under this sustained pressure, Edenton’s town council has waffled over where to move the monument, but has not yet conceded to remove it.
Now, as the council plans to spend $40,000 of public funds to move the statue to a new public location, it has also passed an ordinance attempting to discourage the Coalition from calling for its permanent removal from public sites. Team Emancipate’s Jaelyn Miller and Ian Mance have worked with the Coalition to articulate in a letter to the Edenton town council how the content-based restrictions on freedom of assembly in this ordinance violate the First Amendment.
Rather than catering to a minority of the town’s population that supports pro-slavery mementos, we hope that Edenton’s leaders prevent the need for legal action by voluntarily repealing this ordinance — and taking down the monument, as well.
In the meantime, the Move the Monument Coalition doesn’t plan to stop wielding its people power. In the words of one member:
“The ONLY thing driving town council to do anything with this monument is their desire to end our protests. If we stop showing up at monument square on Saturdays, council will undoubtedly be satisfied with letting the monument sit in legal limbo indefinitely. With pressure to act removed, they may do nothing. So our mission hasn’t changed. We continue to do our thing.”