EDENTON, N.C. (Jan. 3, 2025) –– A group of Eastern North Carolina residents is suing the Town of Edenton and the Chowan County Board of Commissioners over their secret plan to move the town’s controversial Confederate monument to the Chowan County Courthouse.
Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) filed a lawsuit Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, on behalf of local residents Sherronne Battle, Stella Brothers, Debra Miller, Rod Phillips, and the Rev. John R. Shannon. The filing states the Edenton Town Council and Chowan County Board of Commissioners brokered an unlawful secret deal to relocate the Edenton Confederate monument to the grounds of the Chowan County Courthouse.
Click here to read the filing.
Since 2021, the Town of Edenton has been engaged in a public debate about the future of its controversial Confederate monument. That debate –– which has included numerous public meetings and input from community members, the creation of a Human Relations Commission (HRC), and a recommendation by the HRC to relocate the monument away from its current downtown location –– resulted in a unanimous vote by the Edenton Town Council on March 14, 2023, to relocate the Confederate monument to Hollowell Park in Edenton.
The planned relocation of the monument to Hollowell Park was subsequently held up when the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the North Carolina Division of The Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc., and The Colonel William F. Martin Camp 1521 of The Sons of Confederate Veterans filed a lawsuit. There has never been a hearing on the merits of the Confederate interest groups’ claims, and the lawsuit remains pending nearly two years later.
The lawsuit filed earlier today claims that over the last few months, the Edenton Town Council engaged in secret negotiations with Chowan County officials to renege on its previous decision to move the Confederate monument to Hollowell Park and instead move it to the grounds of the Chowan County Courthouse. The suggestion of moving the Confederate monument to the courthouse grounds was previously rejected in 2022. But behind closed doors and without public discussion or input, the Town Council negotiated and approved an agreement to transfer the monument to Chowan County, move it to the courthouse grounds, and settle the lawsuit with the Confederate interest groups. The secret plan was unveiled to the public on Nov. 25, 2024, during a joint session between the Edenton Town Council and Chowan County Board of Commissions. No public comments were permitted, and the agreement was presented and voted on in under 10 minutes.
“Removing the public’s input and voice from something so important to the folks who live and work in Edenton is no way to do business or run a local government,” said Rod Phillips, one of the Edenton residents involved in the filing and an active member of the Move the Monument Coalition Edenton-Chowan. “We believe that this and every Confederate monument is a symbol of white supremacy. I know not everyone agrees with that — but I don’t think anyone would agree that it’s okay for elected officials to hide behind closed doors while making important decisions. That’s not how a representative government is supposed to work.”
Public bodies must conduct business in public, according to the lawsuit.
“The pattern of behavior demonstrated by Defendants indicates a systemic disregard for the Open Meetings Law on matters of public importance,” it states. “This Court’s intervention is necessary to prevent ongoing and future violations, ensuring that public business is conducted openly and transparently as mandated by law.”
Further, by seeking to relocate the Confederate monument to the grounds of the Chowan County Courthouse, the lawsuit claims that “[n]ot only have Defendants undermined public trust and transparency while violating the law, their efforts threaten to exacerbate the Confederate monument’s offensiveness.”
“It flies in the face of governmental accountability and transparency to take an issue of significant public importance – like the future of a highly controversial Confederate monument – and move it into backrooms and closed sessions, out of public earshot and scrutiny,” said Jake Sussman, Interim Chief Counsel for Justice System Reform at SCSJ. “For years, concerned citizens have been engaged in open, honest, and challenging conversations about this issue. It appears that local officials sought to end this debate – not by fighting back against a flimsy lawsuit filed by a pro-Confederate special interest group, but instead by secretly negotiating a deal to move a symbol of white supremacy to the grounds of the Chowan County Courthouse.”
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Southern Coalition for Social Justice, founded in 2007, partners with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the South to defend and advance their political, social, and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing, and communications. Learn more at southerncoalition.org and follow our work on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.