'Don't Hold Your Breath.' Edenton Monument Transfer Not a Done Deal (NC)
Activists ponder deal on moving Edenton's Confederate monument
A surprise agreement between the town of Edenton and Chowan County — endorsed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and a Superior Court judge — to move the town’s Confederate monument to the courthouse green has left both activists who oppose the monument and those favoring it mostly perplexed about what to do next.
The 27-foot memorial to Chowan County’s Civil War dead has been the focus of weekly demonstrations by two opposing groups for more than two years. Edenton Town Council voted in March 2023 to relocate the monument to Hollowell Park on West Queen Street. But the move has been held up by a lawsuit filed by the UDC and other groups whose members had ancestors who fought for the Confederacy.
A 2015 law passed by the North Carolina General Assembly prohibits removing or moving an “object of remembrance” unless it goes to a place of equal prominence and accessibility. The law was passed by the state’s Republican-led legislature at a time when many Confederate monuments were being removed from downtowns and courthouse greens in other states.
The UDC, which helped erect hundreds of Confederate war memorials in the early 20th century, sued to keep Edenton’s monument where it is now: at the foot of South Broad Street. Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett imposed an injunction on moving the monument in March 2023, saying…