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Yomiuri Shimbun
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
A Town Tried to Heal Racial Divides. It Energized Confederate Supporters Instead.
EDENTON, N.C. – Confederate supporters arrived first, establishing a Saturday morning base near the town waterfront with 'Save our history' signs and Civil War information sheets. Some sported red MAGA hats and shirts that proclaimed 'America First,' or, in one case, 'If you don't like Trump then you probably won't like me and I'm OK with that.' The opposition showed up about two hours later carrying stark white signs with black letters: 'Remove this statue.' For the next two hours, as they've done nearly every Saturday for the past three years, the groups mingled with confused tourists in a seemingly unending fight over a Confederate monument at the heart of this historic town, which is nearly 60 percent Black. What started as an effort to promote racial unity in Edenton by reconsidering its most prominent downtown symbol has done the opposite. A chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, long extinct locally, sprang to life. The forgotten Confederate Memorial Day was resurrected and commemorated again last month with a wreath-laying and roll call of the rebel dead. And the town council, which had formed a Human Relations Commission in 2020 to consider steps for racial reconciliation, last fall came up with a novel way to handle the statue of a generic Confederate soldier: Take it down from the waterfront. Add it to the courthouse. Facing north, the green-patina figure of the soldier – one of many that were once found throughout the South – stands atop a stone column on a grassy traffic median where the town market once stood. Enslaved people were bought, sold or offered for hire on that spot. The Civil War is a small part of the long heritage of Edenton, a town of about 4,500 located in Chowan County near the western end of Albemarle Sound. Today the town thrives on tourism, its streets an Americana confection of pre-Revolution Colonial homes next to Victorian fantasies next to 1920s cottages. Broad Street is lined with shops and restaurants, a promenade of quaintness leading straight down to the water and the Confederate monument. Now mired in legal challenges, moving the monument would be the first time in a decade that any locality in the United States has added a Confederate statue on courthouse grounds, according to a study published last month by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. At a moment when the Trump administration is scrubbing prominent Black historic figures from U.S. government websites and condemning Smithsonian exhibits on race as 'divisive ideology,' the Edenton statue drama – community activism, followed by a resurgence of the old order – seems to embody the nation's pivot from the reckonings of 2020 that were prompted by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. States and localities removed or renamed 169 Confederate memorials in 2020, according to the recent SPLC study, the fourth update of a survey originally conducted in 2016. Removals have declined every year since, plummeting last year to two, the study found through an analysis of federal, state and local data. Head researcher Rivka Maizlish said the slowdown is at least partly attributable to the revival of Lost Cause sentiment by President Donald Trump, who has called for reinstating Confederate names on military bases and has issued an executive order that could restore Confederate monuments to federal property. The tone from the White House gives an extra sense of empowerment to those who have come out to defend the Edenton monument every weekend for the past three years. On a recent sunny Saturday, Ron Toppin, 80, and two helpers set up a canopy over tables neatly lined with trays of Confederate information sheets and hit the sidewalk two hours before their opponents arrived. Trump's election 'made the country a whole lot better,' said Toppin, whose late wife used to organize the informational materials for the group and who said his great-great-grandfather was a rebel soldier captured by the Union in 1863. 'We've got America back.' Mike Dean, commander of the Edenton Bell Battery of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, roared up on his Harley – dubbed 'Traveller' after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's horse – and took command of the outpost. When a few protesters began marching up the sidewalk, Dean gestured to a woman walking by with a sign that read 'Remove this statue.' 'Understand,' Dean said, 'these are Marxists. Marxists want to destroy history.' He was referring to Debra Miller, 66, a retired human resources specialist who grew up in Edenton. Miller is White but remembers protesting as a teenager when officials fired her high school's Black band teacher. She recalls White people saying the Confederate statue – completed in 1909 but moved to its current spot in 1961 – would remind Black people to stay in their place. Decades later, there are no Black-owned businesses along South Broad Street, the main downtown thoroughfare. Only two members of the town council are Black, and the community has never had a Black mayor. Removing a statue that glorifies the Confederacy wouldn't be destroying history, Miller said. It would be correcting it. 'With this statue, there's so much prejudice that I've seen through the years,' she said, 'that I'd rather just see it gone.' Settled in the mid-1600s, the town was the first Colonial capital of North Carolina and at one point rivaled nearby Norfolk as a port. In 1774, Edenton resident Penelope Barker – whose husband was away in England – heard about the Boston Tea Party and rallied the women of Edenton to stage a tea dump of their own. The act drew ridicule from Britain but is remembered as arguably the first example of social activism by American women. A half-century later, Edenton was a maritime stop on the Underground Railroad. Over the centuries, some of its residents have earned national prominence for their roles in fights for freedom and civil rights. Among the enslaved population of Edenton were Harriet and John S. Jacobs, a brother and sister who escaped to the North and eventually wrote about their lives. Harriet Jacobs's 1861 book 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl' is considered a classic narrative of the enslaved experience, while her brother's more incendiary work, 'The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots,' was forgotten until being republished last year. The tradition of resistance persisted into the civil rights era of the 1960s, when town resident Golden Frinks became a top lieutenant to Martin Luther King Jr. and spearheaded protests known as the Edenton Movement. His efforts to integrate the local high school, library and theater started shortly before town leaders decided to move the Confederate statue from a side street to the more prominent waterfront location. 'The statue was put up with malice,' said Andrean Clarke Heath, 62, who is Black and moved to Edenton in 2020 to take a job as a teacher at the high school. She didn't pay much attention to the monument at first, she said, but decided to do an experiment, meditating at the base of the statue on Sunday afternoons and watching peoples' reactions. 'I got some very hostile, curious looks,' she said. 'Black people were like, don't you know you're not supposed to be there?' Many Black residents drive about a half-hour east to Elizabeth City for shopping and dining, said the Rev. John Shannon, 70, who lives in Elizabeth City and has pastored at Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Edenton for 20 years. He was named to the town's Human Relations Commission in 2020 and spent more than a year studying the town and its racial climate. 'Black people, you know, have been kind of told where their place is at,' he said. Shannon belongs to an informal 'racial reconciliation group' that still meets every week in a local church. The diverse group discusses books and brings in speakers to help the members understand how Edenton and the nation have been shaped by issues of race. They learned about the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the displacement of Native American tribes. One speaker, historian David Cecelski, spoke about the white supremacy clubs that formed in North Carolina around 1900 with the express purpose of amending the state constitution to eliminate the Black vote. When white-supremacist leaders were elected to statewide office and the constitution was amended, the historian said, the Edenton newspaper editor proclaimed in 1900: 'White supremacy now and forever.' The Confederate statue began going up four years later. Shannon said the information he learned as part of the racial reconciliation group helped him understand his own childhood: the shabby textbooks before schools were integrated, the way his parents would have the kids wait in the car when they ventured into downtown Elizabeth City. 'It brought it fresh to us, man,' he said. Armed with that knowledge, he and the town's Human Relations Commission returned with several recommendations. No. 1: Remove the statue from the waterfront. 'I grew up as a child kind of oblivious to it,' said Susan Inglis, 69, who is White and worked with Shannon on both the commission and the reconciliation group. The eighth generation since 1786 to live in her family's Edenton home, Inglis said her ancestors were members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy who raised money to build the statue. But the family's views changed over time. Her mother was 'bothered by the glorification of the Civil War that she learned in her elementary school,' Inglis said. 'I learned from her to abhor the statue in our town.' The town council spent a couple of years mulling what to do with the recommendation to move the statue. Under a North Carolina law passed in 2015, options were limited. A locality can't simply remove a Confederate memorial or any other public-owned 'object of remembrance'; if it wants to relocate one, the memorial has to go to a position of 'similar prominence, honor, visibility, availability, and access.' And the answer can't be a cemetery. When Confederate heritage groups filed suit to block any move, the public process seemed to come to a halt. In November, though, the town council caught statue opponents off guard by revealing a plan to transfer ownership of the statue to Chowan County, which would then move it a few blocks over to the working courthouse. (Edenton's original 1767 courthouse is now a historical site.) The Southern Coalition for Social Justice responded with a lawsuit of its own, claiming among other things that putting a statue at the courthouse violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment by intimidating Black people who show up for legal proceedings. Both cases are mired in procedural delays. Edenton Mayor W. Hackney High Jr. declined to comment, citing pending legal matters, and the other members of the town council did not reply to emails seeking comment. In the meantime, Clarke Heath – whose Sunday meditations at the statue were joined by others until they morphed into the weekly protests – said she began to feel unwelcome in the town and moved north to Virginia. Now Rod Phillips, 79, a White retiree from Raleigh with Confederate ancestors of his own, organizes the Saturday gathering. He loves Edenton, he said, but believes it's hiding its true identity. 'All the shops are run by Whites, most visitors are White, so you don't really get a good feel for what this town is really all about,' he said. 'There's a lot of Black history here, but you have to get further away from the waterfront.' Physical reminders of that Black history can be hard to find. A vacant lot behind a bank is the site of the home of Molly Horniblow, an enslaved woman who bought her freedom but could not do the same for her offspring. That included her granddaughter Harriet Jacobs, who hid in a garret at Horniblow's home for nearly seven years to escape the sexual advances of her White enslaver and the jealousy of his wife before heading north. The state of North Carolina sponsors a tour of Harriet Jacobs-related sites and put up a historical highway marker. It also is renovating the home of Frinks, who died in 2004. But neither historic figure is prominently recognized downtown. Dean, the battery commander for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said he believes the town should consider putting a monument to Harriet Jacobs alongside the Confederate statue, which he reveres as a tribute to dead soldiers. 'This is a collective memorial, if you will, to 47 Chowan County boys who never came back,' he said, adding that their battlefield deaths left 'no head marker for their family to grieve over, no remembrances for their families going forward in history.' That's more memorial than exists for thousands of enslaved people who toiled in Edenton, an unknown number of whom – including Horniblow – lie beneath a grassy lot in a residential neighborhood on the edge of town. But Dean said it's not fair to compare that to the soldiers killed in battle. 'The way I see it is, their people did not see to it that [the enslaved] had that Christian burial,' he said. 'Now, whether their owners were required to do that, I can't say. … But that doesn't have anything to do with this; it's two separate issues.' Any attempt to associate the statue with slavery makes Dean angry. He says the figure isn't even technically a Confederate; it's a generic soldier 'made by Cincinnati Iron Works. And in the 1890s to 1910s, these were put up all over the South.' Yet the wording on the base makes its intent plain: 'Our Confederate Dead,' along with a poem that in parts reads, 'Gashed with honorable scars, Low in Glorys lap they lie.' On a recent Saturday, Shannon, Phillips and about a dozen opponents of the statue took turns standing in the shade and then striding past Dean with their signs. Police Chief David LaFon stopped by, as usual, making sure everything was calm. It usually is, he said. The idea of the Human Relations Commission was to bring people together, Shannon said. And here they were, this Saturday and every Saturday, together but still very much apart. 'It's a good town, man, but you have some stuff that's been embedded in the hearts and minds of the people,' Shannon said. 'They ain't looking for no change, you know what I'm saying?' He'll keep coming, he said, as long as the standoff endures. 'It's a struggle, man. I mean, I prayed so much for my children and my grandchildren,' he said. 'When I think about our own history – I mean, we kept coming or kept doing for a long time before we saw some change.'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Guilty pleas revealed in Sons of Confederate Veterans campaign finance case
The State Board of Elections has revealed its first criminal convictions — two guilty pleas to a misdemeanor charge — in the six years after state lawmakers made campaign finance investigations secret. That outcome drew little praise from a campaign finance watchdog whose complaint to the elections board prompted the case. He says it took too long and resulted in too little. In January, two leaders of a political action committee for the Sons of Confederate Veterans pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of accepting cash contributions in excess of $50. They were ordered to pay a $100 fine and court costs, according to a letter the board sent to Bob Hall, the retired executive director of Democracy NC. Court records show Mitchell Flinchum of Burlington, the PAC's treasurer, and Thomas Smith of Raleigh, the PAC's assistant treasurer, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanors on Jan. 23. Neither the board nor prosecutors announced the convictions at the time. Hall did not find out until he received a letter known as a 'closure notice' from the board that was dated May 16, nearly four months after the convictions in Wake County District Court. 'It's a pitiful settlement, but at least they admitted to engaging in criminal activity,' Hall said in a news release Tuesday. Hall filed a lengthy complaint against the nonprofit North Carolina division of the Sons of Confederate and its Heritage PAC in January 2020. He did so after The Daily Tar Heel, the UNC-Chapel Hill student paper, revealed evidence of illegal donations to the PAC. The nonprofit had struck a secret $2.5 million deal with the UNC System to take possession of the controversial Silent Sam statue memorializing Confederate soldiers at UNC-Chapel Hill, which protesters tore down. A judge later pulled the plug on the deal. Prior to the 2018 law, the board would make public complaints and election records associated with them, until it found possible criminal conduct, Gary Bartlett, the board's executive director from 1993 to 2013, told the N&O last year. At that point, the board withheld information until a public hearing before the board that included testimony from witnesses. Transparency from such hearings, which legislators ended, helped give the public confidence that campaign finance cases were being handled appropriately, Hall and other government watchdogs have said. A public hearing would have shed light on claims Sons of Confederate Veterans members made that they were pressured to make cash donations to the PAC and that they had been listed as the source of other donations they did not make, Hall said. 'It would have triggered tax investigations and racketeering investigations by the federal investigators, it very much could have done that,' Hall predicted. Smith could not be immediately reached for comment. Mitchell declined to talk about the case. 'As far as I'm concerned it's settled,' he said. 'I'm glad after all of it to hopefully have it in the past.' Efforts to interview state elections officials and Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman about the outcome of the Heritage PAC case were unsuccessful. Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the board of elections, said in an email that the board did not see a concern with issuing its notice of the case's outcome last week. 'Campaign finance investigations are confidential under state law,' he wrote late Tuesday afternoon. 'From our perspective, the case was open until just recently, and we provided notice of the status to the complainant.' The board's letter to Hall said that it investigated the nonprofit and its PAC for roughly a year, turning over its findings to the State Ethics Commission for its recommendation. Requiring that referral was another change to campaign finance investigations from the 2018 legislation. The commission's recommendations are also confidential. The commission's review added two months to the case, the board's letter showed. In June 2021 the board referred the case to the Alamance County district attorney to investigate Flinchum and to Freeman in Wake County to investigate Smith. The case was later consolidated in Wake County. Freeman asked the SBI to investigate further. When asked about the length of time it takes to resolve elections board cases referred to her, Freeman said the elections board is hampered by a lack of funding and staff and the SBI's financial crimes unit is taking longer to do its work. Hall criticized Freeman's handling of the case, and others in recent years that did not lead to criminal charges, in his news release. 'It's disappointing that the District Attorney took so long to accomplish so little,' Hall said.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NC Sons of Confederate Veterans leaders guilty of campaign finance misdemeanors
Two individuals affiliated with the North Carolina Division of the group Sons of Confederate Veterans pled guilty earlier this year to misdemeanor campaign finance violations committed in their role as leaders of an affiliated PAC, according to a 'closure notice' issued by the State Board of Elections last Friday. Meanwhile, the person who filed the complaint that gave rise to the prosecution — veteran campaign finance watchdog Bob Hall — is criticizing the settlement of the matter as 'pitiful.' The case stems from the political controversy that surrounded the removal of the so-called 'Silent Sam' statute from the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill in 2018, and the subsequent back-and-forth that took place between UNC officials, state lawmakers, and private groups that sought to preserve and take control of the statue after it was torn down during a campus protest. In January of 2020, Hall filed a lengthy and detailed complaint with the Board of Elections in which he provided evidence that the North Carolina Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, along with individual leaders of the group and affiliated organizations were involved in illegally financing the NC Heritage PAC. That PAC, in turn, donated thousands of dollars to an array of Republican officeholders and candidates. Last Friday's notice reported that 'NC Heritage PAC Treasurer Mitchell Flinchum and NC Heritage PAC Assistant Treasurer Thomas Smith each pled guilty to one misdemeanor count of accepting monetary (cash) contributions in excess of $50 in violation of N.C.G.S. § 163-278.14(b). Both defendants were also ordered to pay the costs of court and a $100 fine.' The notice stated that it was notified of the plea arrangements by the Wake County District Attorney's office in January and that the complaint that gave rise to the investigation is now closed. In a news release publicizing the closure of the case and the convictions, Hall lamented the size and scope of the penalties. 'It's a pitiful settlement, but at least they admitted to engaging in criminal activity,' said Hall, who had asked for dissolution of the PAC and the disgorgement of tens of thousands of dollars of PAC contributions that benefited Republican politicians. Hall directed criticism at Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman for the modest nature of the punishment meted out. 'It's disappointing that the District Attorney took so long to accomplish so little,' Hall said. 'The way large amounts of cash moved in and out of SCV-related operations is highly suspicious and likely violated tax and anti-corruption laws in addition to a felony statute against filing false campaign finance reports.' The original complaint identified $28,500 in contributions to several GOP politicians — including Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger — that Hall argued were unlawful and should have been redirected to the state Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund. Hall's statement also quoted a pair of dissident Sons of Confederate Veterans members as being critical of the outcome. Robert 'Smitty' Smith, a SCV member who helped the State Board of Elections document the illegal contributions, said, 'The fine is basically nothing – it's like there's no consequences for all they [SCV leaders] did.' 'It's crazy that it took so long and they get away,' said Chadwick Rogers, another SCV member who witnessed the illegal activity by SCV leaders that others labeled 'money laundering.' Rogers said the punishment should have included SCV losing its charity status.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Liberty voters keep mayor in office, narrowly pass tax for law enforcement
Greg Canuteson won Tuesday's election to keep his seat as Liberty's mayor with 64% of the votes. Liberty voters also approved a sales tax for projects meant to improve public safety that Canuteson had promoted. Canuteson ran against Giselle Fest, a Republican known in the Liberty community for her association with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, in a race that drew upon a long-standing dispute over a statue of a Confederate soldier overlooking a local cemetery. Canuteson, a full-time lawyer in Liberty by day and former legislator in the Missouri House of Representatives, will continue to serve as the city's mayor for another four years. While his opponent ran on a campaign promising zero tax increases, Canuteson publicly supported the city's proposed public safety tax. However, he said this will be the last tax increase for Liberty for a while. During his time in office, Canuteson focused on infrastructure in the city such as adding street lights to downtown Liberty. Voters narrowly approved the public safety tax with 51%, which will increase the city's sales tax by one percent per dollar for projects meant to improve public safety. The tax will provide an additional $7.5 million for the city's law enforcement and first responders: $6 million will go toward salaries and benefits for police and firefighters, with $1.5 million annually through bonds for a renovated station police station, and the remaining costs going toward equipment.
