A historic and picturesque town in North Carolina has removed a Confederate statue from its downtown after long-running weekly protests against it.
The bronze figure of a soldier was carefully removed from its stone base on the waterfront of Edenton just after midnight on Sunday morning and placed into storage at the county jail. It is set to be relocated to outside the Chown County Courthouse.
The removal of the statue is notable as it comes at a time when President Donald Trump has launched a crusade against depictions of U.S. history that do not portray the country in a flattering light.
His administration has begun changing the names of military bases back to their original titles, commemorating Confederate soldiers after they were renamed during the Biden administration. Some statues that were removed will be replaced, and Trump has singled out the Smithsonian and other museums for review.
Rod Phillips, who helped stage protests against the monument each Saturday in the town with a 60 percent Black population, told The Washington Post: “It’s a great sense of relief.”
Edenton Mayor W. Hackney High Jr. defended the town’s plan to remove and relocate the statue, saying it was a compromise allowing those for and against the statue a measure of victory.
“To those who advocated for the monument’s relocation or removal: your efforts brought about meaningful change. The monument is no longer in its original, most prominent location at the foot of Broad Street,” Hackney wrote.
“To those who opposed its removal: your voices helped ensure the monument is preserved and relocated respectfully, not destroyed or discarded.”
However, Phillips noted that “the struggle is not completely over.”
The plan by town leaders to reerect the statue has led to a lawsuit being filed on the grounds that it would violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment by intimidating Black people who attend legal proceedings.
No new Confederate statues have been added to U.S. courthouse properties in at least a decade, according to a study published this year by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy organisation.
However, Donald Trump has galvanised proponents of Confederate heritage by vowing to restore memorials that were removed during the racial justice movement, sparked by the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police in Minnesota.
A judge last month dismissed a lawsuit by groups seeking to prevent the relocation of a Confederate statue from its prominent Edenton waterfront spot, clearing the way for its removal. The ruling came despite efforts by supporters of the monument to keep it in place.
Michael Dean, commander of an Edenton chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans – a group formed specifically in response to removal efforts – posted his dismay on Facebook on Sunday.
He wrote: “Like a thief in the night, the town removes the memorial under cover of darkness. No fanfare or honor guard.”
Phillips, who rushed over to watch the removal of the monument, said: “Our mission now is to keep this thing from going back up anywhere.”
Edenton officials planned the relocation of the controversial Confederate statue following a recommendation from a racial reconciliation commission several years ago.
The monument was completed in 1909 at a historic, Colonial-era courthouse, no longer in use, before its relocation to the more central waterfront in 1961. This move occurred during the Civil Rights protests, a period when resident Golden Frinks, a top lieutenant to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was a prominent organizer, with Dr. King often visiting Edenton.
As the new recommendation to remove the statue became entangled in court, a diverse group of local residents has staged demonstrations against the monument every Saturday for the past three years. This was met by counter-protesters from local and regional Confederate heritage organisations, defending the memorial.
President Trump issued an executive order in March entitled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which pushed back against efforts to reinterpret U.S. history.
“Rather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame,” it said.
The order claimed that the Smithsonian museums had “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.” It also ordered the Interior Department to reinstate statues and displays that had been “removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology.”
In early August, a U.S. Army official announced that the restoration of a Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is expected to cost approximately $10 million over two years.
The official stated that the monument would feature panels sharing the history behind the memorial, which will be refurbished and have its base replaced.
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