An electronic newsletter emailed to the estimated 100 members of Edenton’s Monument Group, known for its weekly demonstrations demanding the removal of the town’s Confederate Monument from Broad Street, has broached the idea of an economic boycott against downtown businesses to force the statue’s removal.
Rod Phillips, the author of the newsletter, describes the monument group as a “loose association of like-minded individuals” with no president or officers. Phillips said he writes the newsletter as a service to the group, which he said has not yet decided to boycott local businesses.
The group has demonstrated, fielding more than a dozen protesters weekly in opposition to the monument. Each Saturday since 2021, it has faced off in the 500 block of South Broad Street against a “Save Our Monument” group.
Phillips said the idea of an economic boycott has been floated and discussed since the inception of the group. In a May 23 email, Phillips called for a decision on the idea.
“We will continue to discuss an economic boycott of downtown (S. Broad Street) Businesses — basically from the stop light at Queen St(reet) to the waterfront,” he said. “We need a few co-sponsors to really make this work, and we need a workable plan to publicize this to visitors and encourage them (to) participate.... So this isn’t ready yet, but it’s on one of the front burners.”
Edenton Town Council voted in March 2023 to remove the Confederate monument from South Broad Street and relocate it to Hollowell Park on Queen Street. Chief Resident Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett, however, prohibited the move after the United Daughters of the Confederacy and two chapters of the Sons of Confederate Veterans filed a lawsuit challenging the town’s authority to move the monument under state law. Under that law, “objects of remembrance” like Confederate monuments can’t be moved from their current site unless they’re relocated in a place of “equal prominence.” The town has asked Tillett for a hearing so it can formally request he lift his order preventing the monument’s move. No date has been set for that hearing.
Phillips blames what he describes as Tillett’s “interminable delay” making a decision on the monument’s movement for the growing tension. He also believes the judge’s injunction will not be a successful strategy for those wishing to keep the monument in place.
Phillips also announced that the group plans to continue its campaign of ads and billboards protesting the monument, saying the group Emancipate NC contracted for a continued billboard presence through the end of the year.
Phillips also told a reporter that “words have not been productive” in removing Confederate monuments.
“When we look at other places where monuments have come down, we see that only forceful action has worked,” he said.
Phillips said such action is needed to force the Town Council to defy the injunction and move the monument. Town leaders, meanwhile, have said they plan to wait for the judge’s ruling.
Phillips said hurting businesses that might be quietly in agreement with opponents that the monument should go should be a price the group is willing to pay.
“I know that there are business owners downtown who do support us … but they can’t publicly express their support,” he said. “If our protests hurt downtown business, perhaps that’s due to a lack of willingness of business owners to get involved, for not taking some ownership of this earlier, and for letting things get to this point,” Phillips said in response to a reporter’s question.
Phillips also was critical of businesses in the downtown district, calling them out for doing business near the monument.
“You set up your business in the shadow of a Confederate monument in a majority Black town. What were you thinking? What did you expect?” he asked.
Mayor Hackney High, Town Manager Corey Gooden, and Destination Downtown Edenton Director Ches Chesson all said they had no comment on Phillips’ statements.
Charlie Creighton, owner of Colony Tire in Edenton, has been a vocal critic of the dueling protests at the town’s waterfront.
“All those people (visitors) come to town, and they see that bunch of mess downtown. Those kinds of things are pitiful,” he said in an interview last month.
Other Edenton business owners are also growing weary of the protests.
Malcolm King and Joe Wach, owners of Edenton Bay Trading Company and the Herringbone Restaurant, respectively, are planning what they call “a positive protest” on July 6, pointedly taking a picket permit for both sides of the Confederate plaza. King said he has heard of at least three other groups of business owners attempting to do the same thing. The “protest” is planned as an effort to welcome visitors to town.
King said he thinks boycotting downtown businesses is a bad idea for a number of reasons. He said he wishes the town followed the example set by the town of Hertford and Perquimans County. The town features a privately owned monument to U.S. Colored Troops who served in the Union Army and the county installed signage near its Confederate monument last year designed to put it in historical context.
Most Popular
Comments / 0