'Welcome' protest staged by biz owners

EDENTON — Protests of a different sort occupied Edenton’s Confederate Plaza on the south end of Broad Street the morning of Saturday.

Instead of demonstrating for or against the town’s Confederate Monument, two Edenton business owners, Joe Wach and Malcolm King, conducted what might be described as either a “positive picket” or “welcome protest.”

Wach, who owns the Herringbone Restaurant, and King, who owns Edenton Bay Trading Company, secured picketing permits from the town of Edenton for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., which is the time the anti-monument and pro-monument groups have consistently asked for picketing permits every Saturday over the past two years.

But instead of calling for the monument’s removal, or that it stay where it is, Wach and King ignored the monument and passed out “welcome to Edenton” brochures the Edenton-Chowan Chamber of Commerce had provided.

The purpose of the “demonstration,” Wach said, was to present Edenton in a positive light to visitors.

“I’m happy to be in Edenton,” he said. “I love doing business here and just want to celebrate that.”

Wach said he knows the pro-monument and anti-monument protests will probably go on even if his and King’s efforts continue. Still, he said he wanted to bring something positive to the town after two years of weekly demonstrations near the monument.

“That will continue,” he said. “But I’m just down here, a happy Edentonian, and I’m just exercising my First Amendment right to go out and tell people what a great place this is.”

Edenton Town Council has already voted to move the town’s Confederate monument to Edenton’s Hollowell Park. The move was been blocked, however, by a lawsuit filed by groups that claim ties to the Confederacy. Last spring, Chief Resident Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett enjoined the town from moving the monument, saying he first wanted to see how the state’s higher courts ruled in similar Confederate monument cases. The town has requested Tillett to hold a hearing on its request that he lift the injunction but no date has been scheduled.

A citizens group, Move the Monument Coalition Edenton-Chowan, held its first protest against the monument remaining at its current site on Christmas Day 2021. Its demonstrations have spurred two groups allied with the Sons of Confederate Veterans to begin counter protests that argue the monument should stay where it is.

Michael Dean represents Vets 4 Vets, one of the groups that doesn’t want the monument moved. An information booth is also operated by Roy Toppin, also associated with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, on private property directly behind where the Move the Monument protesters demonstrate, handing out fliers extolling what the group claims is the monument’s historic value as well as pamphlets and research papers on Civil War history.

Millard Bond was helping out with the SVC information booth but said he usually protests with the Vets 4 Vets group. He said the group was surprised that the town had changed the time on its picketing permit request and canceled its protest scheduled for July 6 when the Move the Monument group did not show up. He said he had heard the anti-monument protesters had gotten a permit for 4 p.m., negating the group’s reason to picket. Instead, Bond decided to help King and Wach pass out pamphlets.

Bond said Vets 4 Vets would not be picketing if Move the Monument was not protesting.

“We don’t have any reason to be here if they aren’t here,” he said. “I’ve already wasted two years of my life every Saturday out here counter-protesting.”

Dean, a leader in the Vets 4 Vets group and soon-to-be commander of Edenton’s new Sons of Confederate Veterans Chapter, also said the group only demonstrates to counter Move the Monument’s protests. He said he sees the “welcome to Edenton” pickets as positive.

“We think that promoting the town rather than tearing it down is an admirable thing, and we support the effort,” he said. “My only objection is that our permit was disapproved for this and the next two weekends without any dialogue coming from Town Hall.”

Jessie Rivers, who spoke for the Move the Monument Group, said the group was surprised that its permit for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. also was rejected. She said the group applied for another permit from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

“We would like to be here just to continue to express our opinion that we would like to have the statue moved,” Rivers said. “We’re not here to deface it or destroy it. We would just like it relocated to a different location. Our concern is that if we don’t maintain an active presence, it may lead to more delays in moving the statue.”

Edenton Town Manager Corey Gooden said picketing permits are issued on a first-come, first-served basis. He said he can approve permit requests up to four weeks in advance, noting that spaces are available for anyone to use, and that no one group has more right to reserve a time slot for picketing than any other group.

Gooden said six individuals not connected to either Move the Monument or Vets 4 Vets have come to his office to reserve picketing permits. He said that the pro- and anti-monument demonstrators have moved to reserve different times for their protests.