EDENTON — The unnamed entity that approached the town of Edenton about purchasing its Confederate monument in exchange for a $50,000 contribution to a Chowan County charity has withdrawn its offer, citing the town’s lack of interest in the proposal.
T.C. Morphis Jr., an attorney with the Chapel Hill-based Brough Law Firm, advised Town Manager Corey Gooden by letter Tuesday that his unnamed client is withdrawing its offer to have the Edenton Racial Reconciliation Group donate $50,000 to the Chowan Community Funds Foundation in exchange for ownership of the monument.
Morphis had emailed the monument-purchase proposal to the town in a July 26 letter, saying the offer was being made on behalf of “clients who wish to remain anonymous but are dedicated to the well-being of the people of Edenton.”
Under the original proposal, Edenton would transfer ownership of the monument to the Edenton Racial Reconciliation Group in exchange for a $50,000 contribution to the Chowan Community Funds Foundation. Morphis’ letter said the group, which provides funding to nonprofits like the Albemarle Commission Senior Nutrition Program for Chowan Meals on Wheels, the American Red Cross, and Boys & Girls Club of the Albemarle, helps “serve unmet needs of town residents.”
The monument then would be moved from its current site on South Broad Street to a new location selected by a committee chosen either by the town’s Human Relations Commission, the reconciliation group or both. Both groups have been supporters of moving the monument.
Morphis said a similar “creative solution” was used in Pitt County once its Confederate monument had been taken down and stored. The Pitt monument was transferred to a group called Commemorating Honor, which said it wanted to restore it and then put it on private property.
Morphis said in Tuesday’s letter that it had been “more than a month” since he appeared before Edenton Town Council to publicly announce the monument-purchase proposal, noting that his client “contemplated the transfer of ownership” would be completed on or before Aug. 31.
But since then, Morphis said he had heard nothing further from the town. Citing what he described as the town’s “apparent lack of interest” in the proposal, Morphis said his client was withdrawing its offer.
“It is disappointing, to say the least, that the Town of Edenton has refused to even consider a solution that would resolve this long-running issue and provide significant funds to a worthy local cause,” Morphis’ Tuesday letter reads. “If the Town wishes to reconsider its position in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me.”
Morphis did not respond to an email Wednesday about his letter.
A spokesman for Edenton said Tuesday the town would have no comment on the letter.
But following Morphis’ first letter, Town Manager Gooden told the Chowan Herald that the town couldn’t consider the law firm client’s proposal because it didn’t take into account the current legal restrictions on the town that prevent the monument from being moved.
“The town cannot consider the proposal because it (the proposal) does not acknowledge the lawsuit and/or the restraining order prohibiting the monument’s relocation,” he said. “Any consideration of the proposal would have to consider the plaintiffs in the lawsuit and the court’s pending order.”
Gooden was referring to the lawsuit filed in December 2022 by three groups with ties to the Confederacy to block the town’s efforts to move the Confederate monument from South Broad Street to Hollowell Park, and a Superior Court judge’s March 2023 injunction on the move until questions about a 2015 state law limiting the movement of “objects of remembrance” like Confederate monuments are resolved. The town has requested a hearing before Chief Resident Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett on lifting the injunction; however, no date for a hearing has been publicly announced.
Gooden said the mayor and town council intend to follow current state law and court rulings.
“The mayor and Town Council have been very careful to follow the applicable law, and the monument will not be relocated until the mayor and council are reasonably certain by agreement or otherwise that the relocation site meets the letter and spirit of the applicable law,” Gooden said.
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