Both sides differ on reasons, but say site isn’t best location
BY NICOLE LAYTON
Staff Writer
While the two groups protesting the Confederate Soldiers Monument may disagree on its current location, members of both sides agree that moving the statue behind the Chowan County Courthouse is a questionable idea.
On Saturday, the Albemarle Observer talked with a participant of each protest – Michael Dean and John Mitchener – to get their input on the Town of Edenton’s recent effort to move the statue from the waterfront.
Town Council will meet with the Chowan County Commissioners at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25, to discuss and possibly approve a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would facilitate the move – at Edenton’s expense – to the Chowan County Courthouse property, between the current Chowan County Jail and the Chowan County Veterans Memorial. The land has a slight slope and is located along Court Street, near the Queen Street intersection. The site is used for the annual Veterans Day ceremony.
Vets for Vets member Michael Dean is among those have protested against moving the monument for three years. Among the reasons he’s against the proposed move is that the MOU contains a clause saying that the plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit against moving the statue approved the proposal.
Dean, who in his role as president of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Edenton Bell Battery Camp, frequently talks with members of the organization’s chapter in Elizabeth City, WF Martin Camp, which is among the plaintiffs. He says they have not received anything regarding the proposed move. Furthermore, the organization must receive the proposal in writing and have it vetted by its lawyers before considering approval.
“The guy that actually has his signature on the lawsuit from the WF Martin Camp, he said they have not consulted him,” Dean said. “(The town officials) have not consulted the attorney. They have not seen anything in writing.”
Dean also noted that with an 19-foot base and 7-foot statue, the Confederate Soldiers Monument would overshadow the Veterans Memorial now on the courthouse property. He said he recently talked with a commissioner and was told the hill can be excavated to bring it down to something more level with the Veterans Memorial.
Another issue of contention for Dean is the clause in which the MOU says the site behind the courthouse is of equal “prominence, honor, visibility and access” as the current site on the waterfront.
“That particular location is not ‘greater or equal’ to where this stands right here,” he said of the statue’s proposed location compared to the current one.
“It’s not as visible. It’s kinda ‘Out of sight, out of mind,’” Dean said. “If you’re not really looking for it back there behind the courthouse, you’ll ride right by and won’t even see it.”
Dean said he pitched another county-owned site as the monument’s possible future location to some county commissioners. He said it would be just as prominent, thereby meeting the lawsuit’s requirements.
John Mitchener was among the Edenton Reconciliation Group members participating in Saturday’s protests as proponents of moving the statue.
He noted that officials should look into the long-term impact of their decision before moving the statue to county land.
Michener noted that for years, the county has had issues with its jail being too small and outdated. Putting a monument on the county property would prevent expanding the jail and courthouse or building infrastructure, such as increasing parking.
Both town and city officials must look at the long-term effects of their actions, said Mitchener, a former Chowan County Commissioner and member of the Edenton-Chowan Board of Education.
“Anybody who is in public office ought to realize – particularly in a small county and limited resources – that elbow room to maneuver and do something better is a precious, and in some cases a rare commodity,” Mitchener said.
Elected officials should be careful what they do today, so “people will at least say, ‘Well, the man does his homework.’ They may not agree with certain things, but at least he hadn’t been up there (in elected office) sleeping and doing nothing for 10 years.”
Dean noted that the memorial honors 47 Chowan County residents who served in the Civil War and never came back. Many of their relatives still live in the county and neighboring region. To this day, some of those residents’ remains are unaccounted for.
“(The residents) had no place to come visit and honor their granddaddy, their uncle, their cousins or whatever,” he said of the monument’s significance.
Despite what happened in the past, Americans now salute the same flag and say the same Pledge of Allegiance, Dean said.
“We veterans fight for the same causes,” he said. “While some of (history) is miserable, history is history, and you can’t ignore it.”
Mitchener, also a veteran, noted that without slavery, the Civil War and the need for the monument wouldn’t exist.
“The question then becomes post war: What’s the best way to build a more perfect union?” he said.
Robert E. Lee gave the best answer by becoming a “steward of life” after the war, he said. After the Civil War, Lee became president of what was then called Washington University (now Washington and Lee) in Lexington, Virginia. Lee is quoted as saying: “I think it wisest not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the example of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered.”
