Editor’s note: This letter, written by Edenton Mayor Hackney High on behalf of the town, first appeared on the Town of Edenton’s Facebook page 7:20 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025.
August 2025
As we reflect on the Confederate Monument debate here in Edenton, I am reminded of an old saying: “A good settlement leaves all parties somewhat dissatisfied.” This speaks to the very nature of compromise no one gets everything they want, but everyone gets something they can live with.
This past week, Judge Wayland Sermons issued an order dismissing the lawsuit that included the 2023 restraining order prohibiting the Town from relocating the Confederate Monument. With that legal obstacle now removed, the Town is moving forward in partnership with Chowan County to relocate the monument to its new home at Veterans Memorial Park, behind the Chowan County Courthouse. As a first step, the monument has been taken down and safely stored, where it will remain until it is reinstalled at the park.
This issue has been deeply emotional and challenging for the Town Council and many of our citizens. The volume and intensity of social media commentary underscore how strongly people feel on both sides.
To those who feel the Town acted too hastily: the record shows otherwise.
In August 2020, the Town established the Human Relations Commission in response to concerns from local residents. The Commission was tasked with studying the monument issue and making recommendations. After nearly a year of thoughtful discussion, research, and community input, the Commission recommended in August 2021 that the monument be relocated.
Though the Town Council did not select the site originally recommended by the Commission, it voted to move the monument to Hollowell Park. Shortly thereafter, the Town learned that Chowan County might be willing to assume ownership of the monument and relocate it to Veterans Memorial Park. The Town and County entered into a Memorandum of Understanding: the Town would transfer ownership, and the County would oversee its relocation to the new site.
To those who believe the Town moved too slowly: this issue was far too significant for a rushed decision. The Council intentionally chose to deliberate carefully and prayerfully. Once the decision was made to relocate the monument, the Town proceeded as quickly as it could until progress was halted by a court-issued restraining order. At that point, the Town could not — and would not violate a lawful order of the court.
To those who have called the Town Council or me cowards: the facts say otherwise. The easiest choice would have been to avoid this issue entirely and leave it to future councils. But this Council — and the one before it — chose to face the issue directly, despite harsh criticism and personal attacks from all sides. That’s not weakness; that’s leadership. True leadership means stepping forward, not backing away, in the face of difficult issues. The actions taken by Town Council have been grounded in principle and a commitment to doing what is right for Edenton.
To those who claim we are “erasing history”: that is a misinformed view. The monument is not being removed it is being relocated. In doing so, we are not erasing history; we are preserving and protecting it.
To those who criticized the timing of the monument’s removal and suggested it was done in secret: safety was the overriding concern. Moving a structure of this size requires heavy equipment and careful coordination. The safest time to conduct such an operation is at night, when pedestrian and vehicle traffic is minimal. A publicly announced removal could have attracted a large, emotionally charged crowd, increasing the risk of injury or disruption in our downtown area an area already impacted by this issue for several years. By conducting the removal at night, the Town avoided further disruption to downtown businesses and ensured a safe and orderly process.
Rather than focusing on dissatisfaction, I encourage all of us to find reasons for common ground:
- 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.
- To those who opposed its removal: your voices helped ensure the monument is preserved and relocated respectfully, not destroyed or discarded.
Individual citizens are entitled to view this issue from their own personal perspective. Elected officials, however, must weigh all viewpoints and act in the best interests of the entire community. The decisions made by this Council have been with that duty in mind-seeking to honor and respect all sides of this complex issue.
Despite the intensity of the debate, our community has remained peaceful and, for the most part, respectful of differing viewpoints. That is the mark of a healthy, engaged citizenry, and for that, I am truly grateful.
I pray that we can now come together, heal, and move forward in a spirit of unity and mutual respect.
May God bless our Town, our County, our State, and our Country.
Respectfully,
W. Hackney High
Mayor of Edenton
Town of Edenton
3 responses to “Town of Edenton Statement on the Confederate Monument Relocation”
I think it is unfortunate that the Town felt the need to remove the Monument to Confederate War Dead as quickly as it possibly could. The Town is going out of its way to expend taxpayer money ABOVE AND BEY0ND what was needed to satisfy the MOU. Think about it for a moment, rather than wait for the site at the Courthouse to be prepared, AND THEN move the Monument to it’s final destination in one motion, the Town is spending taxpayer money to move and house, then move again the Monument, simply because the powers at be couldn’t wait to get it out of their sight. This gesture flies in the face of the claimed NEED to move the Monument by the Town to achieve the renovations required by the updates to the park. This rapid movement at the first opportune time is indicative of a DESIRE to remove, and not a NEED. That indicates a violation of NCGS100-2.1 and the while Town can take solace in saying they are not violating any direct court orders, they seemingly ARE violating existing law.
Once again, I reiterate, should the Town, after it’s renovations, attempt to place any other work of art of similar size in the same location, it would be an obvious and clear violation of the law. The Mayor’s very own words seem to crow about the removal from a place of prominence (in violation of current law) to a lesser location when he says:
“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. ”
The recognition on official Town documentation of no longer as prominent a location is outrageous. Should that Monument be replaced by something else of non-functional necessity in the upcoming renovation, it would be an obvious and flagrant waving of the middle finger to EXISTING North Carolina law and the Town of Edenton should expect the People to remember that violation, and the lawsuit it requires to correct.
I am on record of supporting the MOU because I truly believed the renovations REQUIRED movement, BUT the events of the last 24 hours combined with this statement from the Town lead me more to believe that movement was not nearly as necessary as it was desired. In an article a couple of weeks back, Mr. Layton asked us not to badmouth Edenton. I shall not go that far, BUT Edenton today has left a very bad taste in my mouth.
That beautiful, historic memorial deserves to be located in a prominent location and should have remained there. Afterall, it is a war memorial to locals from the county who answered the call, did their duty, and served to defend their homeland, homes, and families in America’s largest war. Town leaders should have taken a stand against the woke, cancel-culture ever offended complaining few and tell them their Maoist ideology is unAmerican and unwelcome in Edenton. We know the vast majority opposed its removal, effectively making a mockery of Democracy. I appreciate it is being placed in a Veteran’s Memorial park, but there was still no rational reason to remove it in the first place.
The hapless politicians of the Town of Edenton are bucking the trend as more perceptive officials wake up to the excesses of the 2020-21 War on History. On Washington, DC’s Judiciary Square, the statue of Confederate General Albert Pike is being returned to its original position. At Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, the Reconciliation Monument to Confederate dead, which also symbolized unity between north and south, is being re-erected after being removed in the Biden years. At West Point, the portrait of General Robert E. Lee is being restored to its place of honor on the library wall.
President Dwight Eisenhower kept a portrait of General Lee in a prominent position on the wall of the Oval Office in the White House. It was one of portraits of four “great Americans” who Eisenhower particularly admired. In response to a question about it, Eisenhower wrote:
“General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his belief in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.”
“From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.”
America needs to be united in honoring our history, not engaged in the sort of division perpetrated by Edenton’s scheming politicians. President Eisenhower’s position is a good example of what we should strive for in that respect.