Despite outcry, NC town’s Confederate monument is staying put. For the moment.
by Lucas Thomae, Carolina Public Press March 3, 2025
After a secret agreement to relocate a controversial Confederate monument fell through, the Edenton Town Council and Chowan County are back to the drawing board.
This time, though, it’s in the public eye.
Even so, the five residents who sued over their right to have a say in the monument’s fate aren’t satisfied with the town’s attempt at transparency, their attorney told Carolina Public Press.
According to a lawsuit filed in January by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, the Edenton Town Council broke open meetings law when it quietly negotiated a deal with Chowan County and several neo-Confederate groups to transfer ownership of the monument to the county and relocate it to the courthouse.
As a part of that deal, three neo-Confederate groups agreed to settle a separate lawsuit they filed against the town that has prevented the monument’s relocation since 2022. They have since backed out, and that lawsuit is still pending with a hearing scheduled for April.
Although estimates can vary, it’s believed that North Carolina has at least 40 Confederate monuments in front of courthouses and roughly 170 such symbols statewide.
Usually, efforts in towns and cities to get them removed or relocated don’t come without a fight. And invariably, those disagreements often wind up in court.
A few years ago in Edenton, a town-created commission comprised of residents recommended that the monument be relocated from the historic waterfront. The town took that recommendation seriously but has been met by obstacles at each attempt to find a compromise.
Now, it appears that deadlock will continue.
A deal is undone
In early February, the town notified Chowan County that it and the neo-Confederate groups who sued to keep the monument in place could not reach a resolution to the lawsuit.
With the collapse of the initial deal, town and county officials sought a new path forward — this time with public input.
A week ago, the Edenton Town Council held a special joint meeting with the Chowan County Board of Commissioners with the intention of dissolving the memorandum of understanding from November and coming to a new agreement.
Edenton Mayor W. Hackney High Jr. acknowledged the lawsuit filed by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice during the meeting’s opening remarks and welcomed input from residents through a public comments session.
Twenty made speeches in front of local leaders, most of whom were against the monument and didn’t want it either downtown or on courthouse grounds. A few speakers voiced their support for keeping the monument in a prominent place.
One of the speakers was John Shannon, a local pastor who is one of the five plaintiffs in the Southern Coalition for Social Justice lawsuit. He was also a member of the town commission that recommended the monument be relocated.
“As of right now, every attempt to move the monument has been delayed, redirected or ignored,” Shannon said. “I hope that one day soon the recommendation from the (town commission) will be considered as a move in the right direction to better the relationships of all the citizens in Edenton.”
Despite having the opportunity to share their misgivings about the town council’s plan, a spokeswoman with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice told CPP she’s worried Edenton officials won’t take residents seriously.
“We are concerned that this meeting is a hollow attempt to check a box when it comes to hearing public input,” Sarah Ovaska said, “and not a sincere attempt to consider the wishes of the community.”
‘The right road’
After an hour of public comments, the town unanimously adopted a new memorandum of understanding.
The agreement closely mirrors the previous memorandum adopted in November — except it cuts out the neo-Confederate groups as a signatory, meaning their endorsement is not required for this new deal — and slightly changes the language describing where on the courthouse grounds the monument is to be relocated.
In this version of the deal, the transfer of the monument to Chowan County and its relocation to the courthouse will only take effect once the lawsuit involving the neo-Confederate groups is dismissed by a judge.
And there’s precedent for that. In March 2024, the state Supreme Court ruled that a neo-Confederate group did not have the standing to sue over Asheville’s decision to remove a Confederate monument.
Edenton expects the judge to rule similarly here.
But although the Edenton Town Council adopted the new memorandum of understanding with little discussion, Chowan County officials were more apprehensive.
The Board of Commissioners decided to table the issue and vote on it sometime after considering the public comments and consulting with legal counsel.
Usually, efforts to get Confederate monuments removed or relocated don’t come without a fight. Southern Coalition for Social Justice / Provided
“I would like to think that this Board of Commissioners really needs to think hard and have a good discussion with our counsel,” Vice Chairman Larry McLaughlin said. “My reservations are if we take this monument, then we are stuck with any court cases coming up and the cost associated with that, and all the other rigamarole that we’ve been through. So my reservation is to be cautious to make sure that we’re going down the right road.”
Representatives from neither the town nor the county responded to CPP’s request for comment.
Additionally, the United Daughters of the Confederacy — one of the groups that sued to keep the monument in place during 2023 — also did not respond to a request for comment.
Confederate monument lawsuit continues
The lawsuit filed in January by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice takes issue not only with how the town’s business was conducted, but also the proposal that the monument be moved to a courthouse.
Along with the claim that the town violated open meetings law, the suit also asserts that having a Confederate statue on courthouse grounds would violate the plaintiffs’ rights under the state constitution.
That is something the town did not address in last week’s special meeting, opting instead to continue to move forward with relocating the monument.
Holding a public meeting just to vote on a similar deal shows that the town is not serious about taking residents’ comments into account, according to plaintiffs’ attorney Jake Sussman.
“The fate of Edenton’s Confederate monument has already been decided,” he said, referring to the town’s commitment nearly two years ago to relocate the statue. “As our lawsuit makes clear, however, following through cannot involve moving it to the county courthouse. That would be a huge step back for the community and North Carolina.”
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www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-24 16:33:00
(The Center Square) – Only 1 in 10 Americans believe the current checks and balances for the three branches of government are very effective, says a national poll released Thursday in North Carolina.
Sampling April 10-17 of 1,000 adults by the Elon University Poll found 32% said it is somewhat or very ineffective. In answering who has too much power, 46% said the executive branch, 27% the judiciary and 19% the legislative branch.
“Americans are clearly questioning whether the rule of law and our constitutional structure are built to withstand the pressures of the current political moment,” said Zak Kramer, dean of Elon University School of Law. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about how these disputes will turn out, and things are moving fast, so we shouldn’t be surprised that most Americans view these questions through a heavily polarized lens.”
President Donald Trump
WhiteHouse.org
Tuesday will be the 100th day in office for President Donald Trump. Through Tuesday of this week, nonpartisan law and policy journal Just Security documented 206 legal challenges to his administration’s actions. The New York Times, the Elon Poll said, has found 98 judicial rulings at a minimum temporarily pausing some of the administration’s efforts.
Trump’s approval ratings, according to the Elon poll, have gone from positive to negative since a Feb. 6-11 polling just weeks into his second term. His job performance is approved by 41% and disapproved by 47%; in February it was 45% approved and 41% disapproved.
Party lines are strong, according to the poll. His executive orders are opposed by 83% of Democrats and approved by 73% of Republicans.
Survey answers were split nearly evenly on the U.S. Supreme Court – 51% confident, 49% little or no confidence. Only 21% believe it is balanced when considering conservative and liberal.
Regarding the Department of Justice, 69% believe a president should not influence cases. Within that principle, support is from Democrats (83%), independents (65%) and Republicans (61%). Only 38% believe Trump when he says the department’s processes were used against him; 43% think he is wrong.
Elon University said 1,149 adults age 18 and older were interviewed and matched down to the 1,000 sample. Margin of error is +/- 3.58%. The university funds and operates the poll “as the neutral, nonbiased information resource.”
by Jane Winik Sartwell, Carolina Public Press April 24, 2025
Six months ago, Washington Regional Medical Center in Plymouth declared bankruptcy for the second time in five years. Now, hospital leadership hopes that the facility will emerge from this latest financial hardship by late May.
That’s good news to the 10,713 residents of Washington County who need the hospital to stay in business. It’s the only one around.
The bad news is that it has never been harder to keep a rural hospital afloat, especially one that’s not connected to a larger health system. In adjacent Martin County, Martin General Hospital closed its doors in 2023. Thirteen more counties in the northeastern region of the state don’t have hospitals at all.
Should Washington Regional get through this, it will serve as a rare example of a rural hospital taking control of its shaky finances and preserving essential services for North Carolinians.
The good doctor
When Washington Regional Medical Center filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it owed millions to a long list of creditors.
Dominion Energy is due roughly $300,000. The Washington County Tax Office is asking for over $150,000. Washington Regional also owes money to General Electric as well as a number of vendors, including the company that handles the hospital’s pharmaceutical operations. The full list of creditors includes more than 70 companies and organizations.
Texas-based Affinity Health Partners purchased the Washington County hospital after a catastrophic 2019 bankruptcy that led to liquidation under its previous owners. But by the end of the year, patients were back on the hospital floor.
Washington County, one of the poorest areas in North Carolina, also hosts some of the highest rates of infant mortality and other adverse health conditions, such as obesity and heart disease.
That makes Washington Regional Medical Center, with its 25 beds, a lifeline in an otherwise barren health landscape. It’s why the facility is designated as a “critical access hospital” by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
When neighboring Martin General Hospital closed, emergency room visitation at Washington Regional increased from 450 patients per month to over 600.
“The importance of the hospital cannot be overstated,” Plymouth Mayor Brian Roth told Carolina Public Press. “Especially since we’ve gotten all the patients who would have gone to Martin General.”
Washington Regional is ‘here to stay’
If Washington Regional did close, residents would have to drive hours to reach the nearest hospital — ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville. The flat, piney swampland on the Albemarle Sound is not easy to navigate, and public transit is pretty much nonexistent.
“We cannot lose the hospital here,” Roth said. “It just cannot happen.”
CEO Frank Avignone promises that it won’t.
“We used bankruptcy as a tool to reorganize our debt,” he explained. “We basically did it for one vendor who was giving us a hard time, and now that that is taken care of, the hospital is doing well. Patient volumes are up. We have a brand new CT scanner so we are increasing cardiac and pulmonary care. We have new doctors on staff. A new OB/GYN on staff. We’re not some fly-by-night community hospital being run by a crook using it as an ATM machine.
“The hospital is here to stay unless it burns to the ground.”
Washington Regional is not currently performing surgeries. Hospitals typically use specialty procedures as a way to generate revenue and offset the high costs of, say, operating an emergency room. The hope is that the hospital will renew surgical procedures at some point, adding a layer of financial security.
Meanwhile, another threat is looming: the $880 million cut to Medicaid currently being discussed by Republicans in Congress.
At Washington Regional Medical Center, 60% of patients are covered by Medicare or Medicaid, making the program a crucial source of funding for the hospital.
If that coverage goes away, the hospital’s finances may be thrown back into peril.
“We treat folks on Medicaid. That’s our population and that’s what we’re designed to do,” Avignone said. “We just have to balance the books. That’s what I’ve been trying to do — and it’s working.”
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
This assessment considers the overall tone and context of the content. The article discusses the challenges faced by rural hospitals, particularly Washington Regional Medical Center, and highlights the importance of public health services like Medicaid for vulnerable populations. It presents a sympathetic view of the hospital’s financial struggles, linking them to broader public policy issues (e.g., potential cuts to Medicaid proposed by Republicans). The emphasis on social welfare and the vital role of community health services reflect a center-left perspective focused on the importance of public healthcare systems and support for low-income residents. However, the piece does not overly politicize the issue and maintains an informative, fact-based approach, which prevents it from being categorized as far-left.
