DONATE TO HELP FUND THE REMOVAL OF THE STATUE THROUGH OUR GOFUNDME ONLY: https://www.gofundme.com/f/v2xzc-move-confederate-monument-from-pitt-county-court?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1

Sign the petition to demand that the Confederate Monument memorializing “Our Confederate Dead” at the Pitt County Courthouse be removed.

Remember George Floyd. And Breonna Taylor. And Atatiana Jefferson. And Michael Brown. And Tamir Rice. And Eric Gardner. And all the others that came between and before them. We should not have to remember new names from this. I wish we would have done something about this way sooner so that George Floyd would still be here. Grotesquely, here we are. So now we do everything to fight for equality of treatment so that this NEVER happens again and the people responsible are served the justice they deserve. No African American should ever have to explain to their children why another was murdered, or explain how to stay safe around police, or be yelled at to get on the ground for simply Walking While Black.

We, as white people, need to stop and listen. Not just with our ears but with our hearts. This will help us to move forward with an ability to understand better, stop talking, and truly listen to those that need us to truly HEAR them. Stop talking so much. Stop pretending to know before you hear the response. Ask questions. Listen. Feel. Empathize. And know that though you are LUCKY and PRIVILEGED enough to not be forced to understand, you still honor it. And this understanding is OUR job. We do not ask others to make us understand or help us understand. It is up to us to ask the questions we need clarification on, receive the knowledge, and understand on our own. We do not have the right to question one’s experience. We have the responsibility to honor it. We need to listen and hold space while we all heal and find the deepest level of understanding we can each reach. It is not to say we don’t see color. Of course, there is color. We must honor the differences and respect the challenges of those whom we will never fully understand how they feel. But to do that, we must listen hard.

So. Those are my feelings. That’s all I have. And now I have my experiences and train of thought and maybe a small history lesson.

I never thought I would see people tearing down flags from the Pitt County courthouse and burning them in the street, but I did. They spray painted over the monument. “Our Confederate Dead”. The word “confederate” is spray painted black. It was surreal to see. I never did like that monument.

Time passes. 10:30pm. I am walking down Evans, now at the corner of 4th St with Coastal Fog on my right. To my left, in the Rose Lot, were two young African American girls walking across the parking lot in my general direction. Infront of me, across the street, was a young white man. Suddenly, two dozen officers in riot gear walk through the intersection, going east on 4th. They look to their left to me and say, “Evening mam”. They look to their right to the white boy and say, “evening sir”. They look across the street and suddenly: “GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND”. These two young African American girls were on their knees, surrounded by 15+ cops in riot gear with more red laser dots on them than I could count. It was infuriating to see them get treated that way for, what I saw which was, Walking While Black. I stood there and recorded but did not get quality video. I was afraid for them and cannot imagine the fear they felt in that moment. After about 5 minutes, they let one girl walk away, and had the other girl cuffed sitting on the corner. Her friend pulled her car around. Things seemed safe for them, so I stopped recording and continued walking. One of the cops saw me and, not recognizing he had already greeted me, said “evening mam, how are you?” I said, “Quite privileged, apparently” and scowled. I continue walking, taking pictures of what I see. It’s a weird time. The energy is calmly frantic.

So, I walk back up to the courthouse by my yoga studio. I’m talking to people and look closer at the monument. I never did like that monument. That confederate monument is a symbol of a country we no longer want to live dividedly in. That blacked out word: Confederate. I thought to myself “instead of taking the paint off, why don’t we take the monument off?” Fun thought, right? I go home, sleep, wake up, go back out there, and still see that monument. It’s staring at me, seething the idea of “we won, the protestors didn’t prove their point”.

I wanted to know more about it. So, I did the best thing anyone could do right now: Educate myself. And boy, was I salty.

Erected in 1914, the Greensboro Daily News stated that the Confederate Monument at the Pitt County Courthouse was dedicated “to the bravery, heroism, sacrifices and sorrows of the south’s gigantic struggle from 1861-1865.” AKA a tip of the hat to the Jim Crowe legal system that so terribly disenfranchised African Americans. Students and staff of the East Carolina Technical Trade School (later ECU) marched to the courthouse carrying confederate flags, playing the song “Dixie” while erecting the monument. Governor Craig spoke at the monument, saying “out of this ruin and this havoc has been born the New South, greater and grander than ever.” They had a barbecue dinner at the courthouse. The Governor also spoke to the students of ECTTS. He expressed his disdain for women’s suffrage, stating “in all ages, among the Anglo-Saxon people woman has had great power.” The Governor also stated, “true democracy is universal equality of man.” He stated that the great difference between men resulted from “inequality of opportunity.” This was why the training school was created: “to give all alike, but especially the poor, an equal chance.”

I laughed. I cried. The struggles of the south during the Civil War. Is that what that is honoring? Is that where we still are? And wait, did he say Anglo-Saxon people? And he had disdain for women’s suffrage. How cute. Huge issue, but we are well past that, too. But one of the Governors final quotes: “true democracy is universal equality of man”. That got me. That is not what that monument is. And if it was, maybe those two African American girls would have been treated as equal as the white man across the street and me. Even if Governor Craig said those other things, he did say he believed true democracy is universal equality of man. I wish those girls got to experience equality.

That is not what that monument stands for. That monument stands for OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD. It stands for those who fought to uphold Jim Crow era laws and were just warming up to the idea of equal rights for women. We are beyond past this. We need equality of treatment and safety for African Americans. We need the people that fit the role of what the confederacy was trying to suppress to feel as safe as we privileged are allowed to feel. So why in Pitt-County-Courthouse-Property is that offensive, outdated, racially charged monument still there? We are so better than this. We are so beyond this.

The monument needs to be removed. The monument is offensive, outdated, and does not stand for universal equality of man. We must demand that the City of Greenville NOT remove the spray paint from the monument but REMOVE the monument all together. It’s time. We need to move forward. We need to leave that behind. We need to move forward into a place of understanding, compassion, support, humility, and a little kick in the rear to fight the good fight.

Sign the petition to demand that the Confederate Monument at the Pitt County Courthouse be removed.

- Jess McNally

 

source on monument info: https://lib.ecu.edu/heritagehall/about/monument#:~:text=Pitt%20County%20Courthouse's%20Confederate%20Monument,on%20the%20court%20house%20square