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N.C. town removes Confederate statue at center of long-running protest

September 1, 2025 at 12:41 p.m. EDT


By Gregory S. Schneider

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Edenton Mayor W. Hackney High Jr. defended the town’s actions in a written statement, calling the relocation a compromise that gives each side a measure of victory.

“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,” High wrote. “To those who opposed its removal: your voices helped ensure the monument is preserved and relocated respectfully, not destroyed or discarded.”

Officials in Edenton hatched the plan to relocate the statue after a racial reconciliation commission several years ago recommended removing the Confederate symbol from its spot downtown. The monument was completed in 1909 at a different site — a historic, Colonial-era courthouse, no longer in use — and moved to the more central location on the waterfront in 1961 as civil rights protests were erupting. Local resident and prominent organizer Golden Frinks was a top lieutenant to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who visited Edenton often during that era.

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