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White supremacists in Enfield, NC sent racist threats to the town’s Black residents after a Confederate statue was bulldozed and removed last month.
The Veterans Memorial was a 10-foot tall monument that was dedicated to Confederate soldiers and veterans of World War I in 1928. A huge Confederate flag was engraved on one whole side of the monument.
On Aug. 15, the town’s board of commissioners voted 4-1 to remove the statue. Mayor Mondale Robinson live-streamed the removal of the statue on Facebook, which apparently angered some racist white folks.
Days after the statue was removed, white supremacists began leaving racist letters in the driveways of the town’s residents.
According to WRAL, residents of Enfield received letters in a plastic bag with a racial slur, calling on the “white people of Enfield” to do something after someone “stomped down a piece of their white heritage.”
Instead of looking into the threats, the police chief and the district attorney requested that the State Bureau of Investigation investigate the mayor for the destruction of the Confederate statue, according to WITN.
The mayor immediately called on North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper to take action stating the letters were “domestic terror threats” that “should be grounds for a state of emergency.”
During a press conference Tuesday, Mayor Robinson stressed the importance of fighting structural racism and white supremacy.
“The ideas of this country’s constitution can not be counted as valid, as long as white supremacists are allowed—without consequence—to threaten the calm of everyday life for Black people,” said Mayor Robinson. “The removal of a monument that stood as a constant reminder of slave owners’ right to own people that look like me, has exposed this country’s and more directly this state’s unwillingness to stand with Black folk as we ourselves push back on the narrative that we must not ask for too much freedom too fast.”
The mayor also called on Gov. Cooper to help Enfield push back on racial terror.
“If one believes that Black lives truly matter then said person has no opposition to our town’s simple request for peace, tranquility, and freedom from racial terror. And with that, I invite Gov Cooper to come stand on the side of Enfield and our fight against racial terror,” said Robinson.
According to World Population Review, Enfield, North Carolina is 85% Black.
SEE ALSO:
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