Black residents in NC sue to remove monument to ‘faithful slaves’
Calling it unlawful and racially discriminatory government speech that violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, a group of black residents in Tyrrell County, North Carolina, have filed a lawsuit to remove a monument that states, “IN APPRECIATION OF OUR FAITHFUL SLAVES,” near the front door of the county’s courthouse.
The 26-page lawsuit filed against the Tyrrell County Board of Commissioners by members of The Concerned Citizens of Tyrrell County, argues that the more than 100-year-old monument, which the plaintiffs have been trying to get removed for years, sends “an offensive, ahistorical, and racist message.”
“The Supreme Court has said monuments at government buildings are a ‘means of expression’ and ‘government speech,’” Ian Mance, who represents the Plaintiffs on behalf of the Durham-based civil rights organization Emancipate NC, said in a release. “In all the years of debate over the monument, the Commissioners have never offered a substantive defense of its message. The reason is obvious. It’s an offensive, ahistorical, and racist message. Our position is that the Fourteenth Amendment does not allow the county to maintain a monument expressing a racially discriminatory message.”
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According to the lawsuit, the monument, which sits where people attend court for civil and criminal cases and exercise their right to vote, is believed to be the only courthouse monument in America that “textually express a racially discriminatory message.”
“This action challenges the county’s maintenance of the monument as racially discriminatory government speech that violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” the lawsuit states.
According to Emancipate NC, some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are descendants of people who were enslaved in the county who have been trying to persuade the commissioners to relocate the monument for years. They allege that their efforts to remove the monument have been met by antagonism and racial intimidation by those who support the monument. These threats, they allege, have been ignored by the county officials who have been treating their protest as a bigger threat.
“Litigation was our last resort,” said Sherryreed Robinson, who serves as the Concerned Citizens’ treasurer and traces her family lineage in Tyrrell to before the Emancipation Proclamation. “We have peacefully voiced our objections for years. This monument says our ancestors preferred slavery to freedom. That’s a false and hurtful message for the government to communicate.”
The monument, says Emancipate NC, was a gift to the county in 1902 from W.F. Beasley, a merchant from a local slaveholding family. A federal court described the “image of the faithful slave” as “mytholog[y]” in 2023 and classed it as part of a narrative that “denied the horrors of slavery” and “fueled white backlash against ... the rights ... granted to African Americans.”
The monument, the group argues, was intended “to send an ominous message to every Black person with the misfortune of seeking justice in its halls.”
“Tyrrell County is our home. We view our decision to bring this case as doing right by our community,” Joyce Sykes Fitch, secretary of the Concerned Citizens, said in a statement. “This is the only place in America where you can go to a courthouse and see a public expression in support of the institution of slavery. It’s past time for it to come down.”
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