Protesters in small NC town mount a sit-in at council member’s restaurant

Despite a strict new protest ordinance, Black Lives Matter demonstrators have resumed near-daily protests in Graham.

On Wednesday evening, about 60 people gathered in the Alamance County town’s Court Square to call for justice in the name of Andrew Brown, the Black man recently shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies in Elizabeth City. They also want the prompt release of the related video and for action on local racial justice priorities, such as the removal of a Confederate monument and the repeal of the town’s protest ordinance, which requires demonstrators to notify police in advance of most events.

A few minutes before 7 p.m., about a dozen protesters marched from the park in Court Square to Graham Soda Shop and Grill, a restaurant across from the courthouse owned by Jennifer Talley, a member of the city council. Inside, they sat and sang “Amazing Grace” to protest her support of the anti-protest ordinance.

Talley asked protesters and journalists not to record inside the restaurant and asked them to leave, though some had ordered drinks and were prepared to order food. She then left the restaurant and returned with police.

Officers approached the three Black men in the group one by one and asked, apologetically, that they leave at Talley’s request. Not everyone was individually asked to leave.

“Jennifer, I can’t eat here?” Maurice Wells Jr. called out when he was specifically asked. “You say you welcome me to your town, but you won’t allow me to eat here? Because I’m Black!”

The group left the restaurant after officers began asking protesters to show their IDs. No one was arrested.

On Tuesday evening, police arrested and charged them with violating the protest ordinance and failure to disperse.

Graham Police Cpl. C.D. Dunnagan had approached a group of roughly 30 demonstrators and told them their gathering was unlawful.

Demonstrators argued that the ordinance was unconstitutional and demanded to speak with a supervisor.

Dunnagan pressed the thumb and index finger of his right hand together as he spoke, moving his hand to emphasize his words.

Activists later posted a video still frame of the hand gesture on social media, interpreting it as a white power sign.

Capt. Daniel Sisk, a spokesman for Graham Police Department, said in a news release Wednesday that the department had reviewed body camera footage and interviewed Dunnagan to investigate the meaning of his hand position.

“After a thorough internal review, it was determined that Corporal Dunnagan was gesturing his hands as a form of non-verbal communication, that the still image was taken out of context and was not associated with any affiliation to a hate group,” he wrote.

Video of the exchange shows Dunnagan, holding paper copies of the ordinance in his hands, losing patience with the protesters.

“Who wants to get arrested on camera?” he asked.

One of the protesters, Theresa Draughn, yelled a short time later: “This is our right as Americans. I don’t care what you say. If you want to take me to jail, go for it.”

Dunnagan handcuffed her.

When a protester asked Dunnagan why he had arrested Draughn, he responded, “I gave her the option.”

“You had an option,” protester Avery Harvey said. “Get the hell out of here, boy.”

Dunnagan grabbed the front of Harvey’s Black Voters Matter sweatshirt and handcuffed him too.

He told Wells he was next, and Wells took off running down the street. The officers did not follow.

Though Graham’s protest ordinance requires that protesters notify police before most demonstrations, it exempts reactions to breaking news. Sisk, the police spokesman, did not answer a question from The News & Observer about whether Tuesday’s demonstration fell under that exception.

But on Wednesday, officers did not tell demonstrators they were in violation of the ordinance. Instead, Assistant Chief Rodney King asked that they ensure the sidewalk remains passable.

At the end of the evening, Talley approached Wells on the sidewalk outside Graham Soda Shop and Grill, where a reporter from The News & Observer was present and observed the exchange.

She said that she had been treated unfairly and that it was worse because it was her birthday.

“Have I not been kind to you?” Talley asked.

“Not when I come in here, and you kick us out,” Wells responded.

“That’s not true,” Talley said.

“You just did,” Wells replied.

Talley began to cry, and Wells said he was sorry this happened on her birthday.

During the exchange, Talley, who was elected in 2019 after having served previously on the council, rejected Wells’ accounting of her role in the crackdown on protesters in Graham.

They circled around the issues that have stirred up Graham for now close to a year, since George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, setting off protests across the nation.

Wells asked her about the Confederate statue in front of the courthouse. “There’s literally nothing I can do about that monument,” she said. “That’s like saying let me get rid of abortion.”

Wells asked her about the ordinance, which replaced an earlier version that civil rights groups challenged in court last year. She said, “We do exactly what the attorney tells us.”

Talley said she resented being painted as racist. Wells said he resented being silenced and assaulted in the town’s central square.

Wells and Talley’s husband exchanged phone numbers, and they agreed to talk again.

This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 9:56 AM with the headline "Protesters in small NC town mount a sit-in at council member’s restaurant."