Alamance County residents set People’s Referendum on Confederate monument, immigration
The story was updated at 3:24 p.m. Aug. 13, 2020.
After months of asking elected leaders to remove a Confederate monument from the downtown Graham courthouse square, some Alamance County residents are taking the issue to the “ballot box.”
A 5 p.m. rally will follow a daylong “Alamance People’s Referendum” on Saturday in Graham’s Court Square.
The referendum will give a voice to those who have been historically blocked from power in the community, Justasia Drayton, of Down Home NC, said at a Thursday morning news conference in downtown Graham.
“We’ve got to start holding our elected officials accountable,” Drayton said. “It’s time for us as a community to make our voices heard. It’s time for us as a community to know that no matter what they say or what they don’t say, that we have a say.”
Down Home NC was joined at the news conference by referendum co-sponsors Siembra NC and Forward Motion Alamance.
The event was held in front of The Muse, the only African-American-owned retail store in the square.
Dionne Liles, owner of The Muse, a second-hand clothing store, declined to be interviewed by The News & Observer.
The drive-through referendum will ask residents to vote yes or no on whether to remove the Confederate monument and whether to end Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson’s participation in the 287(g) federal immigration program.
Votes will be collected at six locations Saturday in specially marked, 4-foot-high ballot boxes. A seventh ballot box will go to mobile home parks and other locations Saturday afternoon. Residents can also vote online Saturday.
The results will be announced at 6:15 p.m. Monday, before being presented to the Alamance County commissioners at their 7 p.m. meeting Monday.
Confederate monument fight
The monument has been at the center of a years-long struggle between residents who want to remove the symbol erected by white supremacists in the Jim Crow era and those who say it is part of their history and heritage.
For well over a year, Alamance County sheriffs deputies have maintained a constant guard over the statue of a Confederate soldier, rifle at his side, standing on a concrete base some 30 feet above the square.
Multiple demonstrations have been held this summer, the largest of which drew over 700 people opposed to the monument on July 11, along with a smaller group of supporters.
Several people have been arrested, including for assault.
Demonstrators also have gathered outside the Alamance County Civil Courts building, which holds county offices, chanting and cheering loud enough to be heard over the commissioners meeting inside. Only a few public speakers have been allowed into those meetings, which are still being held in person, and a few comments have been taken over the phone at most meetings.
On Aug. 3, the commissioners meeting was closed to the public, and no one from Siembra or other groups was able to make comments by phone either, said Juan Miranda, of the nonprofit immigrant advocacy group based in Greensboro.
The meeting was closed to the public and the press, because the overflow room that usually holds the public was being used for court hearings that morning, Commissioners Chair Amy Scott Galey said during the meeting, which was live streamed. The clerk called two people who signed up to comment during the meeting, but one caller went silent after answering and another call went to voicemail.
Miranda said the group emailed in its request for a referendum on the future of the Confederate monument and the sheriff’s role in the 287(g) program. They haven’t received a response, he said.
Galey said in June, after the commissioners received a letter from over 50 local governments, education officials and business leaders, that “there’s nothing to vote on.” The state’s 2015 monuments law makes it illegal to move the monument, she said.
Free speech, protest rights
The city of Graham’s attempts to control free speech and protest also came under fire this summer.
In June, the city temporarily blocked the public’s ability to get protest permits. Graham police and sheriff’s deputies threatened to arrest even lone demonstrators for loitering, carrying a sign or walking on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, along with the ACLU, ACLU of North Carolina and the Lockamy Law Firm, sued the City of Graham in July over those steps. Johnson, Alamance County and the commissioners were later added to the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of the Alamance County NAACP and eight individuals.
A U.S. District Court judge said at an Aug. 7 hearing the government is likely to lose the case.
“A prohibition that has been in place for over two months and which the County defendants have shown no inclination to remove is not temporary, and a long-term prohibition of protests on property that has historically been used as a public forum is not constitutional,” the judge wrote.
Immigration and enforcement
Opposition to Johnson’s policy of cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials also has been a target of demonstrations for many years.
In 2006, the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office joined the 287(g) program, which lets deputies exercise the authority of federal agents in immigration matters. ICE ended that relationship in 2012 when the U.S. Justice Department accused Alamance County of targeting Latino drivers.
The Justice Department sued Johnson in 2014 for constitutional violations, but settled with him in 2016 after a federal judge sided with Johnson and dismissed the case.
Johnson, who ran unopposed for a fifth term in 2018, signed a $2.3 million contract last year to house ICE detainees in the Alamance County Detention Center. His department was asked to rejoin the 287(g) program in 2018 and signed an agreement reinstating that program in January.
Johnson, who was first elected in 2002,
It’s time for Alamance County residents to have a say in those matters, Miranda said.
“The County Commission continues to avoid their responsibility to provide oversight of the sheriff’s department’s targeting of ICE agents, and they won’t even discuss the monument,” he said. “Both are tools designed to intimidate one group of county residents..”
Where to vote
The mobile ballot box will visit various locations from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. Residents can also vote online or visit one of six ballot boxes across the county:
▪ 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Saxapahaw General Store, 1729 Saxapahaw Bethlehem Church Road
▪ 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Down Home NC, 1246 Plaza Drive, Burlington
▪ 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Elon Community Church, 271 N. Williamson Ave., Elon
▪ 10 a.m.-4 p.m., The Muse, 12 NE Court Square, Graham
▪ 10 a.m.-noon, Fiesta 4ever, 928 E. Webb Ave., Burlington
▪ 1-3 p.m., Carniceria Dos Toros, 2638 N. Church St., Burlington
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 12:42 PM.
