Durham almost appointed a Jan. 6 attendee to a critical city committee
Durham is one of the most progressive places in North Carolina. It was visited by Martin Luther King Jr. five times during the Civil Rights movement. It was the first city to host a Pride parade. Joe Biden received more than 80 percent of the vote there in 2020, and Bernie Sanders was the second-highest vote getter during the primaries.
But like any community, Durham is not a monolith. Jahnmaud Lane does not blend into Durham’s blue sea — the HVAC technician is a Republican, a former mayoral candidate, and an attendee of the Stop The Steal rally that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He’s vocal about his politics, which is why he applied to be on the city’s Human Relations Commission.
The group, whose members serve three-year terms, are charged with creating conferences and activities “with one goal in mind, that being, to improve human relations among the people of Durham.” The group is also part of the enforcement mechanism of a non-discrimination ordinance that Durham enacted in 2021 that now protects LGBTQ folks alongside other marginalized community members.
Lane does not seem like the kind of person who would be honored with such an appointment by the city, especially in the middle of very public U.S. Senate hearings on the Jan. 6 attacks. Despite this, he initially received three votes from the Durham City Council — the most of any candidate in his category who applied to the board. If he had received one more, he would have been nominated.
After the initial vote, two voters — DeDreana Freeman and mayor Elaine O’Neal — changed their vote and supported current board member Tammy Hood so that the group could reach consensus on who to appoint. The third, Monique Holsey-Hyman, has since rescinded her nomination. Freeman and O’Neal did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but in an email to one Durham resident who expressed concern about her vote and consideration of Lane, O’Neal said she voted for him “because everybody has a voice and he is a member of the public.”
“Is that a sufficient answer for you?” she continued in the email. “And are you volunteering for a city committee? He is trying to be a public servant, may not be the kind that you want but he is in the mix to try and help make things better.”
City council member Jillian Johnson spoke out about the votes for Lane on Twitter, replying to a tweet about Jan. 6 attendees now trying to get involved in local politics. (Johnson voted for Hood, the woman who was re-applying to the board.)
“Everybody has to draw a line somewhere, and I definitely draw it well before we get to someone who was at Jan. 6,” Johnson told me.
Johnson is right. To serve on a committee in your local government is a privilege, and there were multiple candidates aside from Lane and Hood. Lane’s application, which I looked through, was sparse anyway. It’s concerning that he got any votes at all initially, let alone three — including one from the mayor, who ran against him and was presumably aware of his political leanings.
Lane says he did not enter the U.S. Capitol on January 6 (“I was about to go inside, and I stopped,” he told me). When asked about his support of the former president, and whether he continues to believe the baseless allegations that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election because of massive voter fraud, Lane doubled down.
“You have people who talk about January the sixth — mostly peaceful protests of American citizens who accidentally went into an unposted, restricted area,” Lane said. “What about the burning and looting from 2020?”
This, of course, is not the same as trying to stage a coup.
When reminded that Durham, for its part, did not see violence or commercial damages during its 2020 protests, Lane argued that I was wrong: there was “violence,” “fights,” and “vandalism.” It turns out, there was one potential act of violence from the May 30, 2020 protest in Durham: when a BMW tried to drive through a crowd of demonstrators.
Lane says he wanted to be part of the commission to bring a different viewpoint. He currently attends the meetings fairly regularly as a public commenter.
It’s one thing to comment publicly, something every member of our community has a right to do. It’s another to be granted status on a commission, especially one dedicated to uniting the community and making it a more equitable place. Attendance to the January 6 rally should be cause for concern at the very least, and disqualifying at most.
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
