Behind closed doors: Commissioners make covert decision about Confederate statue
In 2020 some residents of Jackson County voiced criticism that Sylva Sam glorified racism and the Confederacy. File photo
On the morning of April 8, county employees removed commemorative plaques from the Confederate statue outside the Jackson County Library and placed them in the county’s storage facility. Few in the county, save the board of commissioners, knew the possibility of removal was even on the table.
That’s because, while the decision to install the plaques — which covered up a depiction of a Confederate flag and the words “Our Heroes of the Confederacy” — in 2021 was a highly public discussion among community members, the decision to remove it was made in secret.
The reasoning behind the decision to remove the plaque is still vague. The only commissioner who responded to requests for comment, Chairman Mark Letson, said he was not in favor of removing the plaque.
This marks the second time this year that the Jackson County Commission made a decision behind closed doors that has implications for residents.
The statue of an unnamed confederate soldier was erected outside the then-new Jackson County Courthouse 110 years ago. More recently nicknamed Sylva Sam, a 1915 article in the Jackson County Journal said the statue was a community effort to honor “the deeds of the Confederate soldiers and their wives, both living and dead.”
Commission records show that the statue was paid for by local donors and erected by the county after a vote by the county commission.
In 2020, as Black Lives Matter protests and conversations about race spread across the United States in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers, some residents of Jackson County voiced criticism that the statue glorified racism and the Confederacy. At this time, people across the country were reckoning with Confederate statues and whether they should still occupy public spaces.
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At the center of these voices in Jackson County was an organization called Reconcile Sylva, which aimed to have the monument removed from the downtown area.
“Home is often a place that you feel safe, secure, and loved — those haven’t been my feelings lately as I have spent time in town and seen armed men guarding the statue of the Confederate soldier known as ‘Sylva Sam’ that stands overlooking our beautiful town,” wrote Sylva resident and Reconcile Sylva leader Kelly Brown in a letter to the editor that appeared in The Smoky Mountain News at the time.
“The way forward may be hard and require you to be uncomfortable and to confront your own biases, but it is right,” he wrote. “I hope that you will be able to proudly tell your grandchildren you were on the right side of history in deciding to remove a statue that depicts racism and hatred in our region.”
Those who remember the public discussion that broke out over what to do with the Confederate statue will also remember the voices of those who were in favor of leaving it in place exactly as it had existed for over 100 years. Many of those residents cited the desire to honor and remember ancestors in the county who had fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
“When we faced the decision about what to do with that monument, we sought public input,” said Gayle Woody, who was serving as a county commissioner at the time. “We reached out to the community. We had public hearings. We had over 100 people come and speak, expressing opinions on both sides.”
That summer of 2020 in Sylva, hundreds of protesters showed up for both sides of the argument — to preserve the statue in its original form and location, and to remove it or change it in some way to better represent the complex nature of the Civil War and its lasting legacy on the small mountain town.
On Aug. 4 of that year, Jackson County Commissioners voted to keep the statue in place, but to modify it. The vote came in response to a resolution from the Town of Sylva asking the county to move the statue outside city limits.
Commissioners voted to cover the Confederate flag etched into the base of the statue with a plaque describing Jackson County’s involvement in the Civil War and cover the words below the flag, “Our Heroes of the Confederacy.”
“We came up with a compromise that we felt respected the history of the original monument that was erected by the community,” said Woody. “We voted to leave the monument where it was and respect the original intent, but at the same time acknowledge that there were parts that were misconstrued in our current climate.”
Nine months later, the commission approved $14,000 to modify the Confederate monument. The Confederate flag would be covered with a large plaque that read, “Jackson County N.C. Civil War Memorial. This monument was erected by the citizens of Jackson County in memory of those who died during the American Civil War. Originally dedicated on September 18, 1915. Rededicated on May 11, 1996, to honor Jackson County Veterans of all wars.” The words “Our heroes of the Confederacy” would be covered with a plaque spelling out the nation’s unofficial motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” which means “out of many, one.”
“That was so important,” said Woody of the motto. “We have very many viewpoints, and we listened to all those different viewpoints, but we’re still one community. We wanted what we did to reflect everyone in our community.”
While the plaque placed on the statue in 2021 represented a sort of compromise, not everyone was happy. There were people on both sides of the issue that had hoped for a different outcome. But people were involved. Hundreds of residents protested or showed up to public comment session to make their voices heard, as the community grappled with a nuanced discussion about the legacy of the Civil War, public remembrance and race in the county in the 21st Century.
None of that type of discussion took place prior to the April 8 removal of the 2021 plaques from the Confederate statue.
Instead, commissioners decided to remove the plaque without any public discussion or vote.
According to County Manager Kevin King, “each board member, individually, shared concerns regarding the plaque added to the historic statue at the old courthouse in 2020 [sic]. After consulting with legal counsel, it was determined the plaque could be removed.”
But Chairman Letson said he was not in favor of removing the plaques.
“I was not in favor of that,” Letson told The Smoky Mountain News. “I felt we had already done this in 2020, prior to the board… had there been a vote, I would have voted to have it remain.”
Not only was Letson opposed to removing the plaques; he was also opposed to the way in which it was done.
“There should have been a discussion in public regarding this issue, in my opinion,” said Letson. “I don’t want this to be something that happens again. If there’s a consensus that we want to act on something, we should then bring it before the public.”
Decisions about what gets put on the agenda or is discussed at any meetings are determined by a majority vote of commissioners.
“You want open and positive transparency with your government, and I don’t feel like we provided that,” said Letson.
According to Letson, the board did have discussion about the “legality of doing things to county property.” He said the board had a general conversation regarding what it does on county property and what is required to be a vote.
“We had a general discussion about what’s votable and what is part of just general practice and can be done on consensus,” said Letson. “At that point, other commissioners, once learning what the rules are, they reached out to Mr. King and expressed that they wanted to remove the plaques from the statue. And once he had consensus, he realized that he could go ahead and proceed with what was obviously a board consensus.”
“Honestly I would prefer not to have done it in this fashion, but once he had consensus, it didn’t matter, because a vote was not required per our county attorney,” Letson continued.
In North Carolina, open meetings law requires most official meetings of public bodies to be conducted in sessions open to the public. There are nine permitted purposes for meeting in closed session — to prevent the disclosure of information that is privileged or confidential; to prevent the premature disclosure of an honorary degree, scholarship, prize, or similar award; to consult with an attorney employed or retained by the public body in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the attorney and the public body; to discuss matters relating to the location or expansion of industries of other businesses in the area served by the public body; to establish or instruct the public body’s staff or negotiating agents concerning the position to be taken by or on behalf of the public body in negotiating contracts; to discuss personnel; to plan, conduct or hear reports concerning investigations of alleged criminal conduct; to discuss and take action regarding plans to protect public safety as it relates to existing or potential terrorist activity; and to view a recording released pursuant to G.S. 132-1.4A.
This marks the second time this year that the Jackson County Commission has made a decision covertly, thereby prompting public dissent. The first came in February when commissioners voted to seek partisan school board elections.
On the agenda at commissioners’ Feb.18 meeting was a resolution to change the date of school board elections so they happen in the fall during the General Election, rather than the Primary Election. This move had been discussed previously and was largely understood to help increase voter turnout. However, when the item came up for a vote, Commissioner John Smith amended the resolution so that it also called for school board elections, previously nonpartisan, to be made partisan. Using this method, there was no notice or opportunity for public input prior to unanimous approval by the board.
