Rallies loud but civil in downtown Pittsboro on Saturday

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PITTSBORO — The “competing” rallies were very similar. There were signs, T-shirts, speakers, songs and chants.

Supporters and opponents of the “Our Confederate Heroes” monument in downtown Pittsboro gathered Saturday to speak their opinions. It was a peaceful day by all appearances. There were no clashes or fights or yelling matches, at least in public sight.

Signs proclaimed “Hate Free Pittsboro” and “Make Racism Wrong Again,” while Confederate flags and the Christian flag were seen on the other side. Chants include “save the monument, fire the commissioners” and “Chatham is for everybody.” Songs sung included “Dixie” and “We Shall Overcome.”

On the pro-remove side, anti-racism education nonprofit founder Ronda Taylor Bullock, a Goldston native, spoke to the crowd.

“This is a community that has raised me and loved me more often than not,” she said. “That’s the Pittsboro that we want to represent. When we remain silent, the enemy wins. The bigotry wins.”

On the pro-monument side, a Robert E. Lee impersonator read the Confederate Pledge of Allegiance and another man, who would not give his name, spoke about the people on the other side of the street.

“We want to be left alone and live our lives with the morals and ethics we grew up with,” he said. “We are a speed bump in what they want. Once they have us out of the way, they have a path to having this country the way they want.”