UDC seeking restraining order, injunction against statue removal

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PITTSBORO — Defenders of the Confederate statue in downtown Pittsboro are seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in order to resolve the question of ownership of the statue, saying they would be “irreparably harmed” if the monument were to be removed. 

A complaint and request for a temporary restraining order was filed on Wednesday at the Chatham County Clerk of Court against the Chatham County Board of Commissioners in an attempt to prevent the removal of the Confederate statue that stands in front of the Historic Chatham County Courthouse.

The Winnie Davis Chapter #259 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and three Chatham County residents — Barbara Pugh, Gene Brooks and Thomas Clegg — filed the complaint in Superior Court, which has jurisdiction of the matter. In the complaint, Pugh — who has served as president of the Chatham County Historical Association — and Brooks and Clegg noted that they are direct ancestors of “a member of the armed forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.” The filing also notes that the Winnie Davis Chapter filed its required paperwork to incorporate on May 8 of this year.

In August, Chatham Commissioners voted 4-1 to terminate an agreement between the county and the UDC allowing for the placement of the monument. That decision has been followed by protests and counter-protests in downtown Pittsboro each Saturday, along with the erection of a Confederate flag across the street from nearby Horton Middle School — which at one point was the county’s segregated African-American high school — named in honor of the slave poet George Moses Horton.

The complaint states the plaintiffs' argument that the statue was “accepted as a gift,” noting that public funds have been used previously to dismantle, restore and reinstall the statue. The complaint states that when the board of commissioners voted in August to remove and relocate the statue, the board asserted that it was the property of the Daughters of the Confederacy, a claim the complaint denies. The complaint states that the resolutions, as well as the subsequent resolution on Monday ordering the removal of the statue, were “unlawful” based on the 2015 North Carolina law protecting publicly owned monuments.

The complaint requests a “declaratory judgment” to determine a “question of actual controversy” regarding “the status of the monument, its location and the decision of Defendants to remove the monument from its present location,” as well as seeking financial reimbursement for court costs and attorney fees.

The complaint also asserts that there have been “no acts of vandalism or violence directed against the monument.”

Since the complaint was filed on Wednesday, Chatham County has not filed a response to the complaint. A tentative court date for the matter has been scheduled for Monday in Superior Court of Chatham County in Pittsboro.

This is a developing story and will be updated as new information becomes available.

Reporter Casey Mann can be reached at CaseyMann@Chathamnr.com.