Residents hit with hate mail after town takes down Confederate statue

The letter used a racial slur and advised people to visit a website with ‘kkk’ in the url

The remains of a Confederate monument in Randolph Park in Enfield, North Carolina. The monument was slated for removal by the town’s leadership but its mayor took matters into his own hands and had a bulldozer knock it down. (Screengrab/Facebook/Mondale Robinson)

Residents of Enfield, North Carolina, said they were sent a racist letter the day after the town knocked down a Confederate monument.

According to WRAL, the town's leaders voted 4-1 to remove a Confederate monument at Randolph Park. On 21 August, the town's mayor, Mondale Robinson, took matters into his own hands and had the monument removed, streaming the statue's fall live on Facebook.

James Ayers, the town's police chief, said that the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is reportedly looking into the incident to determine if the mayor broke any laws in removing the statue.

On Friday night, residents in the town found letters left for them on their driveways that included a racial slur.

The letter reportedly called for the town's white residence to stand up after their "white heritage" had been "stomped on”.

"White people of Enfield! You have let a 'n*****' (their word) tyrant stomp on your white heritage," the letter said. "What will you do? Don't let them get away with anything."

One of the residents who received a letter, Karen Richardson, told WRAL she would not let it scare her.

"I'm never going to feel like I have to be afraid to live in this town," Ms Richardson said. "I've been living in this town for 54 years."

She reported the letter to the town's mayor, calling it "very ugly and wicked”.

The letter included a link to a website with "kkk" in its url, which was apparently defunct, as well as a non-working phone number and a call to "pray for white Americans”.

Mr Robinson spoke to WNCT about the letters, calling them a "terrorist act”.

“This is a terrorist act, whether we want to call it that or not, it’s intended to create fear,” he said. “It targeted the majority Black neighborhoods, not the majority white neighborhoods in Enfield, they went down the street called MLK which is a 100 percent Black resident, all residents on that street are Black.”

He said that since the removal, he has received emails and messages threatening him and using racial slurs, but said no one has come forth to discuss their opinions on the removal with him personally. His Facebook page is full of examples of people messaging him to harass him.

“They make the problem me shining a light on the infection, not the infection itself,” he said. “The problem is not me saying something about white supremacy, the problem is white supremacy.”