ENFIELD, N.C. (WNCN) — Some disturbing letters showed up at several homes in Enfield early Saturday morning, days after Mayor Mondale Robinson sparked outrage by removing a Confederate monument.
“This is a terrorist act, whether we want to call it that or not, it’s intended to create fear,” Robinson said of the letters found across town. “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.”
The letters, which encouraged readers to pray for white people and promoted a group called the Loyal White Knights, popped up days after Robinson bulldozed a Confederate monument at Randolph Park and live-streamed video of the destruction on Facebook.
The move sparked outrage, with dozens of people taking to social media to condemn the mayor’s efforts.
Nearly a week before the monument was toppled, Enfield Town Council had voted to remove the monument, but Robinson says he saved the town money in the long run by removing it with the bulldozer.
He says the monument, and now the letters with a racial slur, can really impact Black community members.
“It creates things like PTSD, anxiety, it produces cortisol, which is an easy way to get inflammation that leads to all types of illnesses that folks are suffering,” Robinson said.
The mayor said he’s received emails and messages with threats and other racist names, but he says no one defending the monument has actually had a conversation with him about why he thought it had to be removed.
“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.”
