Amid the bustle of a football game weekend, a crowd gathered last Saturday in front of the Confederate monument on the Square, many of them carrying signs with quotes like “Love your neighbor, move the statue,” and “Make Oxford welcoming for all.”
Mayor Robyn Tannehill announced on Oct. 20 that the Board of Aldermen will not entertain a conversation about whether the land under the monument belongs to the city or the county, except in the event the Board of Supervisors reconsiders its decision not to discuss the issue.
However, protests and social media activism efforts have persisted. At Saturday’s protest, 63-year-old Gulf War veteran Charles Smith, who only goes by his nickname “Mohawk,” wore his army uniform. From his wheelchair, he waved an American flag.
By the time Election Day arrives on Nov. 3, he will have spent at least two hours each day over a three-week period protesting the monument.
“I was born under (the monument), and I pray to God I don’t die under it, because it doesn’t represent me,” Mohawk said. “I went to war for America, and I have to come back home and live under this statue?”
Mohawk was born in Lafayette County. His father became Lafayette County’s first Black law enforcement officer in 1968, and his mother worked for the University of Mississippi for 45 years, he said.
After graduating from Ole Miss with a degree in criminal justice, Mohawk said he became a second-generation law enforcement officer, serving as a Lafayette County deputy until 2015.
“I didn’t retire. This disability put me in a chair in 2015,” Mohawk said. “I had to resign because I hadn’t had enough time (to retire).”
He said his grandmother was 17 years old when the Confederate monument was erected in 1907. According to Mohawk, the monument’s location outside the city’s “place of justice” is a mockery.
“They want to keep their heritage, while they belittle and degrade me,” Mohawk said.
Mohawk was treated as somewhat of a celebrity amongst the protestors, who pushed him to the front of the group photo after the 5 p.m. bell rang.
Andrea Walker, a nurse and former school teacher who has lived in Lafayette County for 37 years, was among those walking around the Courthouse chanting “Take it down” and answering spectator’s questions.
“Having this (monument) still placed here at the courthouse is holding on to a relic of our history that we don’t need to honor in this way, in this prominent place,” Walker said. “I don’t feel like Mississippi can cling to these old relics and move on to be a state that is progressive.”
Take It Down Oxford, a demographically diverse group of Oxford residents who want the statue removed, organized the protest. Protests kicked up again this summer when the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors, made up of five white men, unanimously rejected a proposal to relocate the Confederate monument.
As the protestors marched and chanted in the rain, pedestrians and drivers on the Square interacted with the crowd. Some honked, some spouted racial slurs, some shouted words of support and some stopped to debate with the protestors.
Walker said that during the hour-long protest, several white people waved their middle fingers at the protesters and shouted derogatory statements. She said one elderly man stuck his tongue out at her.
“We’re standing here with signs that say ‘Stand on the right side of history’ and ‘Love thy neighbor,’ and that’s the reaction that’s coming,” Walker said.
Mohawk said he only had one thing to say about the Board of Supervisors’ decision.
“In the sight of God, (the supervisors) know it’s wrong,” he said. “You can’t tell me that deep down in their hearts, they don’t know that.”
Jonathan Kent Adams, a local artist and a 2015 UM graduate, got involved with the movement to relocate the monument last summer. He met Mohawk last week and shared part of his story via Instagram.
“(Mohawk) told us that fighting for this statue to move gives him something to live for,” read part of Adams’ caption for a photo of Mohawk. “He related everything back to God. He wasn’t angry at the Board of Supervisors because he said God needs us to pray for and love everyone.”
Adams said the Confederate monument could be treated as a memorial and taken to a cemetery, but should not be exalted in the distinguished area on the Square. He said he hopes the Oxford community will stand with Mohawk and demand a “Square for everyone.”
“I don’t think we need to celebrate the Confederacy right in the center of our town,” Adams said. “As a white person, I don’t want this here because it offends my neighbors and also offends me.”
Until then, the protesters said the peaceful protests will continue to fight for a Square that welcomes all Mississippians.
