During a Williamston Town Council work session Tuesday, Mayor Rockey Burgess updated Council on items to be discussed or voted on at the regular meeting of Council next week.
They also discussed a sensitive issue involving town personnel that has overtones of racism, according to Council member Tony Hagood, who is black.
The issue resulted in an emergency meeting of Council two weeks ago and a considerable amount of discussion Tuesday.
The issue involves a mannequin that town employees found in a building recently purchased by the Town.
According to Mayor Burgess, either as a joke, or just being funny, the mannequin was placed in a town vehicle, wearing a town work jacket and displayed at a work site on Hamilton Street holding a shovel. The mannequin is dark gray.
At the time the Mayor was out of town on vacation, and when notified, instructed that the mannequin be removed from the truck. It was left at the town maintenance shed on Gossett Dr.
Williamston Councilman Tony Hagood saw the mannequin at the town maintenance shed and took issue with it, stating that it was racism depicting him, being the only black person on town council. The issue prompted an “Emergency Meeting” of Council at 7 am July 18.
During the work session Tuesday, mayor Burgess said that after talking with the employees involved, he didn’t see that it had anything to do with race.
Councilman Hagood brought up a “sign” that was put up on Greenville Drive which referenced the missing mannequin as “DAN”, which Hagood indicated is a racial reference.
Councilmember Lee Cole said that he supported the mayor as Administrator of the Town but that the incident “makes me uncomfortable”, even if the town employees were “goofing off”.
Councilman Chris Alexander said that even if there was no ill will, “it is the perception.”
Councilman Hagood stated that, “My experience, our experience (as a black person) is still a lot different from you all’s experience.” He said that as a black person, he is a lot more sensitive to racial incidents.
“We have lived an entirely different life,” he said. “It is so hard to forget the past when the present looks so similar.”
He referenced two incidents that were in the news involving the shooting of an unarmed black woman in her apartment by police officers who were at the wrong address and others.
“We look at it from a different perspective,” he said. “Unless you have lived it you just won’t see it.”
Councilman Hagood stated that he planned to resign at the council meeting on Monday. The Mayor and all three councilmembers urged him not to resign but to continue on “as part of the team.”
