A North Carolina city should be ashamed of itself after holding a meeting to discuss removing the street sign honoring a Black Edgecombe sheriff’s deputy who was killed in the line of duty while attempting to pull over a suspected drunk driver in between Tarboro and Pinetops, North Carolina.
On the night of March 11, 2018, Deputy David Manning put his life on the line as he tried to stop a suspected drunk driver and was killed in a crash. His mother, Dashina, told WITN News that when the city put up a street sign near his hometown of Pinetops with her son’s name on it to honor him, it gave her a reason to smile again.
But that smile has turned upside down. Dashina told the outlet that she drove to the street on Tuesday and saw that her son’s name was no longer on the sign. She said she was panicking, frustrated, with all different kinds of emotions running through her.
“Panic, frustration, and a lot of different emotions hit all at one time,” Manning said. “I proceeded to then call the town because I felt like if anybody would know what was going on, it would be them.”
According to Dashina, the town informed her that there was a public hearing to consider changing the street back to its original name, which was held in November. However, they said no one spoke up in David’s defense to keep the sign.
WITN reports that a town spokesman stated that a vote was passed to change the street back to Southwest First Street. The reason was that after one person obtained signatures from 75 percent of property owners on the street in favor of changing it back.
The city is quiet about why they wanted it changed, but according to Dashina, she said she heard that it was because of complaints about mail delivery and that Google couldn’t find the street.
Dashina also said that her family was never contacted about the change, but the city insists that information about the particular hearing could be found in several places. The mother expressed feeling that Pine Tops dishonored her son’s legacy, but she believes her son symbolizes something greater.
“If he was here I think he would say mom, I’m okay,” Manning said. “I think the work I did speaks for me; it doesn’t take a sign to say that.”
The town suggests that Manning’s family or property owners along the street have the option to create a petition to revert the street name change, but Dashina has decided to leave it in the past and move forward.
