The Confederate Controversy in Charleston

Following the events in Charlottesville earlier this month, the national debate around Confederate statues and their place in our modern society has heated up. Some see the flags and statues of Confederate generals and figures as offensive and troubling. Others see it as a symbol of pride and heritage.

            For years this debate has gone on and has become increasingly polarizing as more ideas clash and wounds reopen. Living in a state at the center of the controversy, that debate is very important to the people here.

            South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. The Civil War began in Charleston Harbor. For decades, our state upheld Jim Crow laws and instituted segregation. And 2 years ago, 9 black churchgoers were killed by a white man who wanted to start a race war. Needless to say, South Carolina has had a long and complicated racial history.

            Following the tragedy at Emanuel AME in Charleston, the push to remove confederate statues and influences from government property became widespread. The first victory in that new wave of activism occurred when the Confederate flag hanging in front of the South Carolina state capitol came down less than a month after the shooting. The flag was then placed in a museum.

            Since then, the removal of Confederate monuments has spread. A statue of Roger Taney (a supreme court justice who�s vote decided the Dred Scott decision in 1857 that decreed that African-Americans were not US citizens) was taken down in Annapolis, Maryland earlier today. Two confederate statues are set to come down in Lexington, Kentucky after orders came from the mayor on Thursday. A confederate monument on an island outside of Boston has been covered while the local government tries to reach a decision on it�s future. In New Orleans, four Confederate statues were removed in April. In Gainesville, Florida a monument to Confederate soldiers was removed and placed in a private cemetery on Tuesday. In Brooklyn, two plaques commemorating General Robert E. Lee were removed on Wednesday. In Durham, North Carolina a group of protestors destroyed a statue of a confederate soldier on Monday. Since then, 8 people have been arrested. 4 Confederate monuments were taken down in Baltimore during the night on Wednesday.

            That list will continue to grow as protests and proposals continue to spread. In places like Stone Mountain, Georgia there have been proposals to remove the rock carvings of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis on the mountainside. There have also been proposals in San Antonio, Richmond, Memphis, Jacksonville, and Nashville. The proposal to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia caused the Unite to Right rally last week which led to violence and an increased push to remove Confederate monuments.

            So far Charleston has not removed any Confederate monuments or show any signs of doing so anytime soon. When I asked him about his opinion on the push to remove the statues, Mayor Tecklenburg told me, �I think we need to broaden the context of those statues� We need to find out what the intentions were of the people who originally put them up. Most of these confederate statues were not built directly after the Civil War. Most were put up during the era of Jim Crow which is important to realize.�

            The two Confederate monuments attracting attention are the ones of John C. Calhoun and the �Confederate Defenders of Charleston.� The original John C. Calhoun statue was erected in 1887 in Marion Square and was unpopular with the people. Mayor Tecklenburg told me that it was placed on a pedestal in 1896 because people had been continuously throwing things at it because it was so unpopular. The statue that was renovated in 1896 is the one that still stands today. While Calhoun was a slave owner (which is why many people want this monument to be taken down) it is important to understand his accomplishments and why he has a monument in Charleston. Calhoun was the Secretary of War under President Monroe, Vice President for both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, and Secretary of State under John Tyler. He was also a senator who fiercely defended slavery and influenced South Carolina�s secession from the Union. In the 1960�s, President Kennedy selected him as one of the five greatest senators of all time.

            The �Confederate Defenders of Charleston� monument was built on the battery in 1932 through the sponsorship of the Daughters of the Confederacy. It serves as gratitude to the Confederate soldiers who defended Charleston during the Battle of Fort Sumter.

            Organizations and groups have been pushing for the removal of these statues for years. In 2015, the �Confederate Defenders of Charleston� monument got national attention after somebody spray painted, �Black Lives Matter� in red on the statue. This week there was a protest in Marion Square pushing for the removal of the Calhoun statue.

            As for me, I don�t really know where my support lies on the issue. I agree with Mayor Tecklenburg that the intentions of the original builders of these monuments has to be taken into account. These statues were erected during the era of Jim Crow and fierce segregation. But there�s more to the story. John C. Calhoun is one of the most famous political figures in US history to come from SC. And the Confederate soldiers did defend Charleston throughout the Civil War.

            My covering of this story is not over. I will be continuously covering the action unfolding in Charleston and talking with people on both sides of the issue. In the words of Mayor Tecklenburg, �We need to have a conversation and what better place to do it than here?�

            This story has just begun and I will be following the issue as long as it remains an issue both nationwide and in the Lowcountry.