The statue of South Carolinian, US Senator and former Vice President of the United States, John C. Calhoun was removed last June from its resting place on Marion Square in Charleston after over 120 years. Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg led the fight to remove the historic statue, thus depriving untold thousands of future visitors to the site the ability to see an historical marker and learn from history. Photo courtesy of Live5news Charleston.

While South Carolinians who value our heritage are confident that the South Carolina Heritage Act of 2000 will always protect Confederate and other memorials and monuments across the state that may not be the case. If we want to preserve our state and nation’s history intact, now is the time to speak out in public and let legislators and others know we care. As I write there are some who wish to destroy the legal protections we have in SC, and are hard at work.

For two decades, the SC Heritage Act has provided excellent protection for monuments and other historical items in the state, most of which were erected to memorialize the roughly 13,000 South Carolina soldiers who died while serving in the Civil War, and the third of a million Confederate men across the South who perished. But will it continue to provide this protection in a world waging its own full-out assault on all symbols of Southern history related to that complex time of such loss and grief in our history?

The well-known Southern Poverty Law Center has been a leader in campaigning for monument removal. In a statement on their website, they stated these monuments “distort history by honoring a secessionist government that waged war against the U.S. to preserve white supremacy and the enslavement of millions of people” (“Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy, February 2019, splc.org).

In 2019, the SPLC estimated there were 175 Confederate monuments or markers across the state of South Carolina. Other reports have not listed so many. Wikipedia lists 112 with major ones at the Capitol, Anderson, Bamberg, Bishopville, Darlington, Edgefield, Greenwood, Lancaster, Lexington, Manning, St. Matthews, Union, and Walterboro. The SPLC has been designated as a “hate group” and John Guandolo, founder of Understanding The Threat, a US Naval Academy graduate, former Marine, FBI Special agent and Department of Defense strategist has designated them as a “terrorist group“.

The Confederate flag flew over the SC State Capitol until shortly after the awful killing of nine African American church-goers in Charleston by madman Dylann Roof. That event led to an emotional plea by former SC Governor Nikki Haley to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds. Ultimately, the flag was voted to be removed by a 2/3 majority of the legislature in 2015, in a knee jerk reaction led by Haley who had previously supported and pledged continued support of the Confederate banner in recorded campaign promises.

In that fight to remove the flag Haley sided with far left communists and fellow travelers, namely Reverend’s Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, along with Congressman Jim Clyburn, and others. Haley was cheered on by communist publications and supporters like The Daily Worker, People’s World, the NAACP, and others working for a Marxist America. That tense gesture of reconciliation was a Trojan Horse of immense scale. Following the flag removal, historical artifacts, including a courtroom flag and portraits of Confederate leaders, were removed in York, SC, and last year a long established over 100 foot high bronze statue of John C. Calhoun was removed in Charleston. The Heritage Act has protected much of SC history since then, but that one event opened the door to widespread and wholesale savaging of historical monuments, statues and history across the country.

Not only Statues and monuments have begun coming down across America, but other important actions were taken affecting those who work to preserve American history, like Civil War re-enactment associations. The well-known three-day “Civil War Gathering” held at Brattonsville Plantation (south of Rock Hill, SC—a museum of history) was cancelled by museum staff for fear of offending the public. However, hundreds of North and South Carolina re-enactors and enthusiasts were highly upset at its loss, as it included one of the few entire battlefield reenactments in America.

Since the George Floyd killing in Minnesota by officers in June 2020, a push to remove monuments across the U.S. has grown. NBC news reported back in September 2020 that more than 130 statues and “tributes” have been removed across the country since Floyd’s death (NBCnews.com, “These Statues were Removed. But Where Did They go?). While largely statues have remained in place in South Carolina because of the Heritage Act, a move is afoot to repeal the Heritage Act. Other campaigns to rename traditional structures is now underway

Several groups float to the top in this campaign, which is gaining momentum now. First and foremost is the NAACP which has taken interest in the removal of monuments in several Southern locales. In addition, proactive college groups have chimed in. The most vocal is the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. With branches across the U.S., the Alpha Phi Alpha was the first African American fraternity founded in 1906 at Cornell University, New York. While claims have been made to over 300,000 signatures to repeal SC’s Heritage Act, the fraternity alone has over 290,000 lifetime members. Where are these signers located?

SC Attorney General Alan Wilson. Wilson is seeking to remove the power of the Heritage Act which keeps monuments in their locales. Photo Courtesy Greenvilleonline.com.

Last July, a lawsuit was filed claiming the SC Heritage Act is unconstitutional. With this filing, monument attackers have struck a new champion—SC Attorney General Alan Wilson. Filed by Columbia City Councilman Howard Duvall, Jennifer Pinckney (widow of Sen. Clementa Pinckney who was killed by Dylann Roof), and former state Senator Kay Patterson, a known civil rights activist of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Attorney General Wilson is not a party by a “friend of interest,” and has lent his support to the suit which names top state Republicans Governor Henry McMaster, state Senate president Harvey Peeler and House Speaker Jay Lucas. That case now sits before the South Carolina Supreme Court attempting to overturn the Heritage Act. Will the act be overturned? Much can change in the landscape of South Carolina if this occurs for the 100+ monuments and memorials are then at risk.

SC State Senator Seth Rose has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood.

State Senator Seth Rose, Democrat, Dist 72, Richland County, entered a bill just prior to the start of the legislative session in January to set up a committee to “examine what changes, if any, should be considered to monuments on State Capitol grounds”. In plain terms, the committee was set up to point out which monuments should be removed (compare what happened in Virginia in 2020) and attempt to do so. (The State, “SC Heritage Act Lawsuit Protecting Confederate Monuments Sparks Top Republican Fight,” December 30, 2020).

A key focus of the Rose campaign is removal of the statue of Ben Tillman who is claimed to be a “racist”, but according to the new orthodoxy all white people are racist. Tillman helped establish Clemson College (Clemson University) and Winthrop Normal College (Winthrop University) which are attended voluntarily by students from around the world of every race and creed.

On February 26, 2020, the University of South Carolina released a list of 16 buildings on the campus whose names connect to the Confederacy in some form or fashion, they state. These names were selected by a USC Presidential Commission on History. The members of the commission represent a politically correct hard left and very diverse group with notably lots of minority groups and no advocates for the majority population who represent Southern historical interests. While the university states that it cannot make these changes in light of the Heritage Act, the names chosen for renaming are apparently ready for the green light go-ahead. (The State, Columbia, “USC Takes the Next Step in Renaming of Buildings Names for Racists, Slave Owners”).

Longstreet Theatre on the USC campus is in the crosshairs of Marxists seeking to remove history.

Among those buildings the University seeks to rename are many named for outstanding business, education, legal, political and religious leaders of South Carolina:

• Barnwell College
• Blatt Physical Education Center
• Gressette Room (in Harper College)
• Ernest F. Hollings Library
• Lieber College
• Longstreet Theater
• Maxcy College
• McMaster College
• Preston Residential College
• Robert E. Lee Tree
• J. Marion Sims Residence Hall
• Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center
  

  Thornwell College on the USC campus is named for former SC Carolina College (USC) president, First Presbyterian Pastor, author and American patriot James Henley Thornwell.

• Thomas Cooper Library
• Thornwell College
• Wade Hampton College
• Woodrow College

In fact, two of the groups pushing to repeal the Heritage Act are also named as complainants in a lawsuit entered last November in Gaston County, North Carolina, to remove its Confederate courthouse monument already under siege earlier in the year by the Marxist affiliated Black Lives Matter and New Black Panthers proponents. The suit lists the NAACP and the same Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity as complainants, along with a local chapter of the National Black Veterans group (listed as “inactive”) and several local residents.

Interestingly, the NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Black Veterans, and other groups based on race get a free ride in most places and are not implicated as “racist” for some reason. There are no associations set up specifically for the advancement of “white people” or even “white veterans” associations. That would be considered “racist”, or would it be, based on these other groups?

How many other monuments have these two groups taken aim at for removal—to fuel their desires alone? How many schools, buildings, parks, streets, roads and highways are they responsible for renaming already in America? Is it not time for special interest groups like these to be stopped from destroying the history of our state? South Carolina and American history and present monuments, are being removed and destroyed! This is called “cancel culture“, think about what the term is saying—can we say cancelling the current culture so another culture can come in to take its place? Will Americans stand in defense of not only our history and culture, but our present and future?

Why can’t Americans of all backgrounds see that a Marxist purge is taking place? Monuments and new markers can be be put up to honor any Americans for valuable contributions to the state and to America, that can be done by the state legislature for public land or by private individuals or organizations on private land. Our time is now to stand up and defend our history.

Editor’s Note: The Heritage Act protects all historical monuments, not just monuments to Confederate soldiers. It also protects monuments currently under call for removal such as the statue on the State House steps to President George Washington. Others include Gen. Francis Marion, Gen. Thomas Sumter, Gen Andrew Pickens, Col. William Moultrie, former Governor Benjamin Tillman, Dr. J. Marion Sims, Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, the African-American monument, WWI and Spanish American War monuments, and many other monuments across the state. Destruction and or removal of historical monuments, markers, tombstones, placards, markers, etc is not indicative of the American culture. Rather it is indicative of a replacement culture intruding into the American culture.

Lisa C. Rudisill is a magna cum laud graduate of NC State University and Liberty University where she earned a Master of Theology. She writes novels about her family history during the Civil War in North and South Carolina. She is a freelance writer, editorialist and a contributor to The Standard newspaper.

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