SOUTH CAROLINA: Legislature to Decide if War Monuments Can Be Desegregated
While practical segregation ended decades ago, there are still vestiges of symbolic segregation dotting the landscape of the South.
A pair of such symbols could soon be changed in one small Upstate city, if the state Legislature takes action on a recently filed joint resolution.
Right in the center of the uptown district in the City of Greenwood, there stands the stately War Memorial.
The War Memorial in front of Howard’s On Main labels the honored veterans using the terms “white” and “colored.” Mayor Welborn Adams is leading the efforts to replace this plaque with an updated one. MADDY JONES | INDEX-JOURNAL
The memorial — which is owned by the local American Legion Post 20 and rests on City of Greenwood property — is adorned with four separate large plaques. Those plaques list the names of the residents of Greenwood who died in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam.
At first glance, the memorial appears to simply be a somber, yet patriotic, reminder of those who gave all in combat and in service of their country.
However, upon closer examination, you will find the names of the deceased are not all listed in the same manner on the plaques.
While the names of the fallen veterans on the Korean War and Vietnam plaques are listed in alphabetical order, the names on the World War I and World War II plaques are separated into two groups: “white” and “colored.”
So, while the men memorialized on those two plaques fought and died under the same flag, they are listed in distinct groups based on the color of their skin.
There are those in Greenwood — city population 23,000 — who have pushed to have those World War I and World War II plaques desegregated, including Mayor Welborn Adams and members of the American Legion post.
In fact, after the Legion post gave its permission, Adams set about soliciting $15,000 in private donations to have new World War I and World War II plaques created. In short order, 44 people – 41 of whom were white – lined up to donate the funding, and two new monument plaques were made.
The new plaques do not list the fallen soldiers as “white” and “colored.” The men are simply named alphabetically.
However, while they have been created, those new monuments have not been installed. Of course, it could never be that easy in South Carolina.
As it turns out, there is a state law — Section 10-1-165 – that states the following:
“No Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, War Between the States, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, Native American, or African-American History monuments or memorials erected on public property of the State or any of its political subdivisions may be relocated, removed, disturbed, or altered.”
The law, known as the Heritage Act, dates to 2000. It was crafted as part of a legislative compromise that removed the Confederate flag from atop the State House, but placed it in a prominent spot on the State House grounds.
That law can only be repealed or amended with the passage of an act that receives a two-thirds majority vote from each branch of the General Assembly.
So, having plaques in the middle of a town square altered so that — in the year 2015 — they do not delineate between “white” and “colored” people is going to take an action of the state Legislature.
On Jan. 28, S.C. Sen. Floyd Nicholson — a black Democrat who represents Greenwood, Abbeville, McCormick and Saluda counties – filed bill S. 383, a joint resolution that would authorize the City of Greenwood to alter the World War I and World War II monuments. Nicholson says state Rep. Anne Parks, a black Democrat representing Greenwood and McCormick counties, is set to file an identical resolution in the House.
Nicholson’s bill has a host of co-sponsors and has bipartisan support, including support from white and black senators. Co-sponsors include Republicans Robert Hayes, Katrina Shealy, Shane Massey and Paul Thurmond and Democrats Vincent Sheheen, Nikki Setzler and John Scott, among numerous others.
Nicholson was born and raised in Greenwood, where he graduated from Brewer High School. In the years before desegregation, Brewer was the city’s black high school.
Before becoming a member of the state Senate, Nicholson was Greenwood’s mayor for more than a decade. He was the first black mayor of what is a reasonably diverse city. According to the U.S. Census, the population of the City of Greenwood is 44.7 percent black, 44.6 percent white and 11 percent Hispanic.
In a recent conversation with Free Times, Nicholson said he was more than willing to file the joint resolution, especially considering the American Legion gave its blessing and new, desegregated plaques have already been created using private funding.
“I think they should be changed,” the senator says of the monuments. “Those individuals that fought in those wars, they all fought together. I think they should be listed alphabetically. These men gave their lives in the wars.”
Nicholson’s bill has been sent to the judiciary committee. Nicholson says he has spoken with judiciary chairman Sen. Larry Martin and believes the resolution can be addressed during this legislative session.
If the Legislature approves the change and the desegregated monuments can be installed, the old segregated World War I and World War II plaques would be preserved in the Veterans Museum in Greenwood County.
For Mayor Adams, who says he has taken a fair share of grief from a small, but vocal, minority in the Greenwood community that does not want to see the memorial plaques desegregated, waiting on a resolution to receive a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers of the General Assembly is an agonizing prospect, but one that he accepts.
“I have a huge amount of anxiety,” Adams says. “I know the Legislature has got a lot on their platter this year. This is probably in no way as important to them as it is to me. I also know it is never easy to address any issue that involves race and, clearly, this one does.”
Adams, a progressive white attorney who has been the mayor of Greenwood since Nicholson was elected to the Senate in 2008, points out that there have been instances in which the national media has reported on stories in Greenwood and, in doing so, included in their reports notations of the segregated monuments in the middle of the city, using that symbolic barrier between “white” and “colored” soldiers as an example of the nature of the small Upstate town.
While his reasons for wanting the plaques desegregated run much deeper, the mayor says it does hurt the city when the segregated monuments are propped up as a symbol of what Greenwood stands for.
“How other people perceive you does matter to me,” Adams says. “It’s important. As a mayor I want to present the city in the best light possible. We are trying to attract international jobs. It hurts [business] recruiting, in my mind.”
Dale Kittles, a white deputy with the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office, is a military veteran and a member of American Legion Post 20. He is among the members of Post 20 that encouraged the desegregation of the memorial plaques. He says listing the veterans alphabetically, and not by race, is simply “the right thing to do.”
Kittles acknowledges he has been approached by some in the community who are against desegregating the monuments. He says those people have accused him and others of trying to “rewrite history.”
The longtime deputy says that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“History with a war monument is representative of the war they fought in and the battles they died in,” Kittles says. “The history is not the color of their skin. These are brothers, regardless of the color of their skin, who went into a foreign country, faced our enemies and died on the field of battle. They should receive nothing but respect.”
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VIRGINIA: Renovation of Civil War Rail Station Back on Track
PETERSBURG, Va. — A historic rail station used in the Civil War will soon get new life as a visitor’s center.
A ceremony recently marked the beginning of the renovation process for South Side Depot in Old Towne Petersburg. The station, built in 1854, is a massive structure that still sits along the rail line to the west of Union Station.
JAMES PEACEMAKER JR./STAFF PHOTO Visitors get a glimpse of the inside of South Side Station in Petersburg during a ceremony held Jan. 12.
When in operation, the building’s two-story center section was used for passengers and two large wings on each side were used to handle cargo. The eastern wing collapsed during the tornado that struck in 1993.
The renovation has been years in the making and involved a partnership with the city, the Civil War Trust, National Park Service, Virginia Department of Transportation and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
With construction of Phase 1 scheduled to be completed in May, the building will serve as a contact station for the National Park Service and will play a key role in commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in the Petersburg area.
The depot is the oldest railroad station in the state and served a key role in the Siege of Petersburg in the Civil War. The South Side Railroad was the last railroad held by the Confederate army.
Lewis Rogers, superintendent of Petersburg National Battlefield, said this project has been a long time coming and stressed the importance of the public-private partnership.
“We are hoping this will be a prototype for things to come”
Steven Hicks, director of Public Works for the city, said the Civil War Trust was instrumental in trying to match the Virginia Department of Transportation grant of $750,000.
Rogers said there will also be a friends group that will help raise money for and support the project.
He said the building will help highlight stories that may not always get a lot of attention.
“Everyone has a story in the Civil War. Everyone has a story within Petersburg. Everyone has a story within South Side Depot. We want to make sure we tell all those stories,” Rogers said.
Andrea Kampinen, an architectural historian with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, said this building is unique in Virginia.
“I get to review a lot of the enhancement projects. … I went to see a lot of really cool buildings in the state and I would say this particular building is one of those that stood out in my mind, one of my favorites to visit,” she said.
Kampinen said the depot served as a gateway for transportation during the age of steam.
“Antebellum-period depots are extremely rare across the commonwealth. South Side Depot is one of the last few standing,” she said.
Petersburg Mayor W. Howard Myers said South Side Depot was prominently portrayed in the movie “Lincoln” and will continue to draw tourism dollars into the city.
“With the restoration of the depot, the city also looks forward to an uptick in tourism, especially this year for the sesquicentennial commemoration of the Civil War,” he said.
City Manager William E. Johnson III said this is the culmination of two or three years of planning between all of the groups involved.
Johnson also announced that the city has been chosen to receive $619,165 in federal funds for a trolley project. Three trolleys will connect South Side Depot to other National Parks Service sites in the area.
The service will run from South Side Depot to the Eastern Front Visitor Center in Hopewell, on to the Siege Encampment Exhibit, Fort Stedman, the Crater and back again every 30 minutes between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The expected start date is July 2015 once South Side Depot opens as a contact station.
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GEORGIA: Divers Begin Recovery of Civil War Ironclad
SAVANNAH, Ga. — The deepening of the shipping channel in Savannah, Georgia, won’t be dredging up just mud and sand.
It will be raising up a link to the past: an ironclad that protected the city during the Civil War until the vessel met its undignified demise.
For about the next nine months, divers will be working to bring up the CSS Georgia, piece by rusted piece, from nearly 40 feet down in the Savannah River.
The $706 million harbor deepening officially began Thursday with speeches and the firing of an old cannon at Old Fort Jackson near the wreck site.
The removal of the CSS Georgia is necessary for the state and federal project, which will see the channel go from 42 to 47 feet so massive cargo container ships can use the port without relying on the tide.
CSS Georgia
While some material from the Confederate vessel was recovered after the war, four artillery pieces, parts of the propeller and propulsion system, a boiler and two casemates, which housed the artillery pieces, remain in the swift, dark waters. One of the casemates is huge: 68 feet by 24 feet.
“She is really in large sections scattered throughout the bottom down there,” Julie Morgan, archaeologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Savannah, told CNN affiliate WSAV.
The CSS Georgia didn’t have enough power to maneuver and effectively trade artillery rounds with any enemy vessels that might approach from the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, the vessel became a stationary floating battery, bristling with artillery pieces.
The Yankees refused to take on the CSS Georgia or other nearby defense obstructions.
The CSS Georgia won the battle, but lost the war: The vessel was scuttled in December 1864 shortly before Union forces took Savannah and presented the city to President Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas present. The shipwreck has rested in the river since, rarely disturbed and having weathered the indignity of being hit during dredging a couple of times over the years.
Recovery of the ironclad will cost between $14 million and $15 million, Corps officials said.
Contract divers have been at the site and are first mapping, tagging and putting a recovery grid in place. A network of ropes connects wreck site artifacts and helps divers navigate the river floor.
They will be recovering small artifacts, such as fasteners or small personal items.
Divers will need to be careful
The second phase, expected to begin in May or June, will be the recovery of the large pieces. U.S. Navy and other divers will take special care because of the possibility of live ammunition and powder.
Gordon Watts of Panamerican Consultants told affiliate WTOC that in at least the first phase, only one diver will be underwater at a time.
“For every person we have on the bottom, there’s four more people up on the surface that are tending him, talking to him and being sure that whatever he is doing is safe,” said Watts.
Archaeologists have the challenge of preserving portions of the CSS Georgia through chemical and other means, making her iron stable so the remains one day can be displayed. Conservation of selected artifacts and parts of the CSS Georgia will be done at Texas A&M University and will take about two years to complete.
The remains of the CSS Georgia may answer some mysteries, including its dimensions and the manner of construction. The casemates were made of railroad iron. The vessel could handle 10 guns, though fewer were onboard when it was destroyed. There are no known blueprints for the ironclad, which was produced in Savannah in 1862 as part of a defensive naval squadron.
Former U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, speaking at Thursday’s kickoff, said the harbor deepening is important for the state’s economy, jobs and recognition of its history.
While officials have made no determination of where CSS Georgia artifacts may eventually reside, Kingston believes they should stay in Savannah, perhaps at Old Fort Jackson.
“We need it to stay here. It will help Savannah in terms of tourism. It will help tell our story. It will enhance our reputation from an historical viewpoint. We need to make sure it does stay local,” he said, reported WSAV.
Besides deepening the channel of the Savannah River, the Corps will extend the shipping lane an additional 7 miles in the Atlantic Ocean off Tybee Island.
On the river-based portion, the Corps will be installing a dissolved oxygen injection system to protect marine life.
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