SOUTH CAROLINA: Confederate Flag Flies Again at S.C. State House
COLUMBIA, S.C — After its removal from the State House grounds a year ago, the Confederate flag was back – if just for the day.
Flag supporters staged a rally on the grounds Sunday – the one-year anniversary of the flag’s removal from a Confederate soldiers memorial – where an honor guard of Confederate re-enactors raised the flag once again on a temporary pole in the same spot.
But it would fly only until the event permit expired, at 5 p.m. Sunday.
The Confederate Flag flies on the South Carolina State House grounds in Columbia, South Carolina, June 24, 2015.
Party chairman James Bessenger said the flag is needed on the monument to honor the thousands of South Carolinians who lost their lives fighting for the Confederacy. “We memorialize those who died at Pearl Harbor and on 9 / 11,” Bessenger said. “We don’t defame soldiers today because they fight for oil and global bankers, and we shouldn’t defame (the Confederates).”
After a moment of silence for the victims of the mass shooting in Dallas, organizers quickly raised the banner on a 30-foot temporary pole while supporters – many carrying Confederate flags of their own – cheered and cried out “Amen” and “Leave it up.” The ceremony was followed by the playing of “Dixie,” what Bessenger called “our national anthem.”
Annie Gaddell traveled from her home in Summerville for the rally. She said she’s had the windows of her home shot out because she flies a Confederate flag on her porch, and she wants to see the flag returned to its former place of prominence. Flag supporters need to make their voices heard with state leaders, she said.
“We cannot sit on our hands. We have to call, write letters, any kind of communication we can have with them,” Gaddell said, shading herself with a Confederate flag umbrella. “I wish we had a thousand more people here, because this flag belongs to everybody.”
But others don’t share Gaddell’s passion. About a dozen protesters stood on the other side of a barricade set up by law enforcement on the Gervais Street sidewalk, carrying a red-black-and-green “black liberation” flag and speaking through a bullhorn, trying to drown out pro-flag speakers by calling the flag a symbol of hate and slavery.
“Even your governor and your senators say it’s racist,” the protesters shouted, then chanted the names “Walter Scott” and “Charleston Nine” – referring to a black North Charleston man shot by a white police officer, and the nine victims of Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church killings, which precipitated the flag’s removal last year.
Officers from several law enforcement agencies patrolled the State House grounds during Sunday’s rally, keeping flag supporters separated from opponents. Despite some verbal exchanges between the two sides, flag supporters made a point of turning their backs on the protesters. A Public Safety spokesman said no arrests were made during the rally or its aftermath.
Arlene Barnum brought some diversity to the pro-flag side of the rally. A black woman from Oklahoma, Barnum said she can trace her Confederate ancestry to her great-great-great-grandfather, a Confederate veteran from Alabama, and his slave mistress, who family lore says died when the family house was burned by Union forces.
“If we don’t keep fighting, they are going to take the monument down next,” Barnum said. “I think taking this flag down is an attack on white people, but white people are afraid to say it because they will be called ‘racist’… I feel sorry for white people, honestly.”
view. He stood nearby with a placard with a quote from Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens’ “cornerstone” speech – declaring the Confederacy to be based on “the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man” – and the hashtag “#ItWasAboutSlavery.”
“If the government comes for it on their front lawns or their T-shirts, I’ll stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them,” McGuinness said. “But I don’t want it on (the state’s) front lawn … It’s about heritage and hate.”
If the Secessionist Party has its way, the flag will return to the State House grounds every year. The party already has submitted an application to hold the rally again next July 10, Bessenger said. He credited the defeat of several prominent state legislators in this year’s primaries, like longtime Sen. Larry Martin and Rep. Jenny Horne, who was running for Congress, in part to their votes to take down the Confederate flag –showing support for the battle flag is still strong, he added.
“When we have our events on the Battery (in Charleston), people come up to me real quiet and say ‘thank you for what you’re doing,’ but they won’t be outwardly proud,” Bessenger said. “We have to go beyond ‘heritage not hate,’ and tell people why their heritage is important.
ALABAMA: New AC Unit To Help Preserve Civil War Artifacts
FLORENCE, S.C. – Pope’s Tavern museum will soon be a little cooler and better able to preserve the memorabilia it houses.
The City Council approved a contract with J.C. Hamm and Sons to install a heating and air conditioning unit.
Pope’s tavern curator Wayne Higgins checks the condition of a relic.
The museum, which houses local and Civil War relics, does not have climate control in the upstairs portion of the former inn, stagecoach stop, and Civil War hospital. This puts much of the collection, especially the pieces made of cloth or paper, at risk of damage, curator Wayne Higgins said.
“Extreme temperature is not good for the artifacts,” Higgins said. “It’s also uncomfortable for the tourists, and those are the two big issues.”
Higgins said he is the one who brought attention of the need to Libby Jordan, the director of Florence Arts and Museums. Jordan “jumped on it quickly,” he said.
The new unit will have two components, one for each room of the upstairs portion.
Higgins said Jordan saw the problem firsthand when she came to inspect the room while tours were taking place.
“(The unit) will make a tremendous difference, not only for the tourists and visitors themselves but also for the protection of the artifacts. It will keep (those in the upstairs rooms) at a current temperature, which is much better as far as preservation goes,” Jordan said.
During the Civil War, the upstairs portion of the tavern was used to house soldiers after they were treated in the hospital downstairs. Two windows, one on each end, let fresh air in, but since then the windows have been covered by a panel and a 1903 confederate flag so no excess heat comes into the two rooms.
“We have a lot of artifacts up here that are extremely valuable not just monetarily, but also historically,” Higgins said.
Some of the items that are especially susceptible to the damaging conditions include General O’Neal’s Confederate coat, two Confederate flags, and several weapons that could rust if kept in the current situation.
Until the unit is installed, Higgins keeps the lights off upstairs in between visitors to ward off any extra heat.
“There is just a little bit of cooling (from the downstairs unit) that comes in through the vents, but the lights pretty much nullify any cool air that comes through,” he said.
The new unit will cost $6,100 to purchase and install, and the project should be completed in the next few weeks, Jordan said.
