COLOMBIA – The leader of the House of Democrats in South Carolina hopes to end the 15-year race for a special plaque whose emblem he says is a painful reminder of the state’s racist past.
A bill sponsored by House minority leader Todd Rutherford would prevent the state from issuing more Sons of Confederate Veterans labels, which is the Confederate Battle Flag square, framed by the group’s name and year of foundation .
The proposal essentially makes the group’s license plate illegal for road use after two years, since the 788 currently affixed to vehicles – which represents only 0.04% of all issued labels – could not be renewed.
“A Confederate flag is no longer appropriate on a license label in South Carolina, and if so, then which group can come next? Will a group use a swastika? All right? ”Rutherford said. “We know better, and we should just fix it.”
The Sons of Confederate Veterans plaque is among more than 150 special brands that South Carolina drivers can choose from for a fee. About two-thirds of its $ 30 biennial cost supports the organization’s chapters in South Carolina, which amounts to just over $ 15,000 every two years, based on the latest data from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.
The number of Sons of Confederate Veterans on the road labels has dropped by about a quarter since 2015, when a declared white supremacist killed nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston after a Bible study.
The massacre resulted in a vote by the state legislature to remove the battle flag from its 30-foot position next to a monument to Confederate soldiers on the front lawn of the Statehouse and send it to the state’s military history museum.
“A lot of people are afraid to put it in their cars right now,” DMV chief Kevin Shwedo told the Post and Courier.
Jamie Graham, commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in South Carolina, did not return a call for comment. But the group’s national commander-in-chief said that displaying the sign does not mean an expression of intolerance.
“Our symbol incorporates the battle flag on it, and this is a copyright symbol approved by the United States government,” said Larry McCluney, of Greenwood, Mississippi. “Why would a local entity oppose this?”
The group, whose stated mission is to honor the ancestors of members who fought for the South, is based in Tennessee, but was founded in the former Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, in 1896.
Other states with similar signs include Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee, according to their DMV records.
The profits help pay for a range of items, including t-shirts, replicas of battle uniforms and travel, McCluney said.
“In my opinion, it would be discriminatory for us as an organization when the state issues tags to other organizations,” said McCluney.
Rutherford, a lawyer, rejects this claim.
“They can take a bumper sticker and put it in the car all day, but this is an official sticker from the state of South Carolina,” said Democrat Columbia. “If a person wants a Confederate flag on their car, they can paint it there like the Dukes of Hazzard and they should, so that we can recognize them by the mean and hateful people they are.”
On their website, the Sons of Confederate Veterans describes themselves as a “strictly patriotic, historical, educational, fraternal, benevolent, apolitical, non-racial and non-sectarian” group that “condemns the misuse of their sacred symbols and flags” for behavior racist.
The country’s highest court has already made it clear that a state can keep the rebel flag off the plates if it wants to.
A day after the 2015 shooting, the U.S. Supreme Court said that states can regulate plaque designs without violating free speech rights. Judges dismissed the arguments of the Texas division of the Children of Confederate Veterans, who sued the Lone Star State in 2009 for denying their request for special plaques. In decision 5-4, the judges said that the design of a plaque can be considered government speech, so the First Amendment does not apply.
Rutherford, who presented his bill on December 9 for the session that starts in two weeks, has yet to get sponsors.
He hopes he will become part of a larger South Carolina movement addressing his racist history.
The May 25 death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man from Minneapolis who died as a white policeman kneeling on his neck for nearly 8 minutes, sparked protests and riots across the country.
The South Carolina response included the removal in Charleston of a statue of John C. Calhoun and requests from students and curators at Clemson and Winthrop to rename buildings with the name of a governor whose policies of white supremacy created the southern Jim era Crow. A 2000 state law says that such name changes require legislative approval.
The DMV is not taking a position on the account.
“This is a political decision and we will continue to make the ticket in its current form or change it if the legislator requires it, but we do not have a firm position,” said director Shwedo.
