COLOMBIA, SC – The first African American basketball star at the University of South Carolina, a former NBA veteran who ran unopposed with the support of the governor, appears to be an obstacle to the election for a full term on the board of trustees. from school.
But Alex English still had to sweat a lot for his re-election on Wednesday after a conservative lawmaker insisted on a vote in which 10 Republicans voted against the former professional athlete, just one of the two black members of the 21-member council. About two dozen Republicans in the House and Senate did not vote.
English was one of the first black players at the University of South Carolina in 1972 and perhaps the most famous. He played 15 seasons in the NBA, mostly for the Denver Nuggets in the 1980s, and was an All-Star eight times. Now 67, he sought re-election for a term that expires in 2022.
Black lawmakers said the vote is just the latest example of several Republicans in the General Assembly rejecting diversity by electing judges and trustees. More than one in four people in South Carolina is black.
The General Assembly elected two dozen judges last month, and none were black. In 2019, lawmakers selected 44 judges. Only two of the races were contested, and both times a black candidate lost to a white. Several African-American lawmakers came out in protest briefly. Of the 61 judges at the Supreme, Appeal or Circuit courts in South Carolina, only nine are black.
“Even though there was no option but Alex English, some of my colleagues still felt compelled to vote against him. And the drama and the machinations that they go through to do that are really special, say,” Gilda Cobb-Hunter, the oldest member of the House, said after the vote on Wednesday.
There was another candidate for curator running unopposed at Lander University in Greenwood, and the vote was not called. A former member of the House won the only contested seat at The Citadel 154-2, while English won the seat at the University of South Carolina 112-10, with 34 lawmakers who voted in the chosen race simply because they did not vote in the English race.
“It shows how much work remains to be done in South Carolina,” said Cobb-Hunter, an Orangeburg Democrat first elected in 1992.
English served as a curator in his alma mater for a few years after his professional career, then went on to work as a coach. Last summer, Governor Henry McMaster nominated him back on the board after a member left to head the university’s law school.
English promised to promote diversity and fiscal responsibility.
“We need to make our faculty and staff look like the population of the state, you know. And I think we have to do the same thing with students, ” English told lawmakers at a screening hearing in February.
About 10% of students are black on the main campus of the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
When the race was still contested, some Republicans concerned about Twitter posts in English have already ruled out support efforts to change the names of campus buildings from segregationists or other historically divisive people, including former US Senator Strom Thurmond.
Deputy RJ May voted against the Englishman, saying he would like candidates in all disputes over curators not to give up before the vote takes place. May, a Republican in his first year in the House, said he wants the best judges and trustees in the eyes of the people in his district, in the conservative suburbs of western Columbia.
“I don’t think Mr. English represents his conservative values, ” said May, a graduate of the University of South Carolina who said he now wishes English” all the luck in the world for the school I love.
English said in a statement that he will always support students by using their voices to make changes. But as a curator, he listened and eventually passed the legislature according to a state law that protects the names of historic buildings from being changed.