COLOMBIA – According to a proposed law that a Republican from South Carolina plans to present next month, any local politician who votes to topple a historic monument would be immediately charged with a misdemeanor and suspended from office.
Another project would fine the same city or city councilman $ 25 million.
Meanwhile, Democrats in SC are preparing their own series of proposals to topple certain controversial statues and begin to study what to do with others.
This is the type of bill that is presented at the Casa do Estado after the racial unrest seen last year.
Statues of historical figures have been removed by local authorities or forcibly overthrown by protesters in cities across the country in the months since a black Minnesota man, George Floyd, died at the hands of the police in May, generating national recognition of racial injustice. .
The movement bled in South Carolina, where the city of Charleston in June removed the 123-year-old bronze statue of former Vice President John C. Calhoun, an ardent advocate of slavery, from his perch atop Marion Square. That same month, the capital of Columbia cited fears of vandalism by removing a statue of Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer whose four Spanish-funded trips to the Americas preceded centuries of slavery and the extermination of native populations, although he never set foot in continental United States.
Now, as the General Assembly prepares to return next month for a new two-year legislative session, lawmakers from both parties are filing at least nine bills that seek to dictate the future of historic monuments across South Carolina. South.
None of them has a great chance to pass in the face of intense disagreement over how South Carolina should recognize its history of slavery, Jim Crow laws and racial inequalities.
Many Democrats see monuments to certain SC figures as a celebration of notorious racists. Many Republicans see them as reminders of the great achievements of imperfect men who lived in a time when the unacceptable was the norm.
Some members of each party share concerns about where the slippery slope of monument removal might take, especially since statues of former presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt were demolished in cities over the summer.
Another key to the debate is the Heritage Act, the 2000 law that makes these monuments almost impossible to remove.
The state Supreme Court has been asked to reassess whether this law is legal. It blocks the removal of historic landmarks that honor wars, war heroes, Native Americans and African Americans without the approval of a super-majority from the General Assembly.
This is a major hurdle that has rarely been overcome – most recently, in 2015, when the Legislature voted to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the Statehouse after the racially motivated massacre of nine black parishioners at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church.
One of the projects planned by the Democrats in SC would remove a monument to “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman, a former governor who advocated the death of black people, from his place on Statehouse grounds, where he passed over protesters in the summer.
“In light of everything that has happened in our country, we need to be more aware of those we are honoring,” said state deputy Seth Rose, D-Columbia, the lead author of the project.
Republicans, for their part, say that removing statues is unproductive and erases a story that should not be forgotten.
State Representative Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, presented a proposal that would expand already robust protections for monuments.
H. 3249 would make it a crime for local politicians to remove public statues and cut critical state funding for cities and counties that do.
“I just believe it is important to protect our history, to learn from history, good and bad,” said Taylor.
If that’s the case, Rose said, more statues need to be affixed with plaques recognizing the subject’s role in owning slaves or perpetrating racial violence.
Republican representative Steward Jones of Greenwood proposed legislation that reflects Taylor’s. But Jones’ bill also carries a $ 25 million fine for anyone voting for the overturning of a monument.
Both projects raise issues of constitutionality.
Jones acknowledges that his proposal has almost no chance of approval. But Caroline do Sul’s eighth generation said the bill sends a message that South Carolina is serious about protecting its assets.
“I think a lot of accounts are for starting a conversation,” he said.