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COLUMBIA, S.C. — A sweeping proposal to safeguard nearly all historic statues, monuments, and the names of streets and buildings throughout South Carolina gained approval from the state Senate on Wednesday.
The bill, passed with a 31-7 vote, aims to prohibit the removal or alteration of these historic markers. It also seeks to ban the use of QR code stickers, which supporters argue could provide modern context to the actions of historical figures, including those who were Confederate or segregationist, whose deeds were often celebrated in the past.
Under this legislation, local governments would need to obtain approval from the General Assembly to take down a monument or amend its inscriptions.
In contrast, other Southern states are taking steps to reduce the prominence of Confederate symbols. For instance, Virginia lawmakers have recently revoked certain privileges for groups that commemorate Confederate soldiers, and they are also contemplating the removal of the last three Confederate statues in Capitol Square of Richmond, the former Confederate capital.
Currently, South Carolina already has measures in place to preserve monuments dedicated to the Confederacy, which fought a failed four-year struggle to secede from the United States, as well as those honoring veterans from various conflicts, ranging from the American Revolution to the Persian Gulf War.
But memorials to people not involved in fighting fell into a loophole meaning long since dead figures like former U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun or segregationist Gov. “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman might not get the same protection from colleges or local governments.
The South Carolina bill protects all historical figures, defining them as any dead person who “played a significant role in past developments.”
All those who voted for it were Republicans, while all those who voted against it were Democrats.
Democratic Sen. Margie Bright Matthews read quotes on the Senate floor from Tillman saying the only way to put freed slaves and their children back in their place was to kill some of them and Calhoun saying slavery was needed because African Americans cannot be civilized.
“Do we want to be a state that continues to debate and defend the legacy of treason, racism and exclusion?” Matthews said. “You ought to be embarrassed about some of the stuff you want to preserve.”
South Carolina’s monument protection law was first passed in 2000 as part of a compromise that removed the Confederate flag that was raised atop the capitol dome during the 100th anniversary of the Civil War in 1961.
The bill, which moves on to the House with about a month left in session, would allow any officially registered private historical groups to sue if they think a monument is not being treated legally. The proposal requires any monument moved because of a building renovation or road project to be displayed in an area of equal or greater prominence.
Democratic Sen. Ed Sutton said that could become a mess for a place like Charleston, which could end up facing numerous lawsuits from unhappy groups. Under the current law, only the state attorney general’s office can sue.
“The practical effect is the city is going to take a step back and say we’re out of the history game,” Sutton said of Charleston, founded in 1670 and pivotal in the Revolutionary and Civil wars.
In Virginia, new Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed into law last week a bill ending a license plate from the Sons of Confederate Veterans with an image of rebel general Robert E. Lee.
Earlier this year, the state’s General Assembly removed from public recognition a song with lyrics about an enslaved person called a racial slur fondly recalling his days in bondage called “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny.” It was the official state song from 1940 to 1997, when it was redesignated the “state song emeritus.”
South Carolina lawmakers are resistant to any historical revision.
In the bill, Republican sponsor Sen. Danny Verdin wrote “the nearer a person stands in time to the event, the more likely their description reflects the conditions, perceptions and meanings as they were actually were understood when they occurred.”
That’s why Verdin successfully fought to keep in the bill a provision banning QR codes on monuments. No other state that protects memorials bans QR codes.
“As our knowledge and understanding of history continues to evolve, please consider the value in allowing for an evolution in how the lives of those in the past are told,” Preservation Society of Charleston President and CEO Brian Turner wrote in a letter to senators.
Democratic Sen. Darrell Jackson said since his ancestors were freed from bondage through the Civil War he doesn’t feel warm and fuzzy seeing a Confederate honored with a statue and his story should be there too.
“History is usually a matter of who sees it, who tells it, who experiences it,” Jackson said.