SC employees get day off to honor Confederate dead

Don’t try to renew your driver’s license Wednesday.

Most state agencies are closed in observance of Confederate Memorial Day, including the S.C. Department of Motor Vehicles and its locations across the state.

One of six states that honors the Confederate dead with a holiday, South Carolina observes Confederate Memorial Day on May 10, the day in 1863 that Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died from pneumonia after he was wounded by friendly fire.

Not all state agencies are closing, however.

The Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, for instance, will remain open as will the adjacent S.C. State Museum.

State parks will be open, as will the state’s nine interstate welcome centers, said Duane Parrish, director of the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

State lawmakers are coming to work, too, Wednesday to wrap up business before the legislative session ends Thursday. They will be joined on the State House grounds by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who plan a small observance near the Confederate Soldier Monument.

Debate has sizzled out

Lawmakers have been quiet about all things Confederate as the holiday approaches.

House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford – a Columbia Democrat who called for the Confederate flag’s removal two years ago and has said the statue of white supremacist S.C. Gov. and U.S. Sen. Ben Tillman also should be removed – was diplomatic Tuesday.

“The state enacted Confederate Memorial Day,” Rutherford said. “I voted against it, but here we are. We celebrate the history of South Carolina, and we keep on moving."

But, Rutherford added, some South Carolinians are watching efforts in New Orleans to remove Confederate monuments in that city and thinking about the holiday, too. “There are those of us that come from families that suffered under the Confederacy, so we're thinking about it as well, and we think about it all the time.”

In 2015, S.C. lawmakers went through a bruising battle to remove the Confederate flag from the State House grounds, where it flew on a flagpole near the busy intersection of Gervais and Main streets.

The flag’s furling came after self-avowed white-supremacist Dylann Roof gunned down nine African-American parishioners, including state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Jasper, during a Bible study at Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME Church.

Roof had posed with a Confederate flag in pictures found posted online.

The slayings sparked debate about Confederate holidays and monuments across the South.

In Georgia, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal changed Confederate Memorial Day to a “State Holiday” in 2015, a move some lawmakers in that state want to reverse.

However, after the Confederate flag was furled and stored in a museum, S.C. House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, said other Palmetto State historical markers and monuments were off limits for debate.

Quietly, some state officials take a dim view of Confederate Memorial Day.

One state official, a military veteran, noted the state has another holiday dedicated to remembering soldiers.

“It’s called Memorial Day,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous because of his post in state government. Singling out a holiday to remember the Confederate dead is “ludicrous,” he said.

Glad he came to the DMV Tuesday

Columbia’s Michael Hester said it would have annoyed him a little if had he come to the state Department of Motor Vehicles Wednesday, instead of Tuesday, and learned it was closed for Confederate Memorial Day.

“It bothers me that people want to embrace a celebration of wrongheadedness, being on the wrong side of everything,” Hester said. “Why are you supporting someone who, by virtue of hindsight, we are able to say they are wrong?”

However, others at Motor Vehicles Tuesday had less strong feelings about the holiday.

“Everyone’s entitled to a day off,” said Rainey Smith, 27.

As long as celebrants do not “disturb the peace,” Michael Williams, 20, said he does not mind them marking Confederate Memorial Day.

But the holiday is not for him, he added.

“This holiday is for people who celebrate the old ways. I’m going to keep moving forward.”

This story was originally published May 9, 2017 at 6:04 PM with the headline "SC employees get day off to honor Confederate dead."