After battle flag, Tillman statue could be next target

The Confederate flag is not the only racially divisive symbol that lawmakers have discussed removing from the State House grounds after nine African-Americans were shot and killed at a Charleston church last month.

But unlike the flag, which could be lowered by the end of this week, debate over whether to remove a State House statue of a white supremacist, for example, will have to wait until January, when lawmakers return for the 2016 regular session.

“Why is he up, by the way?” House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, said of the monument to “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman, a former S.C. governor, U.S. senator and member of an all-white, post-Civil War militia responsible for lynching African-Americans.

When lawmakers return to work Monday, they only can take action on Gov. Nikki Haley’s state budget vetoes and the Confederate flag – limitations they set in agreeing to continue working after the regular session ended June 4.

The flag is “where the focus should be,” said state Sen. Marlon Kimpson, D-Charleston.

But that does not mean lawmakers will not debate, eventually, the public display of other controversial symbols.

Kimpson, for example, recently called for lawmakers to remove the Tillman statue. At some point, “a legitimate discussion has to occur about divisive symbols,” he said last week.

With backing from Haley, top S.C. elected officials and a diverse group of business interests, lawmakers could approve removing the flag – seen as a symbol of racism by some and heritage by others – as early as Thursday.

But some S.C. leaders – both those who support removing the flag and those who oppose it – fear the flag debate could lead to a broader effort to rout more symbols of the state’s history from its public spaces.

Haley thinks discussions about other symbols are a “less pressing matter,” spokeswoman Chaney Adams said.

The flag has been “uniquely controversial in our state for a long time,” Adams said. “Gov. Haley is focused on working with legislators to remove the flag from the State House grounds, as that would be a big step forward for our state.”

‘A thousand more’ controversies

Outside of South Carolina, efforts to bring down Confederate monuments and statues have begun in reaction to the June 17 slaying of nine people during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, including that church’s pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Jasper.

Some Kentucky leaders are calling for removing a statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, from that state’s capitol.

Some Tennessee Democratic and Republican leaders want the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Civil War general and Ku Klux Klan leader, removed from that state’s capitol.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., said it is time to look at removing a statue of the Confederacy’s vice president, Alexander Stephens of Georgia, from the U.S. Capitol.

On Wednesday, the president of a national civil rights group said Confederate names should be removed from streets and structures.

“The Confederacy and what it stands for is treason,” said Charles Steele Jr., president of the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference, speaking at the Mississippi state capitol.

The flag debate reignited when photos surfaced of Dylann Roof, who is charged in the Charleston church shootings, showing the 21-year-old Richland County man posing with the battle flag.

In South Carolina, state Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, has been fundraising off a promise to fight the flag’s removal, saying activists will aim next to remove other monuments.

In a statement agreeing the flag should come down, College of Charleston President Glenn McConnell warned just how difficult the fight could be if flag opponents push to remove other “physical vestiges and memorials of our state’s past.”

“How sad it would be to end one controversy only to trigger a thousand more,” said McConnell who, as a state senator, helped orchestrate the 2000 compromise that brought the flag down from the State House dome to its grounds, where it now flies.

Confederate memorials abound

Reminders of the Confederacy and the racial tensions that persisted afterward are located throughout the state and its State House grounds.

There are so many, said state Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, that clearing the State House of the symbols would leave “a lot of open space.”

Referencing the Confederacy alone, the battle flag flies next to the Confederate Soldier Monument on the State House grounds. Nearby, along Gervais Street, plaques note memorial highways named for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and President Jefferson Davis. A magnolia tree on the grounds was planted in Lee’s honor and is marked by a plaque. A memorial to Confederate women is located near Pendleton Street. A sculpture of Wade Hampton riding a horse is located in front of a state building also named for the Confederate general, S.C. governor and U.S. senator.

Portraits of more than a dozen Confederate generals and leaders hang inside the state Senate and House chambers.

But the next target for removal is not likely to be a Confederate memorial. Instead, it is likely to be a statue commemorating Tillman, a post-Reconstruction politician.

Tillman statue days numbered?

Kimpson, the Charleston state senator, said recently the Legislature should consider removing Tillman’s statue from the State House grounds, where it stands not far from the Confederate flag.

“We live in a state where we have symbols on institutional government facilities that represent divisions,” Kimpson said.

“After appropriately mourning, we should use this tragedy as an opportunity to truly elevate the conversation of race in America, specifically in the state of South Carolina.”

Rutherford introduced a bill in 2008 to remove the Tillman statue. It went nowhere.

Recent efforts to erase Tillman’s name from buildings at Clemson and Winthrop, universities that Tillman helped create, could boost efforts to remove his statue from the State House grounds if lawmakers decide to take up that effort.

Still, it’s unclear whether lawmakers and civil rights leaders will push for Tillman’s removal when they get back to work in January.

Sen. Jackson said he would not lead that effort because he has “no intention to go after any of the monuments now.”

“As a descendant of a slave, I’m not a big fan of the (Confederate soldier) memorial. I’m not, personally, a big fan of anything that honors the Confederacy. But I understand others’ perspective on that.”

However, Jackson added, “If one day there’s a push to really look at Ben Tillman, I’m not saying I would lead the effort, but I would vote to bring him down.”

Rutherford said, realistically, he does not think the General Assembly will have the appetite to bring down any historical monuments.

However, lawmakers should acknowledge that the history conveyed by State House monuments – such as Tillman’s, which mentions nothing about the white supremacist openly advocating the killing of black people – sometimes is inaccurate.

“We don’t need to whitewash our history, but we need to tell the truth,” Rutherford said.

“Imagine the State House tours if we talked about what really happened. They (school hildren) come to see where the cannon balls hit the building.”

‘Where does it end?’

Some S.C. leaders express hesitation to topple any monuments on the State House grounds.

Calling for the flag’s removal last month, Gov. Haley said the Confederate flag could be seen as a symbol that inaccurately reflects South Carolinians’ current values. But she made a distinction between the flag, which she said should be in a museum, and monuments.

“Monuments in themselves are somewhat museums,” Haley told The State. “If (flags are) flying, they’re living and breathing. ... the Confederate flag is something – that if it’s flying – that represents the people, and the State House is supposed to be for all people.”

House Speaker Pro Tempore Tommy Pope, R-York, said he supports bringing the flag down because it “has been co-opted by hate groups. You see it with the Klan situation, and you see it with the deaths in Charleston.

“But when we start dealing with every remnant of the Confederacy, it’s going way too far,” he said.

Pope said he is been getting push back from people saying, “ ‘Where does it end?’ ... You’ve got monuments. You’ve got street names. It would be neverending.’ ”

The impact of the push for the flag’s removal already has gone too far, said state Sen. John Courson, R-Richland, who supports bringing the flag down.

Courson said he was disappointed when, for example, Fort Sumter in Charleston ceased flying two Confederate national flags in response to the Charleston tragedy.

Those flags, he said, were part of the fort’s historical context and should have continued to fly.

“I don’t think one can sanitize history,” he added, when asked whether other monuments should be considered for removal. “It is what it is.”

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-Seneca, said the complicated history of the United States colors most historical figures.

“The whole country was founded by slave owners, for the most part,” Graham said.

Giving an example, Graham asked why anyone would “name the capital of any nation after a slave owner,” referring to George Washington.

“Because when you look at what he did as a whole, I think he’s earned the right to be called one of the great figures in American history,” he said. “As to Robert E. Lee: If it wasn’t for his leadership after the war, urging his soldiers to lay down their weapons and become good Americans, only God knows what would’ve happened after 1865.”

More important issues

South Carolina NAACP President Lonnie Randolph said he understands the national debate taking place over Confederate monuments.

The monuments are not all that different from the flags – both flags and monuments reveal the values of the people who fly or build them, he said.

But, Randolph added, his focus is on the flag, which his organization and others have been fighting for more than 20 years.

“I have some issues with the monuments, yes. But, right now, my focus is on getting that symbol that means white supremacy off the State House property.”

Randolph and Sen. Kimpson of Charleston also said they have higher priorities than debating monuments.

“When appropriate on our calendar,” Kimpson said, “the more meaningful discussion has to take place on the policies, practices and customs that limit the opportunities for citizens and historically disadvantaged businesses to share equitably in the economic engine of the state.”

This story was originally published July 4, 2015 at 3:10 PM with the headline "After battle flag, Tillman statue could be next target."