Forum planned on Florence monument relocation
A public forum will be held soon to receive opinions on the relocation of a war monument, with controversial wording on it, to Florence Veterans Park.
The American Legion Post 1 received unanimous approval from the city’s Parks Commission to relocate its World War I monument from the post on East Palmetto Street to the Veterans Park, but the marble monument’s recently restored bronze plaque lists the names of the 42 “white” and 25 “colored” Florence men who served and died in the war.
The language on the plaque has Mayor Stephen J. Wukela and members of City Council uncomfortable to the point that City Manager Drew Griffin halted the monument’s planned move to the park early last week.
That decision was said to be out of an abundance of caution by the city attorney Jim Peterson, because of the South Carolina Heritage Act, a law created in 2000 by the General Assembly as a compromise to move the Confederate flag on the Statehouse grounds. With a two-thirds voting majority, legislators have the power to decide whether and how any monument in any public space can be changed or moved.
Or in the case of the city of Greenwood, nothing but legislative limbo can happen.
With no movement in the Statehouse, Greenwood is pursuing legal options to change similar language on a war monument, something it did at the request of the American Legion, which owns the monument currently on public property.
Right now, Wukela said, both the city and American Legion want the public to give opinions before any move or change is made; a luxury the city has since the monument hasn’t touched public land since it was moved from the front of the old Florence Library around the 1960s.
“The American Legion owns this monument. It’s their decision, to a point, so I think it’s beneficial for them to get this information and the city to get this input,” Wukela said. “Ultimately they’ll have to decide what the condition it is going to be erected in --its current form or if they’re amenable to any change.”
Wukela and others participated in what he described as an amicable meeting last Wednesday. He said the American Legion is aware of the City Council’s mood for the monument not to be moved in its current form.
“They (American Legion) have not made a decision, as yet, in any formal way,” Wukela said. “I suspect they’re going to reserve that decision until after the forum.”
Post 1 Commander Charles Bethea said he and his membership don’t see the monument as a racial issue nor does keeping the monument as is mean they condone the use of the word “colored,” but rather recognizing the fact that it’s part of the monument’s history.
“We all agree; we feel that it’s historical and should go like it is,” Bethea said. “I don’t think they need to be rewriting history 87 years later.”
Bethea said the options are moving it as is, including an educational panel near the monument explaining segregation, or returning the monument back to the American Legion Post where it’s been essentially hidden from public view. He called the last option the worst since far fewer people would know of the soldiers’ sacrifice.
“I just don’t think political correctness should demean the sacrifice those guys make,” Bethea said. “It was written the way it was done back then and I think in honor of their memory we should leave it as is and put it in the park.”
A date has not been set yet for the forum, but it will likely be during a weekday evening within the next two weeks. The Veterans Park Committee, which is under the Parks Commission, will host the forum in council chambers at City Center.