Should plaque be put up about racist South Carolina governor? (Tillman statue on Statehouse grounds)

Island Packet ^ | January 15, 2008 | JOHN MONK

[Between the Lines]

A proposed addition to the State House statue would accurately portray Ben Tillman as one of the leading white supremacists of his time.

As thousands pour onto the State House lawn next week for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day march, a part of the state's history will stand silent.

Silent, and wrong.

Words at the base of Ben "Pitchfork" Tillman's statue, a prominent gathering place near the State House steps, describe Tillman as a great South Carolinian who worked for peoples' rights.

In reality, he was one of the leading white supremacists of his time who worked for years to deny African Americans their rights. As S.C. governor, he advocated lynching black people. Later, he helped usher in the state's Jim Crow era.

Now, there's a movement across the country to make historical markers accurate. South Carolina already has altered the wording at the base of U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond's State House statue, adding his black daughter to the list of his four white children.

Some say adding a plaque to Tillman's statue with more complete information could provide a more truthful description of his role.

"If somebody is talking about putting up a plaque, we would be supportive," Gov. Mark Sanford said last week. "History matters. Real history ought to be accurately recorded and available so people can learn from it."

HISTORY UNMASKED

The King Day marchers will include U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the African-American candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination who has energized black and white voters.

Obama's candidacy would horrify Tillman.

"Tillman would be in such a rage he would throw himself off the top of the State House," former state Rep. I.S. Leevy Johnson said of Obama's candidacy and expected presence on the State House grounds Monday.

Rep. Joe Neal, D-Richland, former chairman of the legislative Black Caucus, said the plaque idea is new, and he would very much like to see one.

"When it comes to history, I don't believe in trying to hide things," he said. "The question is, do we in the S.C. legislature have the moral wherewithal to do something?"

While there's no disagreement over Tillman's place in history, some leaders fear an effort to erect a plaque accurately depicting his actions could lead to a long and divisive battle.

The legislature was polarized for years by the battle to remove the Confederate flag from the State House dome.

"I wouldn't want to touch that (the plaque issue)," said state Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, and pastor of one of Columbia's largest black churches.

"There would be very tense feelings on how we do business," said Jackson, adding he would vote for the effort but not propose it.

RACE AND TRUTH

Thurmond’s family did not object to the changes made to information on his statue in 2004.

Across the country, others are being more truthful about race in history.

• The main room at the new $621 million U.S. Capitol visitor’s center will be called Emancipation Hall in honor of black slaves forced to help build the original building.

• Last week, the legislature of New Jersey, the last Northern state to abolish slavery in 1846, officially recognized and apologized for its role in slavery.

• In Frederick, Md., officials and activists are working on a compromise that would add a plaque to a bust of former U.S. Chief Justice Roger Taney at city hall.

Taney wrote the 1856 Dred Scott decision that stripped African-Americans of their rights as citizens and helped lead to the Civil War.

Activists originally pushed to have the bust removed but now are working with Frederick city officials on language that deals with Taney’s actions.

State Sen. John Courson, who chaired an ad hoc legislative committee to study State House monuments, said any new monument or plaque would have to get legislative approval.

“We don’t want this to become a theme park,” said Courson, R-Richland, referring to monuments that have sprouted in recent years. “The State House is the crown jewel of South Carolina, and we have basically maxed out on the number of monuments we should have.”

BALANCING SYMBOLS OF SUPREMACY

Tillman was South Carolina's governor from 1890-1894 and U.S. senator from 1895-1918.

Coming from a family that owned slaves before the Civil War, Tillman made it his life's work to deny rights to freed African Americans. After the Civil War, he led a militia that terrorized and killed former slaves.

A charismatic speaker and force in the U.S. Senate, he traveled the nation in the early 1900s, giving speeches to tens of thousands of people, urging whites to prepare to fight if African Americans tried to claim equal rights.

In 1902, Tillman railed against President Teddy Roosevelt for having a black guest in the White House. He preached the need to keep black people out of leadership positions and kill those who sought equal rights.

When the statue was erected in 1940, references to South Carolinians, such as are on the Tillman statue, were understood to mean white South Carolinians, said University of South Carolina historian Walter Edgar.

“People who know history know that,” he said. “Ben Tillman was a vicious racist, no question about that. He bragged about it on the floor of the U.S. Senate.”

He also earned his nickname there when he took issue with the economic policies of President Grover Cleveland and threatened in a speech to “poke old Grover with a pitchfork.”

To be sure, Tillman accomplished positive things. He was one of the first South Carolina leaders to use his position to get federal money for the state. The money helped build and maintain the Charleston Naval Base, a major Lowcountry employer for nearly a century.

He also helped found what are now Clemson and Winthop universities, which is acknowledged on his statue. Back then, both campuses were for whites only. Both have Tillman Halls on their main campuses.

Retired USC civil rights historian Dan Carter said a plaque could remind people that Tillman was not only a “champion of the white working class, but that he worked relentlessly to disenfranchise blacks and put them in a position of incredible subordination.”

“All over the South we have these symbols of white supremacy,” Carter said. “You can’t do away with these symbols, but you try to balance them.”

[Between the Lines]

Here we go again, just in time for MLK day.

[stainlessbanner]

Dixie Ping

[robomatik]

pc drivel. i was talking to a fellow student years ago and genghis khan came up. she said, “he was EVIL! he was a mass murderer.” i asked her how she could judge an ancient conquerer though the prism of our modern times.

[stand watie]

SB, i get SOOOOOOOOOOOOO TIRED of "PC-idiots".

why don't they just GO AWAY???

free dixie,sw

[Bob]

They sure went out of their way to avoid mentioning that he was a dimocRAT.

[17th Miss Regt]

I hope the plaque they put on Mr. Tillman’s statue mentions his party affiliation - DEMOCRAT.

[Between the Lines]

I also noticed no mention of the NAACP, seems they are trying to make this sound like a grassroots kinda thing.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Why not?

How about an end to an overly romanticized, sanitized, fantasy history?

Tell all sides of the story instead of shying away from the shameful bits.

---

And, stand watie, 'willfully ignorant idiots' stick in the craw.

[Hexenhammer]

Sure, and I hope they mention his roll in the Hamburg massacre, in which black republicans were lynched by democrats.

[Hexenhammer]

whoops, meant “role” not “roll”

[Mojohemi]

I don’t see the problem, the old people of South Carolina is dead !! The people that lives in SC today are mostly immigrants from up North/Illegal Immigrants and a few blacks that happen to hang around while times did not get any better.

If you don’t like the old flag in the state house just go get the old thing and burn it!!
If you don’t like anything else in SC just get a liberal judge to change the law and be done with it!! The old people that once cared don’t care anymore!! Old South Carolina is DEAD!! It can not remain an issue forever!! IT IS ABOUT TIME TO GIVE OLD SOUTH CAROLINA A REST

[goodwithagun]

Will they do the same for all of the things in West Virginia that are named for Robert KKK Byrd?

[2harddrive]

The other option is just to Classify this “history” and not release it for 50 years - like they did with Martin Luther Kinng’s files! Problem solved.

[snippy_about_it]

And what country are you from, certainly not America.

[groanup]

How about an end to an overly romanticized, sanitized, fantasy history?

Like that fantasy history about the North fighting the WBTS over slavery?

[fieldmarshaldj]

I’d get rid of the statue altogether. Tillman was one of the most odious, racist, rodent liberal demogogues in the South, even by turn-of-the-century standards. Put up a statue of one of the heroic Black Republican Congressmembers from the Reconstruction era in its place.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Why not? We have slave owners on our dollar and five dollar bills.

[snippy_about_it]

There is a lot of Southern history that folks don't know or won't admit to. From this article you'd think they were all in chains. Progress was slow after Reconstruction destroyed the South but progress was made.

The Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed the right to vote, but did not guarantee that the vote would be counted or the districts would be apportioned equally. As a result, even states with majority African American population often only had one or two African American representatives in Congress, with the exception of South Carolina. At the end of Reconstruction, four of its five Congressmen were African American.

African Americans in Office 1870-1876
State	State Legislators	U.S. Senators	U.S. Congressmen
Alabama	69	0	4
Arkansas	8	0	0
Florida	30	0	1
Georgia	41	0	1
Louisiana	87	0	1*
Mississippi	112	2	1
North Carolina	30	0	1
South Carolina	190	0	6
Tennessee	1	0	0
Texas	19	0	0
Virginia	46	0	0
Total	633	2	15

[Non-Sequitur]

Why not? We have slave owners on our dollar and five dollar bills.

One, two, twenty, and fifty. Maybe the ten. Lincoln and Franklin didn't own slaves.

[Between the Lines]

Words at the base of Ben "Pitchfork" Tillman's statue, a prominent gathering place near the State House steps, describe Tillman as a great South Carolinian who worked for peoples' rights.

Benjamin Ryan Tillman Monument

On the East side:

Erected by the Legislature, the Democratic Party, and private citizens of South Carolina, dedicated May 1, 1940.

On the North side:

Benjamin Ryan Tillman
Born August 11, 1847
Died July 3, 1918
Married Sallie Stark, January 8, 1868
Patriot
Statesman
Governor of South Carolina, 1890-1894
Senator, 1895-1918
In the World War, Chairman Senate Committee on Naval Affairs
A life of service and achievement.

On the West side:

In the home, loving, loyal. To the State, Steadfast, true. For the Nation, The country belongs to us all and we all belong to it. The men of the North, South, East and West carved it out of the wilderness and made it great. Let us share it with each other then, and conserve it, giving it the best that is in us of brain and brawn and heart.

On the South side:

Loving them, he was the friend and leader of the common people. He taught them their political power and made possible for the education of their sons and daughters Clemson Agricultural...Winthrop Normal and Industrial College.

Somewhere I missed the part that calls him "a great South Carolinian who worked for peoples' rights".