White supremacist's statue to stay put at S.C. House

[struggle4progress]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

By JOHN MONK

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A statue honoring "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman, one of America's foremost white supremacists, will stay on the South Carolina State House grounds — at least for now.

The decision was made by Republican state Rep. Greg Delleney, who Thursday morning killed a resolution that would have removed the statue from its prominent spot at the State House front ...

But Tillman's history has already been rewritten by the whites who put up the statue in 1940, said Democratic Rep. Todd Rutherford, the African-American lawmaker who led the push to remove the statue.

The statue's words avoid mention of what Tillman himself considered his greatest achievements — sanctioning violence against black South Carolinians seeking equal rights and depriving them of the right to vote, Rutherford said ...


Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5691851.html

[arundhatiroyfan]

1. bump

[amihol]

7. bumpbump :S

[davidinalameda]

2. and just when I think people can't get any worse

along comes idiots like this Delleney

[Yes We Did]

3. And racist/bigots and people who don't know they're bigots want to condemn Wright? On...

its face it's smacks of hypocrisy that no one condemns this. Where is the outrage that the confederate flag still flies? Oh that's right it's because Wright is black and racists and bigots don't like the truth in context brought forward by a black man.

[EFerrari]

6. Wright is their nightmare -- sucessful, articulate, beloved

and influential. I love it. :evilgrin:

[Svafa]

4. Trying to block this resolution

should be political suicide. It's pathetic that we are still so backward that it isn't.

[EFerrari]

5. Makes you proud to be an American.

:sarcasm:

[zanne]

8. k & r

[Ian David]

9. I've been to South Carolina. I fucking HATE South Carolina.

http://www.cafepress.com/southdiversity

[mitchum]

11. I'm originally from SC and your hatred for the place is well-deserved

[One_Life_To_Give]

10. Lets Build a new statue next to it

A giant hand with the index finger pointing at the "Pitchfork Ben" Statue. With the inscription We were once so fucking stupid we errected a statue to this asshole

[Brewman_Jax]

12. That's shocking--NOT

commemorating a man whose legacy was denying a group of people their legal and civil rights. No surprise, there are too many walking around angry that black people can vote.

Of course, the legislator blocking this is a repub--again, no surprise. :eyes:

[KamaAina]

13. Where's the nearest Costco?

A case of black spray paint oughta do it. :evilgrin:

[xxqqqzme]

14. Another part of their 'heritage' that they proudly

display?

[happyslug]

15. He was a Governor and Senator from South Carolina

For more on him see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Tillman

http://projects.vassar.edu/1896/tillman.html

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/55/

http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/kantrowitz_ben.html

Basically a progressive, and a racist (And when those two points came into conflict, Racism always won). Typical complex character of his place and time (Yes you can be both a racist and a Progressive and Tillman is a fine example of someone who was both).

It was people like Tillman that forced the Democratic Party to oppose Civil Rights till FDR's Administration (And do to people like Tillman even FDR only gave civil Rights lip service, FDR's wife Eleanor was much more forceful on the Subject of Civil Rights and the improvements in Civil Rights during FDR's administration is generally attributed to her). Thus in 1948 the Dixiecrat party leaders was asked why he opposed Truman, while he had always supported FDR when it came to Civil Rights said (paraphrased) "But Truman actually means it".

Like a lot of Progressives from the South, after the demise of the Populist party after 1896, Tillman and other Progressives in the South re-entered the Democratic Party but as a Anti-Black Party, not a Progressive/Liberal Party (and it stayed that way well into the 1960s, in many ways progressive and racist, a complex combination).

[Moloch]

16. There's a big difference...

between acknowledging history and continuing a legacy of hatred, violence and ignorance.

[dogfacedboy]

17. I've been to S.C. many times. It's infested with racist white trash.

And I mean infested. Like a stray dog with fleas.

[Infinite Hope]

18. Unbelievable. Cut federal aid. n/t