Charleston officials to remove statue of slavery advocate

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MEG KINNARD and JEFFREY COLLINS

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Despite a South Carolina law protecting monuments, officials in the historic city of Charleston announced Wednesday that they plan to remove a statue of slavery advocate John C. Calhoun from a downtown square.

Mayor John Tecklenburg announced he will send a resolution to the City Council to remove the statue at a news conference on the fifth anniversary of the slaying of eight black church members and their pastor in Dylann Roof’s racist attack at a downtown Charleston church. The move comes as monuments to Confederates and other historical figures who repressed or oppressed other people are being removed across the country.

“What a beautiful show of support from our City Council,” Tecklenburg said, adding that he was happy to see so many come together in the effort “not to erase our long and often tragic history but to begin to write a new and more equitable future.” The mayor anticipated the statue will go to a local museum or educational institution.

The next meeting of the Charleston City Council is scheduled for Tuesday.



FILE - In this May 31, 2016, file photo, a statue of Vice President John C. Calhoun, whose ideas on state rights were a spark of the Civil War, looms over a public park in Charleston, S.C. Despite a South Carolina law protecting monuments, officials in the historic city of Charleston announced Wednesday, JUne 17, 2020, that they plan to remove a statue of slavery advocate John C. Calhoun. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins, File)


Read more: https://apnews.com/192fe6b0b66c41c81e4c94f81fbb7c2c

[oasis]

1. Calthough should have never been honored by a statue. He was just

another demagogic slimeball of his era.

[Scruffy1]

2. He is sometimes referred to as the "Marx of Capitalism".

His extreme views on property rights form a large part of the "conservative" and "libertarian" ideologies. This is why I refuse to use the term conservative to describe what are really a radical group bent on destroying the Constitution of the United States. To him, majority rule was evil and he played a large role in causing the Civil War. A very good book on the subject is Nancy McClean's "Democracy in Chains". I can still remember the glossing over he got in my high school history class 55 years ago. A truly evil man whose goals are echoed today in the likes of Grover Norquist and the Koch Brothers. Imagine a country with no public schools and whre the rich paid very little taxes. That was the Confederacy. It's a lot more than the issue of slavery. After years of studying pre Civil War USA I came to the conclusion that the Civil War was about a lot more than slavery. In a nutshell, the South had managed to stifle majority rule by being able to vote their slaves at 3/5 and blocking actions in the Senate and house. A good example was railroads. Lincoln loved them, but couldn't get a plan for a rail line to the Pacific until the Southern states left the Union. The Koch brothers are strong believers in his ideology and yet the MSM treats them with kid gloves even though the have admitted to stealing millions from the federal government. The first question I would ask Charles Koch if I was a working reporter is "How did you and your late brother stay out of prison?" They don't give poor criminals a free pass if they pay a "settlement" after they are caught.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

3. I love it.

The AP didn't even reference him by his proper title of Former Vice President John C. Calhoun. He served under 2 presidents, and is remembered as a slavery advocate.