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COMPROMISE REACHED at “The Confederate Defenders Monument”
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“Stand As One” members surround “The Confederate Defenders” grouping on their first Sunday rotation at the base of the allegorical grouping designed by Hermon A. MacNeil in 1931. SOURCE: WCIV – Charleston, SC
Two opposing Groups will rotate Weekend Vigils on Sundays at “The Confederate Defenders Monument”
“Black Lives Matter” marchers can now share Sunday Vigil time at the MacNeil statue erected 88 years ago at Battery Point, Charleston, SC.
In recent Months, the figures, sculpted by Hermon MacNeil and dedicated in 1932, have become a modern focal point of tensions in Charleston, SC.
Sinc
e 2015, members of “Flags Across the South” have flown the Confederate flag and stood guard there on Sundays. In recent weekends the opposing group “Stand As One” has asked and received
Now they will have to share rotating weekends with “Stand As One”
Fort Sumter – Start of the Civil War. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usflagsupply.com%2Fus-flag-supply-blog%2Ffort-sumter-the-start-of-the-american-civil-war.html&psig=AOvVaw3XRGNv1rn-7lPlHiIn3qbR&ust=1596163275424000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA0QjhxqFwoTCNDN8dn58-oCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAi
“Black Lives Matter” marchers can now share Sunday Vigil time at the MacNeil statue erected 88 years ago at Battery Point, Charleston, SC.
The Monument at Battery Point overlooks the Charleston Harbor. Three and a half miles ESE lies Fort Sumter. The first shots the Civil War were fired there 159 years ago.
Here is a abcnews4.com article that you might like 7-26-2020
https://abcnews4.com/news/loca
Justin Hunt said he and his organization, Stand As One, have also requested a permit to stand at the monument several times before.
“This is a public park, so just how they are able to speak and say how they feel, we are able to speak on the same monument and say how we feel,” said Hunt.
RELATED: Unified activist groups against Confederate flag give list of demands for Charleston leaders
Jack O’Toole, spokesperson for the Mayor’s office, explained that both groups had applied for the same permit, asking to protest one the same days at the same time for the “foreseeable future,” which the Charleston Police Department had never experienced before.
So CPD officials reached out to the legal department and found a compromise.
“What (the Legal Department) decided was that it made sense to protect everyone’s rights by having everyone trade back and forth one weekend and the next,” O’Toole said. “Last weekend, the flag supporters were at the monument and the counter-protesters were at high battery. This weekend, the counter-protester at monument, flag supporters at high battery.”
For Spivey and Flags Across the South, being at the high wall is nothing new to them.
“We used to stand up here on the high wall when we first started doing this,” said Spivey.
For Stand As One, they’ll continue to advocate for more.
“We call the City Mayor and Council to stop spending money in over policing and focus on ensuring the police and property policing. We do hope our presence here will not be needed long,” said Hunt.
More “Confederate Defenders” Protests; AND Ten Years Ago on this Website.
Posted by: | CommentsSunday (July 12, 2020) saw continued protest at the Confederate Defenders Monument.
WCSC (Live5News.com) [CLICK HERE] offered a photo and coverage.
Two opposed groups gathered. Black Lives Matter marchers held their signs along The Battery wall. Across the street at the Confederate Defenders Monument, members of Flags Across the South as Police stood watch.
Black Lives Matter protesters the hold signs along the Battery Wall, while “Flags Across the South” people hold Confederate flags at the monument across the street.
BLACK LIVES MATTER:
Abbey O’Brien reported for WCSC Live5News.com that two groups gathered at the Confederate Defenders statue at Battery Point Charleston on Sunday morning. (Source: Live 5)
The BLM marchers carried signs that included:
- “Stop Pretending Your Racism Is Patriotism;”
- “HONK Against RACISM”
- “MAKE RACISM WRONG AGAIN”
- “THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT ONE MAN”
- “BLACK LIVES MATTER”
FLAGS ACROSS THE SOUTH:
Braxton Spivey, from Flags Across the South, told WCSC that he has stood at the statue nearly every Sunday for five years. He explains his presence there:
“My agenda, from the first time I’ve come up here, was to educate,” Spivey said. “I disagreed with the flag coming down from behind the soldier’s monument at the Statehouse. I feel like that was an appropriate place for it.”
“My agenda, from the first time I’ve come up here, was to educate,” Spivey said. “I disagreed with the flag coming down from behind the soldier’s monument at the Statehouse. I feel like that was an appropriate place for it.”
Mika Gadsden, speaking for those standing across the street on The Battery wall, state:
“We stand in opposition to these white supremacists tributes, we want them down in this city,” while s“We want the City of Charleston to recognize its history and honor its history with more accurate historical representations.”
“This needs to be the beginning of a more substantive conversation. We need to heighten the level of discourse around this Civil War iconography. We need to use this moment to bring about real substantive change. I don’t want the streets painted with Black Lives Matter, I want Black Lives Matter to be reflected in city policy. I want to see equity and I want to see the city take a firm stand against white supremacists iconography.”
Abbey O’Brien concludes her reporting: “While there was shouting, no other violence has been reported so far.”
For the record:
When a Succession Gala was organized and held in Charleston in 2010, this webmaster posted the following story:
MacNeil Statue will not attend Secession Gala
Perhaps, it warrants reading again.
MacNeil Statue will not attend
Secession Gala
By
[For more recent news (Dec 21st, 2010) on the posting below see this link: The Star: Ball Draws Celebrators, Protestors ]
Hermon A. MacNeil’s Confederate Defenders statue may cast its shadow on upcoming Secession Gala festivities. MacNeil’s massive work stands sentry over Charleston Harbor, facing toward Ft Sumter, 3 1/2 miles away.
MacNeil’s “Confederate Defenders” as photographed in his studio in 1931.
The South Carolina Secession Gala tickets are going quickly. We have less than one month left to attend an event that will surely be an “EVENT OF A LIFETIME”!!! You certainly won’t want to miss this wonderful event!We have a 45 minute theatrical play re-enacting the signing of the original Ordinance of Secession with Senators and famous individuals as actors in this performance. We even have President Pro-Tempore of the SC Senate, Glenn F. McConnell as Convention Chair, David F. Jamison of Barnwell.
The wonderful news is that the ORIGINAL Ordinance of Secession will be available for viewing by our guests. This is not a lithograph, but the ACTUAL document which has been protected for years in the vault and hasn’t been seen in years. Those sponsoring tables will be able to have a group photograph with all Sponsors made with the ORIGINAL ORDINANCE.
The cost includes the theatrical play, dinner and dancing. Do not wait until the last minute as tickets are going fast and there is limited seating.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The event has stirred some debate in the news locally and nationally. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-10/civil-war-s-150th-anniversary-stirs-debate-on-race.html
“It’s almost like celebrating the Holocaust,” said Benard Simelton, president of the Alabama conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “Our rights were taken away and we were treated as less than human beings. To relive that in a celebratory way I don’t think is right.”
For persons not wanting to pay $100, there are other alternatives. The state’s NAACP chapter plans a protest march and vigil outside the city-owned auditorium where the party will be held.
CLOSING COMMENT: The MacNeil Statue will not attend the Gala. It will remain in Battery Park, its home for the last 78 years. In addition, the sculpture’s attire is not proper for the dress code of the Ball. WEBMASTER
Related MacNeil Links:
https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/2010/08/10/confederate-defenders-of-charleston/
https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/2010/08/04/confederate-defenders-statue-battery-park/
MacNeil’s 1931 Photo of his work in his studio in College Point, NY, before being erected in Charleston, SC in 1932.
SOURCE: FIT News:
Dueling Armed Rallies
Headed For Charleston
South Carolina’s
Historic Battery
Another Confederate memorial
is in the cross hairs …
Dueling advocacy groups are set to converge on the historic Battery in Charleston, South Carolina over the next two weekends as racial tensions continue to escalate in (and around) the Holy City. And there is a good chance their members will be armed …
The focal point of the forthcoming demonstrations? A 25-foot tall Confederate memorial located at the southern tip of White Point Garden, a 5.7-acre public park located on the Charleston peninsula at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers. Erected in 1932 by the Fort Sumter Memorial Commission, this monument has been vandalized on numerous occasions in the past. Now it is drawing crowds of antagonists (and defenders) in the aftermath of rioting that rocked Charleston a little over a month ago following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota over Memorial Day.
Entitled “To The Confederate Defenders Of Charleston,” the monument features a 12-foot bronze statue on a 13-foot granite pedestal. It is the handiwork of the late sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil of Everett, Massachusetts.
Per the Smithsonian Art Inventories Catalog, the monument is “an allegorical depiction of the Confederate defense of Charleston during the Civil War.”
“The male figure is the defending warrior, with a sword in his proper right hand and a shield bearing the South Carolina state seal in his proper left hand,” the catalog noted.
The female figure (who stands for the city of Charleston) “holds in her proper right hand a garland of laurel, symbolizing immortality, and with her proper left hand points towards the sea to the enemy,” per the catalog.
“On the base are scenes in relief of figures repairing the shattered walls of Fort Sumter with sand bags,” the descriptor continues. “Eleven stars on the lower base represent the eleven Confederate states.”
Take a look …
(Click to view)
(Via: Getty Images)
Demonstrators affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement have made taking down this monument their top priority after successfully advocating for the removal of a 115-foot monument across town honoring the late U.S. vice president John C. Calhoun.
The removal of the Calhoun monument was pushed by liberal Charleston mayor John Tecklenburg – who recently convened a task force to recommend further historical sanitization in the Holy City (including the renaming of Calhoun Street).
Tecklenburg has been criticized for his advocacy – as well as his alleged failure to protect citizens and businesses during the riots that consumed the city on the evening of May 30, 2020.
“We sat for three-plus hours with no assistance to protect our businesses,” Jack Handegan III wrote on Facebook the day after the riots. “We watched them slowly and methodically smash and steal every single item out of (our) neighbors place while the police never came. Three-plus hours of chaos.”
“There was no law enforcement on upper King Street,” one property owner in the area told us bluntly the same day. “Whatsoever.”
While a group of Charleston business interests is emerging to challenge Tecklenburg in the halls of power in the Holy City, the threat of violence on its streets is once again rising … and the monument in White Point Garden could very well be the spark that lights the fuse.
There was at least one scuffle at this monument on Sunday (July 5, 2020) – an incident which has prompted Black Lives Matter protesters and monument defenders to ramp up their rhetoric (and call for reinforcements at future protests).
Take a look …
(Click to view)
(Via: The Contemporary Conservative/ Facebook)
“Black Lives Matter has been at the battery every weekend since the riots,” one source tracking the situation told us. “It is just escalating drastically.”
According to a report from Kelly Golden of 94.3 WSC radio, one Black Lives Matter protester showed up at the monument on Sunday armed with an AR-15 assault rifle. Another reportedly carried an axe and a taser.
“The displays at the battery have gone on for five years now without an incident ever involving a weapon,” said James Bessenger, editor of The Contemporary Conservative. “On Sunday three BLM protestors confronted (monument defenders) with an AR-15, a taser, and an axe. At one point, a protestor bumped into an individual and snatched his flag. Another BLM protestor hit the flag bearer in the head from behind, knocking him down.”
According to Bessenger, the situation is poised to escalate …
A new group calling itself “Flags Across The South” announced that it was planning on bringing weapons – possibly loaded weapons – to future demonstrations. Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter protestors and Antifa activists from across Charleston have reportedly indicated they will stage a counter-protest “with weapons,” according to Bessenger.
“Additional groups from out of town are planning to attend and carry for at least the next two Sundays,” Bessenger added.
What could possibly go wrong, right?
Clearly, this is an increasingly volatile situation … one in which we hope cooler heads on all sides manage to prevail. Certainly we believe there are cooler heads on all sides of these various issues – people of all races and backgrounds eager for a real, respectful conversation on the underlying issues that must be addressed.
Will their voices be heard above the din?
We shall see …
UPDATE || An earlier version of this story indicated the memorial in question was first erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Further research has revealed it was the Fort Sumter Memorial Commission that erected it. We apologize for the error.
-FITSNews
Will this “Confederate Defender” stay Standing?
Posted by: | Comments-
What is the future of this statue?
“Confederate Defender of
Charleston?”
Given the recent violence around Confederate monuments,
And the removal of others
one must wonder.
How long will this pair point out to
Fort Sumter Bay?
Since 1932 if this monument has stood in
Charleston harbor at Battery Park.
Twice it has been vandalized with spray paint.
In separate news: At the University of Texas – Austin, Confederate statues have been removed. University President Greg Fenves said in a statement that it has become clear “that Confederate monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism.” (USA Today, Aug 22, 2017)
Is the sun setting on this piece by Hermon MacNeil?
only time will tell…
Hermon A. MacNeil’s words at the dedication:
“Its motif in brief, is that the stalwart youth, standing in front with sword and shield, symbolizes by his attitude the defense not only of the fort, but also of the fair city behind the fort in which are his most prized possessions, wife and family. And she, the wife, glorified into an Athena-like woman, unafraid, stands behind him with arms outstretched toward the fort, this creating an inseparable union of the city and Fort Sumter.”
“BLACK LIVES MATER. THIS IS THE PROBLEM RACISM”. SOURCE: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/statue-honoring-confederacy-defaced-charleston-park-article-1.2266043
MacNeil’s “Confederate Defenders” was completed as a studio model in 1931. This is is an autographed photo of the model of Confederate Defenders of Charleston Monument pictured in MacNeil’s studio in College Point, NY before completion of the full bronze sculpture as dedicated on October 20, 1932
“THE CAUSE FOR WHICH THEY FOUGHT THE CAUSE OF SLAVERY WAS WRONG.” SOURCE: The Blaze ( http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/07/11/charleston-confederate-monument-vandalized-again-this-time-with-obama-quote/ )
Can America as a nation get beyond the “birthmark of slavery” present throughout our founding, our history, our civil war, our Jim Crow apartheid, our Civil Rights violence, our ongoing racial prejudice, ethnic discrimination, black voter suppression, and claims of racial supremacy?
The answer is up to us.
“The cause for which they fought,
the cause of slavery was wrong.”
President Barack Obama ~ Eulogy for Rev. Pickney, Pastor of Emanuel AME Church 1.5 miles North of this statue
An excerpt From President Barack Obama’s
FAREWELL ADDRESS
January 10, 2017
“I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for justice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon; a creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written; Yes we can.”
“BLACK LIVES MATER. // THIS IS THE PROBLEM #RACISM”. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/06/21/21/29D7C09E00000578-3133597-Confederate_monument_vandalized-a-58_1434918039434.jpg
The Post and Courier ~ Charleston, SC
- “Reactions positive to Charleston mayor’s plan to add historical context to Confederate-era monuments”
- Updated
-
South Carolina lawmakers say Confederate monuments will stay in place despite calls for their removal
( Edit this Post )
The “Confederate Defenders of Charleston” sculpture on Battery Point in Charleston Harbor was spray painted again on Friday, July 10th, 2015.
Police were called to White Point Gardens on a report of vandalism of the Confederate statue completed by MacNeil in 1932. The officers were met by a witness who told them he was seated on a bench 100 feet from the monument when he:
… noticed a white male jog by going east on Murray Blvd. from King Street towards East bay. A few moments later the witness noticed the same white male walking around the statue inside the railing surrounding the monument. The witness then heard a “hissing” sound and realized the man was spray painting the statue.
The suspect is described as a white male with pale skin and dark hair, possibly in his 20s to mid 30s, tall and slender. He was wearing a plain black t-shirt, black shorts, a plain black ball cap, and gold rimmed glasses.
The statue was painted with black spray paint. On the front of the statue it read, “THE CAUSE FOR WHICH THEY FOUGHT THE CAUSE OF SLAVERY WAS WRONG.” On the back it read, “TAKE DOWN THIS RACIST STATUE.” [ SOURCE: The Blaze ( http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/07/11/charleston-confederate-monument-vandalized-again-this-time-with-obama-quote/ ) ]
SOURCE: The Blaze ( http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/07/11/charleston-confederate-monument-vandalized-again-this-time-with-obama-quote/ )
Previously in June, the base of the same monument was covered with red spray-painted graffiti, declaring “Black Lives Matter” and “This is the root of our evil” on the east side. SOURCE: The Blaze ( http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/07/11/charleston-confederate-monument-vandalized-again-this-time-with-obama-quote/ )
The new graffiti is from Obama’s eulogy of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, one of nine people shot to death in the church last month.
“Removing the flag from this state’s capitol would not be an act of political correctness; it would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers,” Obama said. “It would simply be an acknowledgment that the cause for which they fought — the cause of slavery — was wrong.”
Since the massacre at the historic black church, a national outcry erupted over the display of the Confederate flag and similar symbols. This week the Confederate flag at the South Carolina state capitol was taken down. [ SOURCE: The Blaze ( http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/07/11/charleston-confederate-monument-vandalized-again-this-time-with-obama-quote/ )]
Previously in June, the base of the same monument was covered with red spray-painted graffiti, declaring “Black Lives Matter” and “This is the root of our evil” on the east side.
MORE: See: “Confederate Defenders” Sculpture Defaced. ~ Charleston, SC ~ June 20, 2015 (7)
Related posts:
- Confederate Defenders of Charleston -Part 2 (8)
- Confederate Defenders Statue – White Point Gardens & the Battery (8)
- MacNeil Statue will not attend Secession Gala (8)
