Archive for South Carolina
More Tensions on The Battery at the MacNeil Statue
Posted by: | CommentsA man was arrested in Charleston, SC, at The Confederate Defenders statue today as a woman was video recording. “For the past couple Sundays, supporters of Black Lives Matter and supporters of the Confederacy, a group called Flags Across America, have stood at the Battery near the Confederate Defenders statue to protest.”
ABC News 4 & WCIV report Charleston police stating that “a man was arrested after he allegedly “chest-bumped” a woman near the Confederate Defenders statue.
Witnesses tell ABC News 4 that a man shoved a Black Lives Matter protester. Charleston Police officials said they don’t have information on which group he was supporting.
Seven weeks ago on May 30th, the base of this statue was marked with red spray paint. Incidents have continued since then.
Since the murders at the AME Mother Emmanuel Church in 2015, The Confederate Defenders have been spray painted at least 3 times.
No one has been was injured in any of these incidents since 2015.
CLICK HERE: FOR VIDEO and further details OF THE ARREST.
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OTHER VANDALISM ELSEWHERE on MacNeil works:
In New York City the MacNeil statue of George Washington as General of the Continental Army has also been spray painted. CLICK HERE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Related posts:
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Historical Fact – Versus – Collective Memory?
Posted by: | CommentsFRIEZE
Public debate around Confederate insignia has little to do with historical fact, and everything to do with collective memory.
What we see happening in places like Charlottesville today – after the tragic, bloody events of last weekend, and the roiling debates around Confederate monuments – has less to do with historical fact and more to do with collective memory. In Dell Upton’s 2015 book What Can and Can’t Be Said – his insightful examination of African-American memorials in the United States – we are presented with two pivotal questions regarding our understanding of monuments in the contemporary South: what is possible and what is permitted to be said in debates around public memorials?
Upton’s analysis of civil rights memorials acknowledges a key point too often omitted from contemporary debates. New South ‘boosterism’ invented the memorial landscape in the 1880s and 1890s. A class of merchants, manufacturers and financiers sought to transform the south. Partnering with figures such as Henry W. Grady (1850-89), the managing editor of the Atlanta Constitution, they promoted industrial growth, agrarian reform, and northern investment to reintegrate the region into the ‘political and economic life’ of the United States. This process required the stripping away of facts around the political, economic, and social motivations involved in fighting the Civil War, and in its place, a new context that embraced a collective understanding of southern sentiment about the war that would be acceptable to northern whites. This process had nothing to do with the history of the war. Americans, north and south, knew full well that the Confederacy was created to preserve slavery, and the resolution of the Civil War meant the end of a slave democracy on which southerners relied.
Detail from H.A. MacNeil’s Confederate Defenders of Charleston monument, 1932, Charleston, South Carolina. Courtesy: Mr.TinDC, Flickr, Creative Commons
In other words, today we are not debating what happened, but instead we are quarrelling about how southerners choose to remember it. As countless historians have tirelessly explained, the Confederate memorials that dot the landscape were erected long after the war was fought as southerners promoted the idea of a ‘New South.’ New, in the sense that a new generation of southern leaders embraced a narrative of modernization and preservation: a narrative that argued that southerners fought nobly not to preserve slavery, but for self-determination against northern aggression. This story meant that, fuelled by a regional identity that believed in honour, family, and religion, southerners may have lost on the battlefield, but they would retain the values that defined their culture. They continued to preserve those noble values even as they grew cities and nurtured industries such as textiles and railroads.
They succeeded in reshaping and rebranding the region, but it came at a high cost for black Americans. As southern whites murdered and disenfranchised black people, they would celebrate why they committed those acts by creating markers to an idealized version of white southern history. The memorials we debate today are public markers created by private groups that endorse this white vision and support these white actions. In truth, we should not call them memorials. A proper label would be ‘political markers funded by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and gifted to municipalities across the South to celebrate the re-establishment of white rule after Reconstruction’.
The pattern of greatest activism linked to these markers between 1896 and 1919 and again between 1954 and 1965 correlates to the public proclamations of anti-black sentiment at those moments. Indeed, the first period coincides with the rise of white supremacy marked by the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision that legalized segregation and opened the door to subsequent black voter suppression, a lynching campaign in the 1890s and a series of anti-black riots in communities such as Atlanta (1906), Springfield (1908), and East St. Louis (1917). This aggression culminated in 1919 with what author James Weldon Johnson described as the ‘The Red Summer’: a series of 26 race-inspired riots that erupted across the United States. The second period marked white southerners reacting against the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954 that ended school segregation. In the years that followed that victory – as Martin Luther King and countless others marched in nonviolent protest culminating in the Civil Rights Act (1964) which outlawed discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin and the Voting Rights Act (1965) which prevented denial or restriction of the right to vote – southerners embraced symbols of the Confederacy.
Navigating the space created between history and feeling prompted me to participate in The Confederate Flag – 13 Flag Funerals organized by artist John Sims on 25 May 2015. In organizing the burning and burials of the Confederate Flag in the former states of the Confederacy on the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, Sims commemorated the struggle for freedom from an African-American perspective. A form of creative resistance, the project highlighted what countless black and white people were prevented from saying for decades. A black person burning a symbol of the Confederacy in public rejects the romanticized South and challenges the white-centric public memory that defines the region. Online threats, calls to my college for me to be fired and calls for me to be arrested for burning the Confederate flag, bombarded me as I pursued this project. Yet, in confronting Confederate symbolism with a public art project, we foreshadowed a wider debate around truth in the public sphere. It reminded Americans that black people who challenged white supremacy have been terrorized, beaten, or killed for doing so. It acknowledged, as should be obvious, that African Americans rejoiced in the South’s defeat, suffered brutally through Jim Crow segregation and continue today to seek freedom equal to all in the public square.
While previous ethnic white immigrants that came to United States were placed in a ‘melting pot’ that washed away their difference and made them ‘white’, our contemporary social space cannot be defined by that white racial status quo. The lived experience that defines the modern United States requires the legacies and memories of all our people to inform the public square we inhabit. While it may seem like an empowered white majority clinging to the past defines our current reality, in truth, today many more Americans are claiming a place for their experiences to define our democracy. Together we care about the truth and reject symbols that threaten and demean; we seek a community that celebrates the richness of our diversity. But we must work hard to confront the truth of historical violence and its effect. With that truth made clear, we can move towards a public sphere that celebrates the people and institutions that helped the United States live up to its ideals.
Main image: detail from Moses Jacob Ezekiel’s Confederate monument (1914) at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. Courtesy: Mark Fischer, Flickr, Creative Commons
Julian Chambliss is Professor of English and History at Michigan State University (MSU), in East Lansing, MI.
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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.
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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/
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Follow-up on Tensions at MacNeil’s Battery Point Sculpture
Posted by: | CommentsSOURCE: The “Post and Courier” of Charleston carried this news update on tensions at the Confederate Defenders Monument at Battery Point, Charleston. Hermon A. MacNeil’s allegorical sculpture dedicated in 1932. – Dan Leininger ~ webmaster
- Man seen carrying unloaded rifle near
- Confederate Defenders of Charleston
- monument
A man was spotted carrying a rifle beside the Confederate Defenders of Charleston monument by the Battery on Saturday night, but police determined the gun was unloaded.
The incident occurred around 11:20 p.m. Saturday during a pop-up protest in White Point Garden, said Insp. Karen Nix, a spokeswoman for the Charleston Police Department.
It’s not illegal to display a rifle or shotgun, just to point and present it, which was not the case, Nix said.
When police inspected the firearm, they saw it was unloaded.
She said she wasn’t aware if the man gave a reason for displaying the weapon beside the monument.
Unconfirmed reports surfaced on social media on Sunday indicating a man was again carrying a rifle beside the monument about midday. The police had no knowledge of the man returning or of another man repeating the action.
By 5 p.m. on Sunday, the Battery was calm, with many people lounging around the park enjoying the weather.
Although many protests and contentious conversations have revolved around Charleston monuments to the Confederacy and pro-slavery individuals, Nix said this was the first time recently that a person has been seen with a gun near a monument.
Related Images:
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
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Washington Statues “Bleeding” with Red Paint! MacNeil & Calder works defaced.
Posted by: | Comments
Both George Washington statues on the Arch were defaced with red paint in Washington Square. [Credit: Stefan Jeremiah for New York Post]
We were saddened to hear that “red paint” was splattered over statues of George Washington in NYC yesterday.
CLICK HERE for the New York Post story of the defacing. By Kevin Sheehan and Tina Moore June 29, 2020 | 12:26pm | Updated ]
Vandalism on June 29, 2020 left MacNeil’s statue “bleeding” red paint of of the 104 year-old marble monument.
The news arrived this morning from Antonio Bueti, a New York native, MacNeil buff, and Friend of HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com/
Three weeks ago, I posted Photos and the story of BLM Protesters marching through the Arch during demonstrations over the death of George Floyd. CLICK HERE
“We had to work together on those statues, Calder and I,” said Mr. MacNeil, “and we had some hot arguments over them, though we are good friends. Of course, each of us had his own statue to do, but we had to treat them in the same restrained manner, to fit each other and the Arch itself” J. Walker McSpadden, Famous Sculptors of America: Books for Libraries Press, Freeport, NY, 1924, reprint 1968
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I never met Hermon MacNeil.
I never met my maternal grandfather, Tom Henry McNeil.
ALL OF LIFE and our family histories are filled with people we HAVE NEVER MET.
In 2014 I wrote an article for the MacNeil Clan Magazine,
The Galley.
I include the the pages and the text of that article below in this post:
The photos can also be viewed in this previous post.
Hermon Atkins MacNeil – American Sculptor – (1866-1947)
MacNeil Clan history, like all family history, is filled with people we have never met. One MacNeil who has always fascinated me is Hermon Atkins MacNeil. Researching “Uncle” Hermon has also led me to another amazing man, Robert Lister MacNeil. Both men were present when the Clan MacNeil Association was formed ninety-three years ago.
MacNeil kinsman.
On May 26, 1921, the Clan MacNeil Association of America was organized in New York City. Central to that moment were Robert Lister MacNeil, (The MacNeil of Barra – 45th Chief of the Clan), and Hermon Atkins MacNeil, a sculptor, who served as the clan’s first president. At that time, Robert Lister was 32 years of age, a practicing architect in New York City, and a veteran of the First World War. He had succeeded to the chiefship of the Clan MacNeil just six years earlier. His dreams of the Isle of Barra and restoring Kisimul Castle (as told in his book The Castle in the Sea) were but faint hopes that would await decades and the efforts of many MacNeils for their accomplishment.
Dan “Neil” Leininger in a MacNeil kilt at Kisimul Castle, Isle of Barra, Scotland 2014. WHAT A TOUR it was!!!
His other kinsman was Hermon Atkins MacNeil. Hermon was the older of the two, an accomplished sculptor, also practicing in New York City, he had already created a myriad of statues, sculptures, monuments, as well as, the U.S. Standing Liberty Quarter first minted in 1916. Although these two MacNeils were 23 years apart in age, they were both trained in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, a school for architects and sculptors in the Classic Greco-Roman styles. A lasting bond between them formed through their shared artistic talents, professional skills, and years of Clan MacNeil activity.
Hermon MacNeil designed a bronze plaque that was unveiled and dedicated on May 28, 1928 on the campus of Flora MacDonald College in Red Springs, NC. The plaque commemorated the 1735 landing of Neil MacNeil of Jura, Scotland with 350 followers. This group made up mostly of clan members landed at the Cape Fear Settlement in North Carolina. The plaque was placed on a red granite stone and marked another clan project shared by these two men.
In his later years, Robert Lister stated: “Hermon was an outstanding sculptor and one of my dearest friends all the rest of his life.” In 1970, six years after publishing those words, Robert Lister MacNeil died at the age of 81. Twenty-three years earlier (in 1947), Hermon Atkins MacNeil had died, also at the same age of 81. All of the above was discovered as I “searched for Uncle Hermon.” I never met either of these two MacNeil men. The more I learn of them both, the more striking I find the parallels in their lives.
MacNeil roots. The third MacNeil man that I never met was my own grandfather, Tom Henry McNeil (1860-1932). Whenever my mother spoke of her father or of her “Uncle Hermon,” I would see a certain smile on her face and a sparkle in her eye. Emotionally, recalling her McNeil memories seemed to take her to “a very pleasant place.” On the MacNeil family tree, her father and Hermon MacNeil were first cousins. But “Uncle Hermon” was what the whole family always called him and what he always considered himself to be. Though she did not share them often, my mother’s stories instilled in me a sense of “wonder” about these two “MacNeil” men.
Genetically, my mother gave all of us six children her MacNeil biology, but when I first realized that my parents also gave me the middle name of “Neil,” I felt some extra portion of my Scottish ancestry. That feeling has only grown as I get older. My grandfather McNeil died before I was born. I was just two years old when Hermon MacNeil died. Now as an old man myself this MacNeil heritage and my memories of the sparkle in mother’s eyes have expanded my interest in these three MacNeils, and in the many other MacNeils that I have yet to meet.
MacNeil pursuits. So I am pursuing my MacNeil Clan interests in several ways. In 2010 I formally began searching for “Uncle Hermon” by building a “digital gallery” of the life and work as a sculptor. I built HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com, a website dedicated to making his sculpture and career available to the world. A web search of the name “Hermon MacNeil” will take you there. His sculptures, statues, monuments are scattered from Washington, DC to Portland, Oregon, and from New York City to Gallup, New Mexico. Now this virtual gallery features over 500 photos and 125 stories of Hermon MacNeil’s life and work. There you can see his statues of George Washington from Washington Arch, NYC; Ezra Cornell at Cornell University, William McKinley at Columbus, Ohio; Abraham Lincoln at Champaign, Illinois; Pony Express at St. Joseph, Missouri; Pere Marquette in Chicago; and monuments in Philadelphia, Charleston, Albany, and Flushing, and dozens of other cities.
In 2013 I became a member of the Clan MacNeil Association of America. I did not know its existence until I saw the 1928 news story of the MacNeil plaque dedication in Red Springs. For the last three yearsI have shared “MacNeil stories” at our annual family reunion of my siblings and our children and grand children. In August 2013 I went to my first Highland Festival. My nephew in Colorado told me about the attended the Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Fest in Estes Park. What a great celebration of Celtic pride and heritage.
Donna and I have booked our spots on the 2014 MacNeil Clan Tour of Scotland. We reserved our passage before I received the Fall/Winter issue of The Galley with Rory MacNeil’s invitation to the World Gathering of the Clan MacNeil on the Isle of Barra from August 4-7, 2014. We hope to meet some of you there this summer.
- I joined Clan MacNeil Association I have attended the 2013 Estes Park Highland Fest
- I have booked spots for Donna and I on the 2014 MacNeil Clan Tour of Scotland
- I continue to research HAM
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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 )
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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)
Related Images:
“Confederate Defenders” Sculpture Defaced. ~ Charleston, SC ~ June 20, 2015
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Down the street from The Mother Emmanuel AME Church where nine members were massacred this week while worshiping God in prayer and Bible study stands the Confederate Defenders monument sculpted by Hermon MacNeil. The memorial was defaced with spray paint on Sunday.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/06/21/21/29D7C09E00000578-3133597-Confederate_monument_vandalized-a-58_1434918039434.jpg
Hermon A. MacNeil’s only Confederate monument stands on Battery Point on Charleston Harbor facing out to Fort Sumter 3 1/2 miles away where the first shots of the Civil War was fired . The monument was commissioned for this site in 1932 by The United Daughters of the Confederacy. It has stood for 83 years.
MacNeil’s design was chosen by a local monument committee over all other entries. The allegorical piece depicts the Youth of defenders and the Maternal figure of culture. The shield contains the Seal of the State of South Carolina (the first to succeed from the Union).
Succession Gala: For my own comments on a previous Confederate Celebration and remembrance see this post on this website: “MacNeil Statue will not attend Secession Gala” By (https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/2010/12/12/macneil-statue-will-not-attend-secession-gala/)
It is unlike any other Civil War Monuments that Hermon MacNeil created. SEE the following links:
- Whitinsville, Massachusetts ( 1905 Monument to Soldiers & Sailors of the Civil War~ Whitinsville, Massachusetts );
- Albany, NY ( 1912 Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Albany,NY );
- Philadelphia Pennsylvania ( 1927 Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Monument ~ Philadelphia, PA );
A June 21st report by Melissa Boughton of The Post and Courrier gives the following details:
The damage was reported to police dispatchers just after 12:30 p.m. The statue was covered up by residents who wrapped a large tarp around it about 1:30 p.m.
Two signs were placed on the tarp after the graffiti was covered up. One said, “All lives matter #charlestonunited,” and the other said, “Take down racist statues.”
The incident occurred in the wake of the fatal shooting Wednesday of nine black people inside Emanuel AME Church in what police say was an attack by a white supremacist. The church held its first service since the shootings on Sunday.
The attack has led to a nationwide call for South Carolina to remove the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds. At least 1,000 people gathered Saturday in Columbia to call for the flag to be taken down. Numerous petitions also call for the flag’s removal. ( http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150621/PC16/150629854/confederate-monument-a-focus-of-debate-after-graffiti-appears )
Xavier Rosado and Tighe Berry argue about graffiti discovered, and later covered up, on a Confederate statue downtown near The Battery. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150621/PC16/150629854/confederate-monument-a-focus-of-debate-after-graffiti-appears
FOR MORE HISTORY on this work by HERMON MACNEIL see the following:
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/statue-honoring-confederacy-defaced-charleston-park-article-1.2266043
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Hermon Atkins MacNeil’s “Into the Unknown” ~ Brookgreen Gardens
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“Into the Unknown” by H. A. MacNeil ( white marble, 1912) became the ‘seal’ image for the National Sculpture Society. (Photo by Dan Leininger, webmaster: HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com
Hermon A. MacNeil’s “Into the Unknown” at Brookgreen Gardens is framed by this ornamental iron gate designed by Anna Hyatt Vaughn Huntington, (who studied with MacNeil and Gutzon Borglum and other American sculptors). MacNeil portrayed ‘the sculptor’ as a female figure, sheltered under the sweep of her wings, with her face turned into the block, holding a chisel in one hand and a mallet in the other, carving herself out of the stone. 
Anna Hyatt Vaughn Huntington placed the piece by her early teacher in a cove of “honor” framed by an ornamental gate of her own design. The site conveys the angelic beauty of the white marble piece in a striking manner.
Brookgreen Gardens was built on the Brookgreen Plantation at Murrells Inlet, South Carolina in 1930 by Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington.
An Icon of this MacNeil sculpture remains the NSS symbol now over 100 years later
This 350 acre outdoor sculpture garden rests within a 9000 acre nature preserve. It provides a magnificent outdoor setting for an enduring ‘world premier’ of an American collection of 1200 unique sculpture pieces by over 400 sculptors. Coupling “Archibald Huntington’s interest in history and the classical world, with Anna Hyatt Huntington’s devotion to creatures and figures of the natural world,” this marvellous collection gathers a vast array of American figurative sculptures of nature, human figures, and animals. (Beatrice Gilman Proske, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture. SC: Brookgreen Gardens: 1968, p. 76).
MacNeil’s “Into the Unknown,” “symbolizing the mystery of artistic creation, was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1912 under the title ‘Inspiration.’ 
A design based on it was adopted as an emblem of the National Sculpture Society at the time of their 1923 exhibition.
In 1948, a year after MacNeil’s death, the Huntingtons obtained the MacNeil piece for Brookgreen. Today Anna’s ‘Ornamental Gate’ frames her mentor’s tribute to the Inspiration of the sculptor. In May 2012, 100 years after MacNeil’s inspiration for this work, I had the privilege of visiting the Brookgreen Gardens and gathering this story and these images for the website collection. His ageless work has now entered the digital age in this virtual gallery in his name.
[Photo credits: Taken on site by Dan Leininger, webmaster: HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com]
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MacNeil Statue will not attend Secession Gala
Posted by: | Comments[For more recent news (Dec 21st) 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/
Related Images:
Confederate Defenders of Charleston -Part 2
Posted by: | CommentsA photograph of the Confederate Defenders of Charleston sculpture autographed by Hermon A. MacNeil has been purchased from the on-line inventory of Steven L. Roskins, a dealer in historic autographs in Venice, Florida. The statue, dedicated on October 20, 1932 is Located in the White Point Gardens overlooking Charleston Harbor. The statue faces toward the Ft Sumter National Park located at the mouth of Charleston Harbor about 3 1/2 miles east southeast of the MacNeil statue and White Point Gardens. The Fort was the site of the opening battle of the American Civil War on April 12-13, 1861.
Signed Photograph, “To Charles C. Curran – The Wise War Horse in Art. H.A. MacNeil, S.C.” 7 ½” x 10”,
The photograph is inscribed to noted American artist Charles C. Curran. He and MacNeil were Jurors in numerous art expositions through the years. Acclaimed as an painter, Curran is saluted here by MacNeil with this visual image of his own Confederate Memorial sculpture.
The photo appears to be taken in a studio (probably MacNeil’s in College Point on Long Island, New York). The backdrop is a draping. The little sentry soldier propped up at the base left seems a curious addition. Perhaps, it has some special meaning between MacNeil and Curran. We do not know. We do know that the little sleeping sentry is not part of the monument after installation in Charleston. The transport of the entire bronze piece and marble base to Charleston, SC and its subsequent installation White Point Gardens represents a monumental task as well. (See Google Map link below)
The autographed inscription at the photo bottom reads, “To Charles C. Curran – The Wise War Horse in Art. ~ H.A. MacNeil, S.C.” The photo reverse (not shown) bears MacNeil’s further handwritten notation and second signature, “Study. Defensive Monument, Sumter Park, Charleston, S.C. H.A. MacNeil, S.C. 1931.” At the center of the back is a stamped mark, “The Capitol Photo Studios, 617 – 2nd Avenue, College Point, L[ong] I[sland].”
For another unusual photo of the Statue installed at in South Carolina go to Confederate Defenders Statue – Battery Park
Visit this Sculpture by Hermon A. MacNeil
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Confederate Defenders Statue – White Point Gardens & the Battery
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Flat Abby and Grandmother Starmer visit the H. A. MacNeil statue in Battery park, Charleston, South Carolina in 2004.
This interesting photo of a MacNeil sculpture surfaced in a recent internet search. Grandmother Starmer and her little friend ‘Flat Abby’ are pictured visiting MacNeil’s “Confererate Defenders of Charleston” monument. No photo of this sculpture has been previously posted on this website. Located in Charleston, South Carolina, this statue was completed in 1931 and dedicated in October 1932. At that time surviving Civil War Veterans would have been over 80 years of age. The location at White Point Gardens and the Battery was first used as a public garden in 1837. With the outbreak of the Civil War, it became a fortification for the city, a Battery. Today, you will also find an impressive display of weaponry used to shell and defend the city.
On a more light hearted note, We have the statue pictured with “Flat Abby” some 143 years later. According to Grandmother’s blog, “Flat Abby arrived in Charleston, SC to visit us, Grandmother and Grandfather Starmer, in late October 2004, just in time for Halloween.” The posting, they tell me, was a ‘fun project’ done six years ago for their granddaughter, Abby. The blog continues with a historical tour of Beauregard House, antebellum home of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard and other delightful sites of the city. Grandfather and Grandmother Starmer offer a wonderful travelers guide for young and old alike in their ‘Adventures with Flat Abby’. (It is amazing what ‘grandparenting’ does to otherwise, regular human beings. – including this Webmaster). For more details and history see their blog at: http://frank.itlab.us/flat_abby/
We thank Abby’s ‘Grandfather’ (Frank Starmer) and Grandmother for permission to use their 2004 photo of this MacNeil piece. (Hermon would have smiled too!)
In coming weeks the webmaster will post another photo of this work as it was first displayed in H. A. MacNeil’s studio at College Point, Long Island, New York in 1931. More later.
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