Archive for Battery Park – Charleston
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 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:
Washington Statues “Bleeding” with Red Paint! MacNeil & Calder works defaced.
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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
Will this “Confederate Defender” stay Standing?
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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)
Hermon Atkins MacNeil to be featured in “The Galley”
Posted by: | CommentsHermon MacNeil was the first president of the Clan MacNeil Association of America. This summer, the Galley will contain a feature article about him, written by Dan Leininger, webmaster of this website — HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com.
“The Galley” Spring/Summer 2013; Official Publication of the Clan MacNeil Association of America
The previous posting of February 8, 2013, entitled, “MacNeil Kinsman ~ Hermon Atkins MacNeil and Robert Lister MacNeil,” tells part of the story of these two men.
Vicki Sanders Corporon, editor of the Galley, has accepted the article and accompanying photos that tell more of the story. She said in recent correspondence:
“Thanks for sending such excellent photos of Hermon’s sculptures. I know their inclusion, along with your article, will be the highlight of the upcoming issue! He really was one of America’s finest sculptors … how important is your mission to make sure he is fully appreciated!”
Sculpture photos of the Supreme Court (East Pediment); George Washington from the Washington Arch in NYC; Abraham Lincoln from University of Illinois; Ezra Cornell at Ithaca; Confederate Defenders Monument (1932) Charleston harbor, SC; and George Rogers Clark at Vincennes will illustrate the story.
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, the clan’s first president.
Stay tuned for more as the publication is released.
