The grounds are beautifully landscaped and the ornate Greek Revival-style building puts our statehouse in Columbus to shame even with the reminders of its battle scars — six bronze stars marking spots where it was struck by Sherman’s cannons during the Civil War.
The site was far less glorious the day before our visit.
Exercising its member’s right to peaceful assembly, the Ku Klux Klan and Americans wearing Nazi swastika shirts staged a protest on the South Carolina statehouse grounds in support of the Confederate flag.
Exercising the same rights, several groups protested the Klan’s protest.
“KKK, Black Panthers wave flags, raise voice” read the headline on the Metro section of “The State,” Columbia’s newspaper, the following morning.
Raised over the Capitol in 1962 in response to the civil rights movement and racial desegregation, the so-called rebel flag came down the weekend before thanks to a vote by the South Carolina legislature in the wake of the massacre of nine church members by a man who apparently embraced the Confederate flag.
On the flight down, I imagined what would have happened if my husband and I — our love an ultimate symbol of racial desegregation (he’s white; I am black) — went to the rally.
Our flight was delayed, so there was little chance I’d be able to convince anyone that even a drive-by of the protest would be a good idea.
A trip to the capitol was in the cards, though.
My husband's cousin knew we wanted to see it — it's been in the news, we work in the news — and took us there during a tour of the city that included beautiful historic homes, a rebounding entertainment section, the University of South Carolina and its sports complexes and a river dotted with relatively new construction.
I am glad I missed the rally and the sight of the old bars and stars flying high above the state Capitol.
The flag would have dominated my thoughts about Columbia.
I wouldn’t have given much attention to the George Washington statue on the statehouse grounds or the palmetto decorating the city.
Defenders of the Confederate flag say it is a symbol of southern heritage, even though we didn’t see one Confederate Flag flying during our tour of Columbia.
It almost certainty was flying somewhere in Columbia, but the only Confederate flag we saw last weekend on an apartment porch was back home here during our drive from the Dayton airport.
How ironic to find this symbol of the Confederacy in Ohio, a Union state that lost 35,475 lives during the Civil War, according to the Ohio History Connection.
People can wave the Confederate Flag all they want on their private property (my tax dollars have no say).
Like the right to assembly, they have the right to free speech.
I likewise have a right to say that I don’t see “Southern Heritage” when I see the Confederate flag.
I see a symbol of hate, and history backs up this image.
When I see it, I see injustice, fear, ignorance, intolerance, treachery and ugliness.
That’s not the South I have experienced.
That flag is something, you know, the Klan likes.
The South Carolina Capitol got a major beauty makeover when its lawmakers brought it down.
Contact this columnist at amelia.robinson@coxinc.com or Twitter.com/DDNSmartMouth
About the Author
