Our local Representative vigorously defended the Confederate Monument that sits outside of our courthouse in the name of history and heritage.
The history that he and others don’t want to be remembered, as seen in legislation being pushed through Columbia here in Black History Month, is the true meaning of that monument.
One needs look no further than the actual dedication speech for it from 1903:
“We know that Christian civilization has successfully penetrated the jungles of Africa, and the descendants of many of the savages who were transported to the South have been taught to know God. We know that the highest type of Anglo-Saxon manhood and of Anglo-Saxon civilization may be found in the states of the South.”
This cartoon, a collaboration between GWCDP Chair Bill Kimler and artist Denise Waldrep aims to emphasize the truth about what that monument represents. The truth about what many Black residents of Greenwood see when they walk past that monument. The truth that is being whitewashed from our classrooms as we speak.
