SOUTH CAROLINA: Local UDC sues Charleston County School District to Restore Robert E. Lee Highway Marker
The local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has filed a lawsuit against the Charleston County School District to restore a marker commemorating Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to its previous place in front of a downtown school.
The marker, which was located on King Street in front of Charleston Charter School for Math at 1002 King St., was removed in July 2021 by the city and placed in storage.
The original removal request came from the school’s officials and was supported by the district.
The lawsuit, filed July 19, argues that the school district violated the South Carolina Heritage Act, which provides that monuments and memorials on public grounds commemorating American wars or Native or African American history cannot be “relocated, removed, disturbed, or altered” without approval from the state legislature.
The previous threshold for approval was a two-thirds majority in the General Assembly, but this provision was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 2021.
The stone-and-metal marker was erected by the UDC and donated to the school by the city, then known as M. Rutledge Rivers Junior High School, in 1947, according to the description carved on the marker.
The lawsuit cites two articles from the Charleston News and Courier, one of the predecessor publications to The Post and Courier, that were written ahead of the unveiling on May 10, 1948.
Bill Connor, UDC’s attorney, said the lawsuit has not yet been served to the district.
Vanessa Denney, interim executive director of communications for CCSD, said the district will research the civil complaint and “comment when appropriate.”
This is not the first lawsuit to challenge the removal of this marker or other controversial historical figures on the peninsula.
The American Heritage Association said in a July 22 news release that it provided financial support for the UDC lawsuit against the district.
The American Heritage Association previously sued the city over the marker’s removal, with S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson agreeing with the group that the city violated the Heritage Act.
In response to a letter from Wilson threatening legal action in February 2022, the city argued that the removal did not violate the Heritage Act, as the marker itself was not explicitly a “war memorial.” Lawyers for the city also asserted that the stretch of King Street where the marker stood was not officially named the “Robert E. Lee Memorial Highway.”
The lawsuit was dropped in September 2022.
A separate lawsuit brought against the city by the descendants of John C. Calhoun contested the removal of the statue of the former vice president in Marion Square.
This suit, also funded by the American Heritage Association, was also dropped in September 2022. According to the release from the association, the suit was refiled and is currently on appeal.
–postandcourier.com
