Bill Would Allow SC Cities, Counties, Colleges, to Change Names and Monuments
Robert Kittle
Published: November 25, 2015, 8:30 am
... Lawmakers passed the Heritage Act in 2000 as part of a compromise to move the Confederate flag off the Statehouse dome and put it at the Confederate Soldier Monument in front of the Statehouse instead. The Heritage Act prohibits changing any monument, street name, building or school name, without a two-thirds vote from both the state House and Senate.
Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Columbia, helped craft that compromise and the Heritage Act. But now that the Confederate flag is off the Statehouse grounds, he says it’s time to let local governments or college boards to decide what’s best for them.
“The problem with the current Heritage Act is that if a county such as Greenwood, a city such as Greenwood, want to change the name on a monument they would have to come to state government, General Assembly, to get two-thirds approval. That makes no sense. If The Citadel says, ‘We want to take a flag down from an auditorium, place it somewhere else,’ they would have to come get two-thirds approval,” he says ...
But Sen. John Courson, R-Columbia, who also helped write the Heritage Act, says, “We have a rich history, and we need to preserve that history, and I think changing street names or monuments or moving monuments, it sort of sanitizes history, and I would be opposed to it” ...
http://wjbf.com/2015/11/25/bill-would-allow-sc-cities-counties-colleges-to-change-names-and-monuments/
