BUY Rebel Flags For SaleIn 2016, the clerk of court in York County, South Carolina, announced that a Confederate flag and portraits of Confederate generals taken down during a courthouse renovation would not be going back up. Clerk David Hamilton said he wanted everyone who came into the courtroom to feel they would be treated fairly. But he soon learned that removing them was against the law, and he changed his mind. The flag and the portraits went back on the wall.
South Carolina’s Heritage Act
The law that stopped the removal was South Carolina’s Heritage Act of 2000. It was passed as part of the compromise that moved the Confederate flag from the dome of the State House to a monument on the grounds. The act protects monuments, memorials and markers honoring the state’s wars, from the Revolution to the present, and says they cannot be removed, renamed or altered without a two-thirds vote of the state legislature.
The Heritage Act applies to public property across the state, including courthouses, parks and streets. Local officials cannot simply take memorials down on their own, no matter how they personally feel about them.
Generals on the Courthouse Wall
For generations, portraits of Confederate leaders hung in courthouses and public buildings across the South. To many residents, they are a reminder of local history and of the men from their communities who served. York County, near the North Carolina border, sent many of its young men into Confederate service, and its people have long been proud of that history.
The Rule of Law
Whatever someone thinks of a flag or a painting, the York County story is a reminder that laws apply to everyone, including public officials. The Heritage Act was passed by the people’s elected representatives, and changing it is up to them. Until then, the history on the courthouse walls stays where it belongs.
Read more in Why We Will Never Ban the Confederate Flag Here, and browse our Confederate flag collection.
Source: WRDW: Law makes clerk change mind about Confederate flag removal
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