In wake of Charlottesville, college faculty in SC ask for rejection of Confederate ‘flagging’ event

Faculty of the College of Charleston’s History Department are calling on the school’s president to deny a campus Confederate “flagging” event planned by the S.C. Secessionist Party.

In the wake of a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend, the faculty members condemned the party’s plan to fly Confederate battle flags at the college, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.

The newspaper reported that the faculty’s statement, released Thursday, said, “We believe this is not a commemoration of a moment in American history but an attempt to intimidate our students, staff and faculty in a way that violates the core values of the institution.

“We ask that, in light of recent events at UVA and across the nation, President McConnell publicly repudiate the planned event and act decisively as have other institutions (University of Florida, Texas A&M) to ban any events held by the South Carolina Secessionist Party on campus to prevent a dangerous situation from developing.”

When the secessionist party members announced their “Flagging of College of Charleston” event on Facebook in July, the post called out College President Glenn McConnell, who previously owned a Confederate memorabilia store and defended public monuments to Confederates, according to The Post and Courier.

McConnell has refrained from discussing Civil War matters since becoming college president, although he supported removing the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia from Statehouse grounds weeks after the mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in 2015, the newspaper reported.

“This flagging will be dedicated to the abundant contributions of CofC President Glenn McConnell to the preservation of Confederate Heritage over the years and to remind everyone that a Confederate still runs their liberal school, regardless of how much the State is paying for his silence,” the Secessionist Party’s Facebook post said.

Secessionist Party founder James Bessenger and black nationalist activist Johnathan Thrower, who goes by Shakem Amen Akhet, told the newspaper that the event would include both Confederate flags and black nationalist flags.

“The purpose is to force Glenn McConnell to own up to his position regarding Confederate imagery, flags, monuments, because in my opinion and Shakem’s he’s been riding the fence,” Bessenger told The Post and Courier. “This has nothing to do with trying to intimidate the student body. The student body wants an answer too.”

This story was originally published August 18, 2017 at 12:24 PM with the headline "In wake of Charlottesville, college faculty in SC ask for rejection of Confederate ‘flagging’ event."