South Carolina still recognizes Confederate Memorial Day. Make it stop | Opinion
It’s that time of year again, when we are all reminded that the state of South Carolina and eight of the state’s 46 counties actually close government offices and give non-essential employees a day off to celebrate soldiers who died in a war 164 years ago trying to keep Black people as slaves.
Lexington County is one of the eight. Wednesday, it announced Friday’s closures on Facebook without citing the reason, perhaps out of embarrassment. County Council members certainly should be embarrassed for celebrating a day that our government shouldn’t commemorate given the hatred at its heart.
The post simply said, “All Lexington County offices will be closed on Friday, May 9, and will reopen during normal business hours on Monday, May 12.”
“Is it a holiday?” asked one commenter who found and shared a list of 10 national May 9 observances, none of which she said sounded like they would require county offices to close.
The list included National Home Front Heroes Day, National Spouse Appreciation Day, National Butterscotch Brownie Day, Hurray For Buttons Day and Lost Sock Memorial Day
“Lost Sock Memorial Day,” came one reply. “We must observe the sacrifice these Socks have made.”
Comments piled up like a car crash, showing divisions that remain to this day.
“It’s for Confederate Memorial Day, which they conveniently don’t mention.”
“Lexington out here making sure we all still remember it is ran by the Good Ole Boys.”
“Lexington County afraid to offend someone by naming the holiday. Bunch of wimps.”
“CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL DAY. No offense to anyone. We wouldn’t be where we are as a NATION UNDER GOD without this war of the people. Soooo learn to have controlled feelings and enjoy HISTORY…”
I’m all for remembering history, but there are other ways to commemorate the civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans than governmental holidays associated with the scourge of slavery.
Other than South Carolina, only a few other states still commemorate dead Confederate soldiers with office closures. They include Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Texas though the names and dates of their holidays differ. Texas, for example, celebrates Confederate Heroes Day on Jan. 19.
South Carolina began celebrating Confederate Memorial Day by giving state workers a holiday under an arrangement in 2000 that also allowed South Carolina to shed its status as the last state in the U.S. to make Martin Luther King Jr. a state holiday.
Both days are now recognized when only one should be.
The arrangement is still called a “compromise” in some circles as if this deal with white devilry shouldn’t be reviled by anyone who supports a government of the people, for the people and by the people — a phrase which, of course, should not leave any person on the outside looking in.
Confederate Memorial Day has its roots in 1894, when the United Daughters of the Confederacy began honoring the Confederate dead May 10, the anniversary of Stonewall Jackson’s death.
This year that date falls on a Saturday, so the holiday is recognized on a Friday.
In past years, Confederate Memorial Day services have been held around the state, including in Beaufort National Cemetery, where there are 117 Confederate soldiers’ graves. The solemn services there are marked by medal presentations, wreath-laying ceremonies, readings, music and color guards made up of reenactors, and conducted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy.
It’s fine for such groups to remember their forebears.
This is America after all, where certain rights of the individual should be sacrosanct.
But those sponsors are private groups, not governmental agencies.
No governmental agency should be in a position anywhere near saluting the cause of slavery. It was six Confederate veterans who founded the Ku Klux Klan in 1865 in Tennessee, after all.
Besides, Memorial Day is also a holiday, which the entire nation will mark in just a few weeks to memorialize all of those members of the armed services who died in service to their country.
Also, anyone taking the long view of South Carolina history might want to ask why the state is remembering soldiers who died in a four-year war when the first people to live here arrived 13,000 years ago, the state became part of the Province of Carolina in 1663 and a separate British colony in the early 1700s when it split from North Carolina, and was founded as its own state in 1776.
It was 1896 when Act 80 became law in South Carolina, recognizing two holidays: Jan. 19 for the birthday of Robert E. Lee and May 10 for the day Stonewall Jackson died. Before and since, some in the state clung to the demonstrably false notion that the “war of northern aggression” was fought over state’s rights when Southern states seceded over their “right” to slavery.
Sadly, such terrible prejudice persists.
Just 10 years ago, a white supremacist who saw the Confederate flag as a symbol of hate killed nine people, including pastor and state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, during a Bible study at the hallowed, historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. After that tragedy, consensus and political will grew to take down the Confederate flag that had long flown over the State House.
Those who view Confederate symbols with Southern pride don’t need the government dictating that. Wouldn’t it be great if in the 10-year shooting anniversary’s wake forces of humanity and decency once again marshaled momentum like troops to eliminate Confederate Memorial Day? Let’s remove this stain of slavery from the government that’s meant to represent all its residents.
The Anderson Observer reported last year that the eight counties still participating in Confederate Memorial Day are Allendale, Anderson, Cherokee, Colleton, Dillon, Lexington, McCormick and Oconee.
If you live in one of those counties, call your County Council members today and ask them to stop participating. And if you live anywhere at all in South Carolina, call your state politicians with the same request so our government ends its association with slavery.
This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "South Carolina still recognizes Confederate Memorial Day. Make it stop | Opinion."