South Carolina among several states observing Confederate holiday today

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The leader of the South Carolina Senate says it's sad that all but one of the state's 85 school districts will hold classes on Confederate Memorial Day.

"When it's mandatory, they should observe it. When they start picking and choosing holidays, it creates a controversy," said Republican Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell of Charleston, a Civil War re-enactor and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. "We don't need to get back in that debate."

All state agencies, the Senate and some county offices will close today. The state-run Confederate Relic Room will be open.

South Carolina is one of several Southern states to designate a state holiday to honor Confederate soldiers, although they do so on different days.

* Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi mark the anniversary of April 26, 1865, when Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston surrendered his army to Gen. William Sherman in North Carolina, two weeks after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered.

* Texas honors Lee's birthday, Jan. 19, as Confederate Heroes Day.

* Alabama takes a separate state holiday for Davis' birthday.

Southern states have been glorifying the Confederacy since the end of Reconstruction, said Jason Silverman, a Winthrop University history professor.

White Southerners grow up learning their forebears sacrificed everything for their lost independence, he said, which feeds the mystique and romanticism they attach to the Civil War.

"For better or worse, warts and all, the Confederacy is a key part of South Carolina history," said Silverman, an author of several books on the Civil War. Many "Southerners in general look back at their ancestors' participation with pride. ... To these South Carolinians, celebrating Confederate Memorial Day is a logical and appropriate means to recognize what their ancestors did."

May 10, which marks the death of Confederate commander Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson and the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, was renewed as an official holiday in South Carolina in 2000 as part of a compromise that also made Martin Luther King Day a permanent holiday.

Senators have observed the Confederate holiday ever since. House members, however, will work today but observe the date in the future.

In the past, more school districts also put the holiday on their calendars, but this year only Berkeley County School District will close, said Jim Foster, spokesman for the state Education Department.

Berkeley County schools have taken the holiday since August 2000 after requests from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said former school board chairwoman Frances Brewer.

"We should never forget their sacrifices made," said Randall Burbage of Hanahan, division commander of the South Carolina Sons of Confederate Veterans. His great-great-grandfather fought in the Confederate Army.

Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, said he pushed the compromise through the General Assembly several years ago in an effort to "bring the state together."

"We live in the South. Those people who died have descendants. For us to say to them they don't have a right to respect their descendants, that's just crazy," said Ford, who is black. "The whole thing's about history and understanding. We can't deny history. History is history."

Ford hopes that some day in the future, employees will learn more about why they have the day off and begin to respect each other more.

Silverman doubts the holiday would ever lead to that, especially considering the debate that made it an official holiday.

"That added even more of a resentment on the side of one part and defiance on the other," he said. "If you take a white Southerner and an African American, one sees independence and the other sees oppression."

The Confederacy had nothing to do with respecting people, said Lonnie Randolph, president of the state branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"I don't need a holiday to respect people," he said. "I don't have any reason to get happy and say I'm overjoyed for this holiday because it has nothing to do positive in the lives of people who look like I do."