The state’s new Robert Smalls Monument Commission is expected to hold its first meeting Aug. 28 to begin the process to place a statue on the Statehouse grounds to honor the Beaufort native. Ten members of the S.C. General Assembly have been appointed to the commission.
If Small’s statue is installed, it will be the first monument for an individual Black person at the state’s capitol complex. South Carolina observed its first Robert Smalls Day on May 13 to honor the Reconstruction-era legislator and Civil War hero.
S.C. Rep. Brandon Cox, R-Berkeley, introduced the bill in the S.C. House to create the 11-member commission. The director of the South Carolina Department of Administration or his designee will chair the commission.
The bill received unanimous approval in the General Assembly during the most recent legislative session. Cox is one of four tri-county legislators appointed to the bipartisan commission.
A modest Cox said a team effort got the bipartisan bill passed.
“I think this is something [important] to bring us together at a time that we seem so divided. Memorializing [this] amazing South Carolinian is timely.”
Cox said he cried when the legislation passed “and to be named to the commission is an honor.”
House Speaker G. Murrell Smith Jr., R-Sumter, also appointed S.C. Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston, to the commission. Gilliard said he’s also honored to be part of this effort to celebrate Smalls, who was “a great leader, motivator [with] an enormous amount of courage.”
The other House members on the commission are Jermaine Johnson Sr., D-Richland, Patrick Bonner Haddon, R-Greenville, and Sylleste H. Davis, R-Berkeley.
S.C. Sen. Thomas C. Alexander, the Oconee County Republican who is president of the S.C. Senate, appointed Sens. Gerald Malloy, D-Darlington; Shane Massey, R-Edgefield; Tom Davis, R-Beaufort; Chip Campsen III, R-Charleston; and Margie Bright Matthews, D-Colleton.
On May 13, 1862, Smalls, an enslaved crewman, commandeered the Planter, a Confederate steamship in Charleston, and gave it to the Union Navy. Other enslaved crewmen and their families were also on the vessel as Smalls skillfully sailed the boat past Confederate batteries.
Smalls’ actions thrust him into the annals of history, politics and business. He was elected to both houses of the S.C. General Assembly before he served five terms in the U.S. Congress.
The commission would be required to raise money for the monument and report a proposed design and location for it by Jan. 15, 2025.
Gilliard said he’d prefer for the Smalls’ monument to be placed in a prominent position on the north side of the Statehouse.
When it is installed, the Smalls’ monument will be the second African American history memorial at the capitol.
An African American History Monument, created by Denver sculptor Ed Dwight, was completed in 2001 at the Statehouse as a part of a compromise the year before to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome. Recognizable Black history trail blazers are featured on the monument’s carved panels on the eastside of the capitol, but they are not named individually.
All of the stand-alone monuments, markers and statues memorializing specific South Carolinians on the 22-acre Statehouse grounds honor White men.
Malloy said former State senator Glenn McConnell of Charleston chaired the senate committee that was involved in erecting the African American Monument. Malloy said he will consult with McConnell “to get his historical perspective.
“I think the commission will have a great challenge ahead of [it] to make sure that the story is told appropriately about the great Robert Smalls,” he said. “His story that should survive all of us and our children should know about it and about the way he prepared himself to become one of the greatest American heroes.”
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