Tensions have been high on George Street for some time now as the College of Charleston community has reacted negatively to Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell’s appointment to the university’s top spot, but the kerfuffle managed to get its first national news mention last night on MSNBC’s All In.
With Joy Reid sitting in for Chris Hayes, the late-night news talk show plastered the airwaves with images of “Confederate defender” McConnell. The segment included footage previously unseen by us here at the CP of McConnell at a 2004 Hunley remembrance event, dressed head-to-toe-and-back-again in period regalia while TODAY’s Lester Holt asked him questions.
Since All In does fall into MSNBC’s popular block of news-commentary shows, guest Kevin Alexander Gray, a South Carolina civil rights writer and activist, takes plenty of time to sharply excoriate the lieutenant governor and lay out the context of the situation, even going as far as to call out Charleston’s “slave-ocracy” — his term, not ours. Gray also gives a little wink as he stops short of calling former state Sen. Robert Ford, an ardent McConnell supporter, an “Uncle Tom.”
Reid closes out the segment with the punchline, “If there wasn’t a South Carolina, we’d almost have to invent it.”
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