The African American History Monument was unveiled at the South Carolina State House in 2001, making this year the monuments 25th anniversary. Upon its erection, the African American History Monument made South Carolina the first state in the country to have a monument dedicated to Black history on the grounds of its State Capitol.
State Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter led the effort to build the monument. She says the monument’s origins trace back to a compromise the state legislature reached in the 1990s over whether to keep the Confederate flag flying atop the Statehouse dome. Cobb-Hunter, former Senator Robert Ford, and former Senator Glenn McConnell were the three lawmakers who spearheaded legislation to place the monument on the Statehouse grounds. That bill passed both chambers and was signed into law.
McConnell identified the spot where the monument is located—facing Sumter Street in downtown Columbia. "He wanted a spot that was very visible, that was in the traffic flow," says Cobb-Hunter. "Sumter Street is one of the main arteries for people coming into the state capitol. And so the visibility that we wanted was captured perfectly in that spot."
Brandt says the location gives the monument a significance it wouldn’t have elsewhere. The monument sits on the axis, an imaginary line running through the side of the State House building, and that placement matters. “It says this is rooted here. This is part of the landscape,” Brandt says. She says being on grounds where laws are made also gives the monument its power. “A place where laws are still made. A place where laws were made to oppress Black South Carolinians. A place where the only majority-Black state legislature ever governed. [That] makes it really, really powerful and has the power to inspire in a way that is different than a historic site.”
The version known to the public today was shaped by Ed Dwight’s vision, the monument's sculptor, and the work of Dr. Terry K. Hunter, Dr. Henry Michaux and Dr. Mack Goodwin, who served on the design committee.
The monument traces more than 300 years of Black history in South Carolina. It opens with an image of a slave ship, showing enslaved people chained on the ship’s floor, based on 18th and early 19th century prints that abolitionists used to protest the transatlantic slave trade, according to USC Professor Lydia Brandt. A railing around the image was added several weeks after the monument was unveiled.
Next, a large stone holds four prayer stones from Sierra Leone, Ghana, Congo, and Senegal, the African countries from which enslaved people were taken to Charleston, and a map traces their journey to Charleston Harbor. At the center stands a 23-foot obelisk, followed by 12 panels covering Black history from slavery through Jim Crow to the modern era.
In 1996, the General Assembly created a commission and mandated all funding for the monument be raised privately. Brandt says this is not usual procedure. "Most of the monuments on the state house grounds are a mix of public and private," she said. "Most of the modern monuments in the past 50 years are a mix of public and private."
$1.2 million was needed to fully fund the monument. Cobb-Hunter says the late John Rainey, a US Army Infantry Soldier and attorney, led the effort to raise the funds; an experience that did not come without its challenges. "He was very disappointed that the state of South Carolina required him to put up some of his assets." According to Cobb-Hunter, Rainey was asked to place a lien against some of his property to make sure money for the monument would be raised. "The state refused to be a part of any kind of giving for the monument," said Cobb-Hunter.
For the monument sculptor, Ed Dwight, there were other issues present. Public hearings for constituent input were held in each of South Carolina's six congressional districts at the time. Dwight says he felt pressure from all sides. White residents wanted nothing inflammatory represented on the monument, and Black residents did not want the struggle shown or even a monument that would not depict a singular figure.
"I had a reputation in the various states, that there's a Black artist running around trying to make us remember slavery, and all [of] the bad parts of slavery," Dwight said. In the span of his career, Dwight has created over 100 public monuments and memorials in the United States.
However, these points of contention are resolved with the monument, Dwight says. "If you look at the whole thing, it's a story of progress, not retrograde. [I] told the whole story, " he says. "There's a group of people in this country that went through holy hell, but at the end, they did a good job."
Cobb-Hunter says the commitment to the narrative of the Black American story in South Carolina was why concepts were chosen rather than one historical figure. "My thought was, there are so many talented African Americans in this state with roots in South Carolina. [How were] we ever going to decide on a single person and do justice to the history of African Americans in the state?" she said.
That was a sentiment Dwight shared as well. "South Carolina was more vulnerable, and more stuff happened and didn't happen in South Carolina," he said. "I found in South Carolina, I had a lot more interesting history [versus] Georgia and some other places that I've done these big memorials in."
The monument begins with the transatlantic slave trade and ends in the modern moment, 2001 at the time. A timeline Brandt says brings the history of Black Americans in the state to the forefront. "I think it's a really helpful reminder that the State House [isn't] just a place of the past. It's not just a place that we remember. It is very much a place that's shaping our present and our future," she says. "This is still ongoing. That, not only are Black South Carolinians still contributing and a huge part of what South Carolina means, but that [this] will always be true."
Cobb-Hunter's relationship with the monument, as the representative who spearheaded it's building, has changed in the course of its 25 year history. At the monument's dedication, Cobb-Hunter made the decision to not participate. She says there was an effort to have the Battle Hymn of the Republic played at the dedication ceremonies. "I could not fathom why we would be playing the battle hymn for the Republic, and I resisted. And initially, there was support for my position. Well, that support faded," she says.
After helping set the program up, Cobb-Hunter left. "I left the statehouse, got in my car, and started home. And the program started, because I listened to it over ETV, over radio. And that was how I dealt with all of it," she says.
Now, Cobb-Hunter says she enjoys observing how the public interacts with the monument—a goal she had for the monument in the beginning. She said, "Our goal [for] the monument [was] it being a living teaching model, [and] I hope that continues."
Dwight says the public's continue interest, whether through guided tours or school trips, is something he's grateful for. "There are people that are trying to run our country [back]. Back there in that space," he says. "There's enough interest in the memorial. That means it's a living organism that people would be reminded of, so the message doesn't die."
