Howard was no different, and maybe not even as outspoken as

Oculus Spirit [83127]

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Good article on Tillman:

Apr 26, 2017, 1:31 PM

Link to full article:

http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ben-tillman-was-a-racist-terrorist-and-murderer-its-time-to-take-down-his-statue/Content?oid=4857402

The then 29-year-old Tillman led the members of the Sweetwater Sabre Club, a.k.a. the Edgefield Redshits, against a local militia group, all black. Several African-American militia men were killed in a pitched battle with red-shirt-wearing white terrorists. After the militia surrendered, five of them were called out by name and executed. A few weeks later, when vigilantes captured a black state senator named Simon Coker, Tillman was present when two of his men executed the prisoner while he was on his knees praying.

Later, the terrorist leader Tillman explained his intentions on that fateful July 8 day: "It had been the settled purpose of the leading white men of Edgefield to seize the first opportunity that the Negroes might offer them to provoke a riot and teach the negroes a lesson; as it was generally believed that nothing but bloodshed and a good deal of it could answer the purpose of redeeming the state from Negro and carpetbag rule." In a 1909 speech at a Red Shirt reunion in Anderson, Tillman reiterated this point, noting that he believed in "terrorizing the Negroes at the first opportunity by letting them provoke trouble and then having the whites demonstrate their superiority by killing as many of them as was justifiable."

He added, "That we have good government now is due entirely to the fact that Red Shirt men of 1876 did all and dared all that was necessary to rescue South Carolina from the rule of the alien, the traitor, and the semi-barbarous negroes."

After the Hamburg Massacre, Tillman was proclaimed a hero by a good portion of the white population and he began a career as an agrarian reformer and "man of the people" in addition to being a champion of the state's pro-lynching law and voter intimidation.

In 1890 he was elected governor. But Tillman was no reformer and proved to be little different from the corrupt and self-serving regime his agrarian reform campaign replaced, according to historian Walter Edgar. "Rampant nepotism and office-seeking made a mockery of rotation in office," Edgar wrote. "Tillman himself was guilty of seeking favors and gifts while governor. Local [Tillman] officials went on a stealing spree that rivaled the days of the old [Reconstruction] administration.

Edgar adds, "For the state's farmers, support of whom was the reason the reform movement had come into being, life was little better for all of Tillman's promises."

Under Tillman's administration the anti-Charleston state created the Dispensary system, by which the state held a monopoly on the sale of alcohol. Tillman's biographer, Francis Butler Simkins, called the Dispensary the "most profound, insidious, and widespread agency of corruption" in South Carolina history.

As governor, Tillman had the legislature call a convention to draft a new constitution in 1895 for the purpose of disenfranchising the last black voters in the state. Tillman always considered this his greatest achievement.

Tillman went to the U.S. Senate in 1895, where he remained until his death in 1918. He used the Senate floor and the Chatauqua circuit to become the nation's loudest and most famous proponent of white supremacy, or in his own words, "preaching to those people the gospel of white supremacy according to Tillman."

Nearly a century after Tillman's death, we understand that he was no hero. And we are free to discuss his life and his place in South Carolina history in a way that previous generations could not. Today we know him as a murderer and a terrorist, a proud white supremacist who made war on the people of this state. I recently created a website, downwithtillman.com, which, as the name implies, advocates the removal of the Tillman statue from the front of the Statehouse. Those are hallowed grounds. They should be reserved for consecrating the noblest of our citizens, the proudest moments of our history. Clearly Tillman does not measure up.

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Mange post got me thinkin....

I say we replace it with a solid gold casting of Dabo's

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GIVE 110%,

Maybe start a new tradition where everyone "Boulwares" the

It would raise an interesting question.....

His lack of sideburns is culturally insensitive and his all

burn? Like a native american? You insensitive F###!***

Excuse me, my white privilege hindered my ability to see how

I thought we already had one?

He's Boulware-ing the F outta that trophy.***

Something like this?

Maybe market it a little better, but ya.***

By better, do you mean...

More hair.***

I'll say that will never happen. 95% of the white

Re: I'll say that will never happen. 95% of the white

pretty racist view of white people you have there.***

Good article on Tillman:

not sure I'd call it "good".***

Re: Good article on Tillman:

Obed, pawski has a request.***

Hamburg was a port town right on the Savannah River,

Interesting, but Chas City Paper is heavily left-wing***

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