African American History Monument
Dedicated 2001
Ed Dwight Sculptor
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A large monument features a slab containing a map of the world with traces marking the routes of slave ships from Africa to North America, there are four rocks from Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana and the Congo; There is also a metal ship frame; and a large metal relief depicting African American History from slavery to current times.
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"The first of its kind on any of the nation's state house grounds," this monument was sculptured by Ed Dwight of Colorado and dedicated March 29, 2001. This monument traces African-American history from the Middle Passage, to the fight for freedom in the Civil War, the struggle for civil rights and emergence into mainstream America. Among the 12 scenes are images that depict a family on the auction block, slaves working in a rice field, men and women celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation, the Jim Crow era, the Northern migration, and images of African Americans today pioneering in such fields as engineering, law education, sports, politics and space exploration. At the base of the monument's obelisk are four rubbing stones from regions of Africa where slaves were captured - Senegal, Sierra Leone, the Republic of Congo and Ghana.
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In March of 2001, an event of note took place with the dedication of an African-American History Monument on the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol. State senator Darrell Jackson called it “a reflection of what can be done when all citizens work together in unity” (Bauerlein, “There are so many things,” 2001, A1, 12). The African-American Monument, the first such structure to be built on the grounds of a state capitol, had its genesis in a 1994 proposal for a state Heritage Act. Republican State Senator John Courson wrote the Heritage Act in an attempt to develop a compromise that would remove the Confederate flag from the State House dome. The legislation passed the state Senate but failed in the House. Two years later the state Senate passed another piece of legislation to create a monument, but the House refused to consider the bill. Two state senators, Darrell Jackson, an African-American Democrat, and Glenn McConnell, a white Republican, then tied the bill to an economic development proposal that Governor Beasley favored. Beasley responded by calling the legislature into special session, and the House passed both bills.
although each of the twelve beautiful panels on the African-American Monument represents something of significance in the experience of South Carolina’s African-Americans, a visitor will find no words of explanation or captions under each panel. Following a series of public hearings across the state the Monument Commission determined that the African-American Monument would not “represent any actual human being who actually lived” (Davis, 2002). The casual visitor may look at a panel and think of an important historical figure like retired South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Ernest Finney, musician Dizzy Gillespie, or tennis player Althea Gibson. Some of the media even reported that the figures on the panels represent real people (Crumbo, 2001,A8). But the official position of the Monument Commission was that the panels would not be “an official, literal interpretation” of anyone (Davis, 2002). Each viewer should interpret the meaning for him or herself.