Why is S.C. one of five states that continues to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day? | Opinion

Sun, May 12, 2024 



BOB SOFALY | The Beaufort Gazette

Holiday past its prime

On Friday, we celebrated Confederate Memorial Day here in South Carolina, a holiday I believe it is far past time to do away with.

We are one of only five states that recognize Confederate Memorial Day as a state holiday, meaning state offices are closed.

We are also one of only two states, the other being North Carolina, where Confederate Memorial Day is on May 10 because that is the day that Gen. Stonewall Jackson died in 1863 after being accidentally shot by his own men just a week earlier.

May 10 is also the day Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured in Georgia by Union forces of the 1st Wisconsin and 4th Michigan Calvary.

The Confederate States of America was a failed, traitorous nation birthed to preserve the institution of slavery.

And if you don’t want to take my word for it that the Confederacy was born to preserve slavery, just take a look at South Carolina’s own seceding documents.

The declaration laid out the primary reasoning behind South Carolina’s secession from the Union as an “increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the Institution of Slavery.”

Hayden Laye, Walhalla