South Carolina's Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission seems to be making some progress of late. They are not as far along as Virginia and North Carolina so it will be interesting to see if they can pull it all together before 20011. As we all know they are pretty much up to bat first given the significance of Fort Sumter. I came across an interesting little article which indicates that the commission is concerned about ensuring that events reflect multiple perspective and appeal to a wide array of the state's population, especially the African-American community. To that end the commission added a representative from the Penn Center, which is historically significant in its own right:
"My concern was that the African-American experience was not being
represented, and that's true of everything in South Carolina —
whenever it comes to these statewide events and committees, they forget
African-Americans are (about 29 percent) of the state," said Jannie
Harriot, chairwoman of the S.C. African-American Heritage Commission,
who is slated to be part of the board and spearheaded the effort to
include Penn Center. "If anybody knows anything about the history of
South Carolina and the history of Penn Center, you know about the
contributions of Penn Center right after the Civil War and even during
the Civil War."
Patrick McCawley noted that, "The advisory commission is looking to commemorate events, not
celebrate (events)." "We want to be inclusive, and these
(sesquicentennial) events should be designed to include all the
multiple perspectives that go on when you have a cataclysmic event like
the Civil War."
Easier said than done.