Democrat Governor Fritz Hollings First Raised Confederate Flag Over South Carolina Statehouse in 1961

The Confederate Flag was first raised over the South Carolina statehouse in 1962, when Democrat Ernest "Fritz" Hollings was governor.

Here's a great interview with HIstorian Daniel Hollis, "The Day the Flag Went Up":

In 1959, Gov. Fritz Hollings appointed Hollis to serve on a commission to plan the state's observance of the 100th anniversary of the War Between the States. President Dwight Eisenhower had commissioned a national Civil War Centennial, and the state centennial commissions were to coordinate activities.

"I'm the only one on the commission left alive," Hollis said in an August interview. "I tried to get them to call it the `Civil War Centennial,' but they insisted on calling it the `Confederate War Centennial.'

"I was the only Civil War historian. There were three UDC girls on it, and John May was chairman. May was a state representative from Aiken. He called himself `Mr. Confederacy' and wore a Confederate uniform to our meetings. I called May an inveterate Confederate.

"They would argue that the war wasn't fought over slavery but states' rights. That's ridiculous. Without the slavery issue South Carolina would not have seceded. You think they would have gotten angry enough about tariffs to start shooting?

"The ruling elite that ran this state all owned slaves. They denied the war was over slavery, insisting that it was over states' rights. But it was over the states' right to own slaves and enforce white supremacy," Hollis said.

In fact, the 169 men who formed the South Carolina Secession Convention all supported slavery and acknowledged in their "Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union" that slavery was the central issue.

The racist Southern Democrats resisted the Kennedy administration's efforts to promote integration during the events:

The day the Confederate flag went up over the State House, the opening ceremonies of the centennial in Charleston were marred by controversy. Newspapers reported the open and ugly feuding between South Carolina and the national Centennial Commission, calling it "the second battle of Fort Sumter."

The centennial delegations from New Jersey and Missouri included blacks who were refused entrance to the segregated Francis Marion Hotel, where the events were to be held. The South Carolina hosts refused to allow the black delegates to participate. In response, the Charleston NAACP organized protests.

The situation was only partially resolved when President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order moving the centennial meetings to the Charleston Navy Base, one of the few integrated facilities in town. South Carolina led the South in leaving the national commission, and holding its own segregated events in the hotel.

And racist Democrat Governor Fritz Hollings later when on to represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate, and he spewed vile white supremacist hatred right up until 2005, when he left office.

Here's a aggregation of reports on Hollings at Free Republic, "Sen. Fritz Hollings: SC Democrat led fight against 1960's lunch counter integration":

With recent controversy surrounding Trent Lott, the leftist media has been woefully negligent when it comes to Democrat senators who have committed far worse offenses. In part, conservatives have responded by pointing out the bigotted past of former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd (D-WV), who recently used a racial slur on television. There's another Democrat senator out there with a similarly embarassing past, but also one who has recieved much less attention, even among conservatives: Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC). Like Byrd, Hollings has a recent history of racial slurs. Less known is his history as governor of South Carolina in the early 1960's, when he was a leading segregationist. To fill this gap here's a glimpse of Senator Hollings' segregationist past and history of racial slurs:

SEGREGATIONIST GOVERNOR: As Governor of South Carolina, Ernest F. Hollings personally led the fight against lunch counter integration in his state. The New York Times reported that Hollings "warned today that South Carolina would not permit 'explosive' manifestations in connection with Negro demands for lunch-counter services." The Times reported that Hollings called a news conference on the subject where he "challenged President Eisenhower's contention that minorities had the right to engage in certain types of demonstrations" against segregation. Hollings told reporters at the press conference that Eisenhower was "confused" and had done "great damage to peace and good order" by supporting the rights of minorities to protest segregation at the lunch counters. (SOURCE: "Warning by Hollings." New York Times, March 17, 1960.)

ANTI-INTIGRATION ORGANIZER: Governor Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina is listed as a leading participant at a July 23, 1961 conference of "leading segregationists" in Atlanta to organize a "segregationist bloc" voting lobby to resist pressures for integration. Hollings was one of four governors who attended, with seven more having been invited. The others were Orval Faubus of Arkansas, Ross Barnett of Mississippi, and John Patterson of Alabama. The strategies discussed at the meeting heavily involved using the White Citizens Council, a segregationist organization. (SOURCE: Sitton, Claude. "Segregation Bloc Seeks Vote Lobby." New York Times, Jul 24, 1961.)

RACIAL SLURS: Senator Ernest Hollings has a long history of using racial slurs. Following a poor showing in the 1983 Iowa Straw Poll, Hollings remarked "You had wetbacks from California that came in here for Cranston," a reference to Alan Cranston who finished second. Hollings also made derogatory references to an African delegation at a 1993 international conference, suggesting they were cannibals. He stated "Everybody likes to go to Geneva. I used to do it for the Law of the Sea conferences and you'd find these potentates from down in Africa, you know, rather than eating each other, they'd just come up and get a good square meal in Geneva." He once referred to Sen. Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio, who was Jewish, as "the senator from B'nai B'rith." The South Carolina Democrat also allegedly referred to blacks with the slur "darkies" in a 1986 interview and once called the Rainbow PUSH coalition the "blackbo coalition."

Folks, the Democrats have racism hardwired into their physiological being. It's who they are.

Democrats didn't just throw off their racism in 1964 like flipping a switch. It's in their DNA. They'll always be the party of segregation.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 22, 2015