Racism in the South… does it still exist today?
We all know that South Carolina has history when it comes to how it’s treated African-Americans, but few are aware just how racist South Carolina’s history really is.

There are few places in America that have treated Native Americans as brutally. South Carolinians were the largest slave traders of Native Americans in the Americas. The peaceful Cherokee were either enslaved, driven out of the state, or murdered.

South Carolina became the wealthiest of the thirteen colonies because of the African slave trade. Charleston Harbor was the main entry point for bringing slaves into the country. No other colony relied on slaves more, and soon blacks outnumbered whites. By 1760 Charleston was the richest town in America. Despite its wealth, residents lived in constant fear of slave revolts and resorted to draconian measures to keep their slaves in submission.

After the Stono Rebellion occurred in 1740, one of the deadliest slave revolts in the nation’s history, South Carolina reacted with the slave codes. Because the rebellion was led by educated blacks, laws were put into place that prohibited blacks from meeting and mandated that their children wouldn’t be allowed schooling. In the Twentieth Century, South Carolina would have the largest percentage of its people in America who couldn’t read or write, mainly due to its determination to keep blacks uneducated.
The first Baptist church in the South was formed in Charleston, South Carolina. Southern Baptists supported slavery and believed that biblical scripture supported it. It wasn’t until recently, that the church moved away from this position.
On April 12th, 1861 cadets from The Citadel fired the first shots against the United States at Ft. Sumter, South Carolina. That was when South Carolina became the first state to commit treason and leave the nation due to its absolute support of slavery.

Walk through Charleston and you’ll run into the Confederate Museum run by the Daughters of the Confederacy. It’s disturbing how many Confederate memorials there are, but since the Confederate flag flies over the state’s capital, it is not really surprising.

You’ll also see people flying a blue flag with a crescent moon and a Palmetto tree on it. That’s the flag for the Palmetto Republic. People who fly it are calling for the independence of South Carolina.
There’s no doubt why Bush went to the race card in 2000. IN THE summer of 2003, President George W. Bush made a five-day whirlwind trip across the African continent. His first stop was Goree Island in Senegal, through which many thousands of Africans once passed before being herded onto slave ships. In a speech he delivered on July 8, Bush denounced slavery and lauded the struggles of slaves and their supporters in their fight to end the system of slavery. He went on to comment that the slavery and racism that was its result continue to shape American society:

My nation’s journey toward justice has not been easy and it is not over. The racial bigotry fed by slavery did not end with slavery or with segregation. And many of the issues that still trouble America have roots in the bitter experience of other times.
Bush also made this statement defending his administration’s position:

Our Constitution makes it clear that people of all races must be treated equally under the law. Yet we know that our society has not fully achieved that ideal. Racial prejudice is a reality in America. It hurts many of our citizens. As a nation, as a government, as individuals, we must be vigilant in responding to prejudice wherever we find it…[w]e should not be satisfied with the current numbers of minorities on American college campuses. Much progress has been made; much more is needed…and because we’re committed to racial justice, we must make sure that America’s public schools offer a quality education to every child from every background…. America’s long experience with the