JOHN C. CALHOUN

Background

In the 1850's a group of Charleston ladies formed the Ladies Calhoun Monument Association. Over the next 30+ years they would raise money to erect a monument to The Great Statesman, former U.S. Vice-President, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun. The funds they raised, which mostly took place in the aftermath of the Civil War when money was scarce in the South, exceeded $1 million when adjusted for inflation.

The monument which stood in Marion Square in downtown Charleston for 130 years was sculpted by famous Scottish-American sculptor John Massey Rhind. Its unveiling was a major event throughout the city with a grand military procession and Charleston pageantry. When the ladies concluded their decades long work, they entrusted the care of the monument into the hands of the City of Charleston by creating a charitable trust agreement which stated in part, that the city would care for the monument "as a priceless treasure in sacred trust".

In June of 2020, in the wake of the leftist riots in response to drug addict George Floyd dying while in police custody, Charleston's buffoon, Mayor John Tecklenburg, became an extension of the rioters when he led the effort to remove the Calhoun monument. City Council ultimately voted to remove the Calhoun monument which resulted in the granite base and column being jackhammered.

When most were running for the hills in the face of this disgusting leftist attack on Charleston's sacred history, the AHA stood in the void by immediately calling a press conference to condemn the actions of Mayor Tecklenburg. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson chose not to enforce the charitable trust agreement which protected the monument, so our next move was to organize and fund a lawsuit against the city.

The lawsuit has been ongoing for over three years. The City of Charleston broke the charitable trust agreement which they made with the Ladies Calhoun Monument Association the second they voted to remove the monument and therefore, had no right to remove it and certainly have no right to possess it.