S.C. Civil War reenactment canceled because of Emanuel AME church shooting
A historic planation in South Carolina canceled a Civil War re-enactment because of the June Charleston shooting that left nine people dead at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
"We decided to show honor and respect to the victims of the recent tragedy and give the community time to heal," according to a statement on Boone Hall Plantation's website. The statement called canceling the event a "difficult decision."
On June 17, Dylann Roof entered Emanuel AME Church in Charleston during a bible study and shot and killed nine African American people. Prior to the shooting, Roof, 21, posed for photographs with the Confederate flag and visited a number of southern historic landmarks including Boone Hall.
This would have been the 25th anniversary of the re-enactment, which lasts three days and brings in several hundred visitors, according to The Post and Courier. The event is usually held in November and re-enacts the Battle of Secessionville, a Civil War battle that occurred in the spring of 1862 when Confederate forces defeated Union attempts to seize Charleston, S.C.
"I’m not mad with Boone Hall. It’s certainly a difficult decision for them to make. I certainly have to respect their opinion on what to do because it’s their property,” the Living History chairman Randy Burbage told Post and Courier in an interview.
Dot Scott, the president of the Charleston branch of the NAACP, told Paste BN Network she appreciated Boone Hall deciding to cancel the event. "Things are still pretty raw" in the community following the shooting, she said.
"It moves the needle a bit farther along to racial harmony. Even if it’s a small movement, it’s movement in that direction," Scott said.
Some people have criticized the decision to cancel the event on the plantation's Facebook page.
"Shame on you guys for canceling a tradition in Mt. Pleasant. The Living History weekend and re-enactments have not one thing to do with the shooting at the church," Brad Middleton wrote Tuesday in a Facebook post.
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