Director’s Report … Robert Hayes

I hardly know where to begin this report, because so much has happened since I last reported to you, our members.

Let me start with our Red Shirts flagging of scalawag Beasley. As most of you know, we wanted to make the removal of the Confederate flag an issue in any campaign where a candidate, who had turned against the South, was running for office. Scalawag Beasley presented us with our first opportunity in this election cycle. As I write this, the day after the run-off, I am so very happy to report (what all of you already know) that we defeated lying Beasley. We flagged the lowlife eighteen times not counting the Hunley event. We had the Confederate Air Force in flight on three occasions pulling a large 30’ X 30’ Confederate flag trailed a large “Beasley Lies” banner. We have had a lot of loyal members don their red shirts on many occasions and turnout for our flaggings. We have, on quite a number of occasions, had members of at least three other organisations join us our protest lines, but we, the South Carolina League of the South, can and will take the bulk of the credit for Beasley’s defeat. We are most definitely now a politically entity in South Carolina, but we must continue to take the fight to our enemies and in order to do that we must have more help from our membership everywhere in the state. We are making a difference and we are continuing to get noticed by both the politicians and the news media. Our activities in South Carolina have even been recognised by the governor of Alabama. League President Dr. Michael Hill told me that he and some others went to Alabama governor, Bob Riley, and asked him to speak at the Alabama Confederate Memorial Day event and their rededication of their refurnished Confederate Monument. They informed him that, if he would not, that they may have to start flagging him. He told them that he was aware of what the people of Georgia were doing to Governor Perdue and what the people of South Carolina (the SCLoS) were doing to Beasley and he would speak at the memorial service. He did and he also held a Confederate flag. As you can see, we are making a difference and we will win our fight if we continue to be determined and are persistence. Dr. Hill has said that flagging is becoming the new Southern sport.

By the time you receive this newsletter, we hope to be within a month or two from opening our second Cultural Centre in Cayce on highway 321 beside I-26. If we are successful in establishing this second Cultural Centre, it should greatly advance our goal of establishing twenty Cultural Centres across the state. We have had donated to us a ninety foot aluminum flag pole valued at about $10,000, which will be placed at our new Cultural Centre in Cayce. We shall purchase a 20’ X 30’ Confederate flag to proudly fly from said pole, which will be but a few hundred yards from I-26. This large flag will also be visible from downtown Columbia. We do believe in making a statement. The traffic flow at this new Cultural Centre will be almost 60,000 vehicles per day. We hope to soon have a Southern Cultural Centre in or near your town.

Hopefully all of you know by now the Southern Cultural Centre has purchased Secession Hill in Abbeville. You will read elsewhere in this newsletter how we were able to secure this valuable, historic piece of property. I am also happy to report that we have also secured the possession of the first Confederate Monument of Abbeville. It was damaged by fire and you may also read elsewhere in this newsletter how we obtained ownership of it. We will bring it home to Abbeville and place it in the park we plan to establish on the two-acre tract of Secession Hill. We will obtain the services of a landscape architect to design the park on Secession Hill. It has been learned from a 1936 newspaper article in the Abbeville Press and Banner that an unknown Confederate soldier was buried on the Hill late in the war and we believe that we have found his grave. A young man and League member, David Gillespie, from Pickens has offered to make a handmade tombstone of Virginia slate for his grave. David’s ancestors were tombstone carvers of Abbeville in the late 1700s and early 1800s and David uses the same methods of hand carving that his ancestors did. In addition to placing the original Abbeville Confederate monument on the Hill, we also want to place a stature or bust of John C. Calhoun, General Samuel McGowan and others on the Hill. It is also our desire to build a “Wall of Honour” with the names of the twenty thousand South Carolina Confederate dead. We will build a platform similar to the one they used on 22 November 1860 in the approximate location of the original one. Uphill from this stage will be an amphitheater; therefore people will be able to sit while listening to speeches, poetry reading, story-telling, musicals, plays, etc., which we plan to produce in the future. As you can see, we have some large plans for the park on Secession Hill and with the help of Southerners and Southern sympathisers from across the united States we will make this dream come true.

We have had a number of people from other states contact us about the CSA Project and think that a few of them will soon be moving to South Carolina to help us with our fight for self-government. We are steadily gaining new members, but I again urge you to talk to everyone you know about joining the League. Dont wait on someone else to do the recruiting for you, you need to recruit also.

As you can see, we have been quite busy, but we have big dreams and are determined to see that those dreams come true. We, in the leadership positions, will work hard for the SCLoS, but I also urge that you as members step forward and lend your hand whenever you are called upon to help with whatever project may be current. It is with great pride that I can state that the South Carolina League of the South continues to lead the way in the Southern Movement and with your help and dedication to the Cause, we will maintain that leadership position. Thanks for all that you do.