WALHALLA–Nestled in the South Carolina foothills, Walhalla may be best known for the things that are the charms of a small town.
Travelers pass through on the way to or from the Blue Ridge Mountains.
There's a regular weekend auction atWarther's Originals downtown.
The Steak House Cafeteria doesn't have ribeyeon the menu, butit* fried chicken is so beloved that it has been featured on tourism websites and in "Southern Living."
In the fall, visitors stop by for Oktoberfest, an annual celebration of the town's German founders who decided they liked land in the Upstate much more than Charleston.
In ordinary times, thisOconee County town of about 4,000 people is pretty sleepy.
But these are not ordinary times.
For most of the past week, people have gathered near the Confederate monument on Walhalla's Main Street, someurging the removal of a symbol of inequality, somevowing to protecta symbol of heritage.
They are all talking about the same 24-footconcrete sculpture, whichbears a figure of a Confederate soldier and is situated prominently on a grassy median downtown.
The opposing sides got heated enough last Monday that the town's police enforced a 9 p.m. curfew. Six people were arrested.On Tuesday, Walhalla council members approved an emergency measure allowing officials to extend the curfew if needed.
The city putwarning signs around the monumentby Wednesday aftera young white man tied himself to the monument for about two hours while calling it a symbol of racism that needs to be removed.
City Administrator Brent Taylor said officials have heard that there may be another protest to come.He hopes it stays peaceful.
"Anytime you have people get together, it only takes 1 or 2% that can get the others riled up," he said. "We've had times where people on both sides have been able to have a casual conversation... We want things to stay in a manner that people can have that dialogue that they are supposed to have, that they need to have."
Since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the deaths of other Black people in theU.S. during interactions with police officers, crowds have taken to the streets forprotests and demonstrations. They are speaking against racial injustice. Calling for equality. Calling for change.
In the South, the conversations about racial justice include strengthenedcalls to remove Confederate monuments that still exist on much of the region's landscape.
That's how the conversation came to Walhalla.
"That Confederate monument is hurtful to us," said Beverly Jenkins, president of the Oconee County chapter of the NAACP. "When we look at it, we think of slavery. We think ofJim Crow. I don't want to destroy it. But I don't want to have to look at it every time I go through downtown."
Walhalla's Confederate monumenthas been standing for a century.
The women of the Oconee Monument Association raised money for the statue, and they spent more than a decade at it.
When the monument was unveiled July 21, 1910Walhalla had a parade, a band that played "Dixie" and a ceremony that included remarks from Gov. MartinFrederick Ansel.
"The occasion was one that will long be remembered," reads a 1910 account from the Keowee Courier."The day was an ideal one, the large crowds that thronged the town were in the best of spirits and the day passed off as one of the most pleasant ever spent by the people of Walhalla in company with their friends of the entire county."
The inscription on the monument reads:
"This monument is dedicated to the memory of the Confederate soldiers by the women of Oconee County. These gallant sons gave their lives for the protection of their homes and in defense of their women and children. We who knew them testify that their courage was without a precedent, their virtues of the highest, and that they knew no law of life but loyalty, truth and civic virtue, and to these principles, they consecrated their lives and fortunes. Our Confederate Dead."
Protesters travel to Walhalla
Nancy McCorkle drove about 90 miles from Clinton to Walhalla to stand in front of the monument Wednesday. She held a sign that read "War Memorials Matter" on one side and "All Lives Matter" on the other.
"I go all over the South protecting our monuments," she said. "I believe that all veterans are important. Taking down their monuments is not going to change the hate in people's hearts, no matter what. All wars are controversial."
She said she was in Walhalla to show that there are "people who stand for American history."
"People don't believe in slavery; I don't agree with slavery, either," she said. "But it's part of history. There's nothing we can do to change it.
"This monument doesn't say slavery. It doesn't say plantations. It represents the Southern dead. Where I was raised, you don't disrespect the dead."
Near her, Ryan Barnett of Greenville waved a flagemblazoned with the words "Don't tread on me."
Ray Wilbanks stood a few feet away from them.He has lived in Walhalla for 63 years. He said the monument is important to him because he believes it represents people who died in war.
"There was a lot of bloodshed," he said. "This is for everybody who gave their lives."
He said he thinks people who want the monument removed need to "go back and read the history and understand more about the history."
Confederate monument is 'very hurtful' to many.
Jenkins, the county's NAACP president, saidWalhalla's Confederate monument is a painful symbol for many, including her.
"I don't think there are words to explain how very hurtful it is," she said. "It isa reminder of slavery, a reminder of Jim Crow, a reminder of what it means to be treated differently because of the color of your skin. Having it there is just bringing division to this town, where so many of us love and respect each other.
"I have heard some people say they think of it as their history, their heritage, and they are entitled to to their feelings," she said. "Put the monument in a museum. Put it in a cemetery. Just don't leave it in a place where I don't have a choice but to see it every time I go up and down the street."
Greenville-based activist Traci Fant has come toWalhalla multiple times in the past week to act as a mediator and facilitator of discussion between people who want the monument to stay where it is and those who want it removed, she said.
"For people with the message Black Lives Matter, this statue is a painful part of our plight, our history," Fant said. "The Confederate flag is the same way. But this is a small town and people are going to see each other and know each other and all shop at the same stores, so if you can facilitate a discussion, you might see that there are some points we can agree on.
"And as far as the monuments go, those of us who feel they need to be removed need to use our energy to change laws, not just to stand and protest with words."
Cartoon draws Seneca newspaper into conversation on race
Walhalla isn't the only place in Oconee County where people are having conversations about racial equality.
The Oconee County Council voted this month to cut discretionary advertising ties with the Seneca Journalafter the newspaper publisheda political cartoon depicting theBlack community as a poor woman, with two children, in a filthyroom.
In the background is adonkey,representative of the Democratic Party, lounging on a sofa clutching what appears to be a canned beverage.
The woman says in the cartoon, "I can't leave him. We've been together for decades. Plus, he says we'd never survive on our own."
The Journal apologized on Facebookand Twitter.
"As a newspaper, we are supposed to be a reflection of our community — one community. Not a white community or a black one, but one community. We failed in that yesterday … miserably. We printed a painful reminder of the division we all feel right now."
A phone call toDaily Journal publisher Jerry Edwards by The Greenville News for comment was not returned.
Oconee County had paid thenewspaper $113,341 for advertisem*nts so far this budget year, Councilman Wayne McCall said.
At nearby Clemson University just across the Pickens County line,there are strengthened calls to rename Tillman Hall. One of the most well-known buildings on campus, it is named for Benjamin Tillman,an avowed white supremacist and former South Carolina governor.
The universityBoard of Trustees voted June 12 to remove John C. Calhoun's name from the Honors College. Calhoun wasa slave owner and secessionist whose plantation became Clemson University.
It's not yet clear whether the protests in Walhalla will lead to action on the part of town leaders.
The monument's removal can't be accomplished by them alone, city leaders say, because the statue is covered by South Carolina's Heritage Act, meaning that the legislature would have to act to remove it.
One thing is clear, even in small-town Walhalla, said Taylor, the city administrator.
"People want their voices heard."
Angelia Davis contributed to this report.
