After a unanimous vote between The Charleston Museum Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, the John. C. Calhoun statue will not be accepted into the Charleston Museum. This came as an official statement from the museum late last week.
The reasoning behind its refusal lies in the size of the monument. The size and weight would cause problems for the museum, as there isn’t enough space available. As well as space being an issue, the executive committee claims that he was “not a Charleston figure.” The statue could be added to the museum courtyard, but then it would be returning to another public space.
“While we recognize that John C. Calhoun was a man of significant national historical importance, he was not a Charleston figure and as such his biographical history does not fit in with the Museum’s general purpose and mission of interpreting the cultural and natural history of Charleston and the Lowcountry.,” officials explained.
In late June, Mayor John Tecklenburg announced the figures’ official removal from Marion Square. Several protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement were the push that sparked the relocation of the statue.
It seems the search for a new space to move the monument continues.