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Glenn McConnell was last Saturday to be the next president of the College of Charleston. McConnell is South Carolina鈥檚 current Lieutenant Governor and a veteran of the South Carolina State Senate, where he served from 1981 until 2012. He鈥檚 also an avid Civil War reenactor, an active member of the and the former proprietor of a Confederate memorabilia shop.

McConnell鈥檚 interest in and promotion of Confederate history and culture have been a hallmark of his three decades in public office 鈥� and a steady source of controversy. This history is at the core of the among College of Charleston students and faculty.

McConnell made headlines in 2010 when he was in a Confederate uniform posing with two African Americans portraying slaves. And in 2002, McConnell, then one of the most influential figures in state government, came to the defense of racist barbecue baron Maurice Bessinger, owner of the Piggie Park chain.

Bessinger was under siege for displaying the Confederate flag and at his restaurants, including a pamphlet entitled 鈥淭he Biblical Justification for Slavery.鈥� When South Carolina鈥檚 only Fortune 500 company, electric and gas giant SCANA, banned employees from parking company trucks at Piggie Park restaurants, McConnell 鈥溾�� against the company if it didn鈥檛 reverse course. He called SCANA鈥檚 actions a 鈥渂asic slap at free speech and freedom of expression鈥� and accused the company of 鈥渄iscriminating against a man鈥檚 business because of his political beliefs.鈥� (Be sure to check out this old Daily Show featuring South Carolina-native Stephen Colbert interviewing both McConnell and Bessinger.)

McConnell established himself as a defender of the Confederacy in 1996 when South Carolina鈥檚 Republican governor, David Beasley, proposed removing the Confederate flag from the capitol dome. McConnell the proposal as 鈥渃ultural genocide鈥� and the governor to Neville Chamberlain for making peace with 鈥渕ilitants鈥� 鈥� in this case, not the Nazis, but the NAACP. Beasley鈥檚 proposal failed and he his next election, due in part to anger over his proposal. The flag debate went on.

In 1999, the NAACP called a tourism boycott of the state until the Confederate flag was removed. The following year, 50,000 people marked Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by marching to the state capitol and demanding the flag鈥檚 removal. McConnell the flag as 鈥渢he emblem of our ancestors鈥� and accused the NAACP of 鈥渢rying to make the flag a scapegoat for something that existed in history.鈥� 鈥淭here has been racism all over the United States and it took place without the confederate flag,鈥� he said. Lonnie Randolph, then head of the Columbia chapter of the NAACP, wasn鈥檛 buying it: 鈥淪aying the flag isn't about slavery is like saying the swastika isn't part of the holocaust. It's a symbol of white supremacy, hatred and oppression 鈥� that's why it's used by the Ku Klux Klan and skinhead groups.鈥�

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McConnell in 2010

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Pressure continued to build on legislators to remove the flag. As then State House Speaker David Wilkins said, 鈥淲e kept being hit. We were talked about on the national news. We were being described as a backward state.鈥� The NAACP proposed displaying the Confederate flag inside the state capitol in a glass case. 鈥淓ncasement represents entombment,鈥� McConnell, who said he wanted 鈥渘o part in symbolically burying the Confederate banner.鈥�

Following a months-long battle in the legislature and aggressive lobbying 鈥� with conservative activists and neo-Confederate groups for the flag and civil rights and business groups against 鈥� McConnell played a key role in shaping and passing a compromise bill. In July, 2000 the Confederate flag came down from the capitol dome, but a new one was permanently placed out front, at the Confederate Soldiers Monument.

Neo-Confederate groups reacted with outrage at the perceived betrayal by one of their own, but McConnell was proud of his maneuvering: 鈥淚 always felt the NAACP wanted the flag in marble and glass. We did what General Lee should have done at Gettysburg. We flanked on them. We moved the flag from the dome to the soldier's monument and put the NAACP in a position they cannot sell, which is to remove it totally from the grounds.鈥�

Still, McConnell had his regrets, saying 鈥淚 wish it could have stayed.鈥� In the end, he determined it 鈥渨as the best deal we could get under the circumstances that could get bipartisan and biracial support.鈥�

It's the 21st century, but McConnell is still fighting the Civil War (or the "War Between the States," as he calls it). And so too, it seems, is the College of Charleston's Board of Trustees.

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