STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 22.10 | March 10, 2023
NEWS: Hate crimes bill passes S.C. House by wide margin
NEWS BRIEFS: Moore, descendant of Civil War hero, eyes run for Congress
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Media circus
COMMENTARY, Brack: Bill on drag shows is just a drag
SPOTLIGHT: S.C. Senate Democratic Caucus
MY TURN, Knapp: Here’s how to fix the labor shortage
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: In the spotlight
Hate crimes bill passes S.C. House by wide margin
By Andy Brack | 2023 may be the year that the South Carolina General Assembly passes a law against hate crimes, but the state Senate first has to move on it. Last year, it thwarted progress on the measure.
Earlier this week, the House voted 84-31 to approve a hate crimes bill long pushed by state Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston. He said it passed the House thanks to a “great bipartisan effort” and leadership by House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter.
“This bill is all about ‘We the People’ because hate crime impacts everyone, no matter what creed or color,” Gilliard said Thursday. “The other 48 states [that have it] couldn’t be wrong.
“By virtue of South Carolina’s history, we should’ve been the first state with a hate crime law! This is a great way not only to honor the nine lives that we lost on June 17, 2015, but to all victims that have fallen because of a hate crime.”
On that day, a gunman shot and killed nine worshippers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, including a legislative colleague, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney.
The bill, named in honor of Pinckney, will allow a judge to sentence violent offenders to up to an additional five years in prison if they are indicted and convicted on a state charge that hate motivated their crime against a victim based on race, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin or physical or mental disability.
With the strong outcome in the House this week, leaders say the climate might be right in the Senate to pass the measure. Last year, it didn’t get a floor vote, bogged down in debate as a portrait of Pinckney looked down on the chamber.
“We are optimistic that this bill will move through the Judiciary Committee and on to the floor,” Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutton, D-Orangeburg, said Thursday. “Last year, the majority party in the Senate resisted taking the bill up for debate, but this is a new year and there is new momentum as a result of the House passage of the bill yesterday.
“As you know, we are one of two states that does not have a bill. It is time for us to establish that it is the policy of this state that those who commit hate crimes in South Carolina will be facing enhanced penalties.”
Wyoming is the only other state without hate crimes legislation.
- Have a comment? Send to feedback@statehousereport.com
Moore, kin of Civil War hero, eyes run for Congress
By Herb Frazier | Charleston businessman Michael Boulware Moore, the great-great-grandson of Civil War hero Robert Smalls, wants to follow in his relative’s footsteps to the U.S. Congress as he joins a production team considering a movie about his legendary ancestor.
Moore, who was integral in the development of the International African American Museum, is preparing to announce in the coming weeks that he’ll be a 2024 Democratic Party candidate in the 1st Congressional District. The seat currently is held by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-Isle of Palms.
“I’d like to prepare a launch event,” he told the Charleston City Paper Thursday. “I am still building the team and creating the infrastructure for a campaign.”
Moore, an executive with the computer software firm Blackbaud, said for years he has considered elected office.
“If I am so blessed to be elected, I will be the fourth in the last five generations of people in my family to serve their community, their state and their country via elected office,” he said. “I grew up with a family that understood that problems don’t solve themselves. From the earliest that African Americans could participate in elected politics, my family has been there.”
That public service legacy in Moore’s family began with Robert Smalls, an enslaved man who in 1862 commandeered the Planter, a Confederate steamship, during the Civil War before he gave it to the Union Navy. Smalls masqueraded as the ship’s white captain to smuggle the Planter out of Charleston Harbor. His daring escape catapulted the Beaufort native into the annals of naval history as well as state and national politics.
Smalls then served in the Union Navy aboard the Planter. After the war, he purchased his former enslaver’s mansion and he published a newspaper. He served in both houses of the S.C. General Assembly before he was elected to five terms as a Reconstruction-era member of Congress.
- Read more about Moore’s involvement in a possible movie about his great-great-great grandfather.
In other news this week:
Civil rights activist Gray passes away at 65. Kevin Alexander Gray, a longtime South Carolina civil rights activist, author, editor and co-owner of Railroad BBQ in downtown Columbia died March 7 at 65. He spent most of his life as a fixture of Columbia politics and activism, serving on the American Civil Liberties Union’s national board and was South Carolina coordinator for the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign in the 1980s.
McMaster taps Floyd to lead workforce and unemployment agency. Gov. Henry McMaster nominated the Department of Employment and Workforce’s chief of staff William Floyd to run the agency.
S.C. House OKs $1.3B for new SUV plant. The South Carolina House approved a $1.3 billion package to attract a new electric plant backed by the Volkswagen Group to a site near Columbia.
S.C. lawmakers unveil recommendations for improving S.C. for children. A bipartisan group of lawmakers, state agency heads, and S.C. citizens has been working to develop recommendations for making the state better for its children.
S.C. lawmakers question if the family Bibles can determine birthdate. A state House of Representatives subcommittee began work on a bill to make it easier for people to use a family Bible or informal genealogical records as proof of their date of birth to obtain a delayed birth certificate.
More than $185M invested for high-quality internet to S.C. homes in need. The U.S. Department of Treasury has approved over $185.8 million of capital projects funding to bring higher quality internet access to over 31,000 homes.
New play celebrates life, impact of Clark. Septima will open at Pure Theatre March 9 and run through April 1. The play honors and celebrates the life and work of S.C. activist Septima P. Clark, a pivotal figure in the Civil Rights movement.
Media circus
The Alex Murdaugh trial is over after six, long weeks. Wonder what cartoonist Robert Ariail thinks? He often interprets things a little differently, but always has an interesting take on what’s going on. Love the cartoon? Hate it? What do you think: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Bill on drag shows is just a drag
By Andy Brack | A few members of the uber-right S.C. Freedom Caucus want to take away the freedom of businesses to provide entertainment.
In an obvious attempt to legislate morality, generate headlines and bolster divisiveness, seven of 20 members of the uber-right caucus back a bill that would cause businesses that offer drag shows to be classified as “sexually-oriented” businesses – even though drag shows are about entertainment, not sex.
The leader of the effort, freshman state Rep. Thomas Beach, R-Piedmont, wouldn’t answer questions. Instead, he hung up the phone when faced with a simple question about Halloween:
Beach: “So what, what does that have to do with the Statehouse?”
Brack: “You’ve introduced a bill, H. 3616, that wants to make it so that some people can’t dress up. So I’m wondering if your children dress up for Halloween?”
Beach: “Absurd question and no, that’s not true. I did not make a bill or anything like that. Go ahead, read the bill and then come back to it again.”
Brack: “It’s House Bill 3616. You’re the primary sponsor for a bill called the Defense of Children’s Innocence Act. And in it you basically say that if there’s a business with a drag show, then it has to be considered a sexually-oriented business, but that’s about people dressing up in costumes and so I’m kind of thinking that it is not completely irrelevant. Do your children dress up for Halloween?”
At some point, he disconnected and then didn’t answer when called back.
This bill is a cookie-cutter version of similar coordinated measures rippling through legislatures across the country. Businesses actually do say it’s absurd.
Cameron Read is a partner at Edmund’s Oast Brewery in Charleston. It has had fun family-friendly drag shows every month for the last five years, except when the pandemic didn’t permit. He says he’s offended by Beach’s bill.
“Saying these shows are inherently sexualized is equivalent to saying a fashion show is inherently sexualized,” he said. “Maybe a fashion show can be seen as a celebration of clothing and dress and culture. These drag shows that take place at our brewery – we also see them as a celebration of dress and getup and culture.”
Read’s business partner, Timmons Pettigrew, said the shows offered lip-synching performances to popular music with no profanity and no nudity.
“Parents bring their children and celebrate with their family,” he said.
Managing partner Scott Shor said if the bill passed, it would force a business like his to stop the performances.
“We don’t have an option to be relabeled as a strip club,” he said.
Read said comparing family-friendly drag shows to what people can see any day on the beach is mind-boggling.
“The amount of sexuality of people at the beach is immensely higher than any of the drag shows we have on our grounds,” he said, criticizing the proposal as “government telling a certain group of people it’s not OK to express themselves as they want.”
Chase Glenn, executive director of the Alliance for Full Acceptance in Charleston, said Beach’s bill is a direct attack.
“Sponsors of this bill are attempting to push LGBTQ+ people out of public life, fan the flames of fear around drag performers and LGBTQ+ culture, and intimidate allies of our community,” he said. “This is yet another bill crafted by national outsiders, then copied and pasted by South Carolina politicians who for some reason seem to be obsessed with LGBTQ+ people, instead of focusing on issues of actual consequence to South Carolinians.”
The bill, which is kind of creepy because of its detailed descriptions of sex, could have major unintended consequences. What, for example, of a community theater that receives state funding, but decides to put on a play about Mrs. Doubtfire, Tootsie or some other drama in which men dress up as women?
One longtime community actor noted he performed as a man disguised as a woman with a bountiful bosom in an Agatha Christie murder mystery spoof.
“So my question is, as a thespian and current chairman of our community theater board, would shows of this kind deem theaters, which get funding from local accommodations taxes, as sexually-oriented businesses? Neither play was a drag show, per se, but this proposed legislation is too vague as written and opens the door to doing precisely that.”
Let’s hope the legislature ditches – err, beaches – this dumb legislation.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
S.C. Senate Democratic Caucus
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. This week’s spotlighted underwriter is the S.C. Senate Democratic Caucus. Organized almost 25 years ago, the Caucus has played an important role in many of the historic issues facing our state. As a vibrant minority party in the Senate, its role is to represent our constituents and present viable alternatives on critical issues. The S.C. Senate Democratic Caucus remains a unique place for this to occur in our policy process.
- Learn more about the Caucus at: www.scsenatedems.org.
Here’s how to fix the labor shortage
By Frank Knapp Jr. | The S.C. Small Business Development Center and the Darla Moore School of Business recently conducted the 2022 Small Business Needs Assessment Survey.
One key finding: “The single largest operational challenge that businesses report facing in 2022 is a difficulty in hiring and retaining staff. Among businesses who reported attempting to hire over the past twelve months, nearly 85 percent reported hiring to be either a major or minor challenge. This is especially prominent among businesses operating in construction, health care, and transportation & warehousing.”
The labor shortage is a serious problem for all businesses, but especially for small businesses that have difficulty competing with big businesses with more financial resources.
It is important to note that the Federal Reserve considers a 5% unemployment rate to be “full” employment and South Carolina has approximately 3.3% unemployment rate.”
There are a number of reasons for those who are unemployed such as geography mismatch, inadequate education or training, lack of transportation, unaffordable/unavailable childcare, and more.
Some of these barriers are simply insurmountable. However, there are two solutions we should focus on that offer the best path forward to solving our labor shortage.
First, there are thousands of formerly incarcerated in our state convicted of non-violent crimes who can put an immediate dent in our labor shortage crisis.
Approximately 650 to 700 inmates are released each month from the South Carolina prison system. Many of these men and women are ready and willing to work but the obstacles of having a prison record along with possibly having no family support system, transportation or even a place to live results in many not being able to get a job.
We do have a few efforts to help these South Carolinians get re-established in our communities, trained and be placement ready. Programs such as Joseph Outreach, REEMERGE, Turn90, and even within our Department of Corrections are trying to make a difference. However, this process is very slow, and we haven’t scratched the surface of this solution.
Our S.C. Legislature should put more of our state resources into tapping this solution to help our small businesses.
Second, our state and the entire country simply need more people.
An analysis of the 2020 Census data by Brookings led to the conclusion that our nation is in an “unprecedented demographic stagnation” with “the smallest decade-long growth rate in America’s history” with a “rate at nearly zero.”
Our national immigration laws need major reform that will allow millions of foreigners who have the skills, education and desire to work to legally come into our country.
The Brookings report concurs saying, “One way to secure more rapid growth of the youth population would be to increase immigration…given our rapidly aging native-born population, immigration will ensure growth — especially among the critical youth and labor force populations.”
Clearly, the solution of immigration reform must be addressed by Congress. But fortunately, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina holds the key to getting a bipartisan immigration reform bill passed that will also need to address border security.
The formerly incarcerated and legal immigrants offer the best chance to solve our labor shortage. That is where our attention and efforts need to be.
Knapp is the president/CEO of the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce. He has served on the S.C. Small Business Development Center State Advisory Council since 2012.
Send us your thoughts
We encourage you to send in your thoughts about policy and politics impacting South Carolina. We’ve gotten some letters in the last few weeks – some positive, others nasty. We print non-defamatory comments, but unless you provide your contact information – name and hometown, plus a phone number used only by us for verification – we can’t publish your thoughts.
Have a comment? Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com. Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification. Letters are limited to 150 words.
In the spotlight
Here’s an interesting painting found somewhere in South Carolina. What is it and where is it located now? Send us your guess – as well as your name and hometown – to feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s photo, “Easy peasy,” was the easiest ever, according to Lancaster resident Steve Willis: “Easiest one ever in the history of mystery photos. Smack in the middle of downtown Charleston on King Street is the restored theater, now used for various arts and cultural events. Wish we had had the foresight to preserve our downtown theater (the Parr) in Lancaster, but it fell into such disrepair that demolition was the only viable option.”
Hartsville’s Bill Segars added, “The Art Deco style Riviera was first used as a theater on Jan. 15, 1939, and was designed with a seating capacity of 1,193 people by Charles C. Benton & Sons. At that time it was owned by the Pastime Amusement Company. It was closed as a movie theater on Sept. 5, 1977. It was renovated in 1997 by the City of Charleston as a convention center.”
Others who correctly identified the Riviera Theater across from Charleston Place hotel were Elizabeth Jones and Jay Altman, both of Columbia; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Barry Wingard of Florence; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Pat Keadle of Wagener; and David Lupo of Mount Pleasant.
>> Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
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