COLUMBIA, S.C. — A controversial historical figure could soon be finding a new home in Columbia.
Officials with the South Carolina State Museum on Gervais Street announced they are working with the City of Charleston on an "extended loan agreement" to allow a statue of John C. Calhoun to be moved to Columbia.
Attorneys are finalizing the details regarding the loan, which would be subject to approval by the South Carolina State Museum and Charleston City Council.
In addition to accepting the statue, the museum would agree to assist in the transportation and monitor the conservation of the monument, along with its associated artifacts. The State Museum will also coordinate "with other state agencies and community input to create and execute a long-term storage and interpretive plan for this monument," with Legislative approval.
But the deal has a way to go before being finalized. The Associated Press reports descendants of Calhoun have filed a lawsuit saying the statue was illegally removed and should be put back up. The suit was filed after Charleston considered sending the Calhoun statue to a Los Angeles art exhibit that is collecting other Confederate and segregationist monuments removed by governments.
In June 2020, Charleston officials voted unanimously to remove the statue of the former vice president and slavery advocate from Marion Square in downtown Charleston. Calls for the statue's removal came in the wake of the death of George Floyd, part of a national movement to take down symbols of suppression.
Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said in a statement, "As I've said from the start, I don't support erasing history, but rather, serious efforts to place complicated figures such as Mr. Calhoun in their full context. And, in this instance, I can't imagine a more appropriate institution to perform that valuable public service than the SC State Museum."
From 1825 to 1832, Calhoun served as the seventh vice president of the United States -- serving under presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson -- before returning to the US Senate. He was a defender of states' rights and slavery, and owned slaves at his home in Fort Mill, SC.
Charleston's first statue to Calhoun was erected in Marion Square in the mid-1890s, and was later replaced by the statue showing Calhoun standing with his cloak over his shoulders atop a 100 foot pedestal in 1896.