Calhoun statue removed from Marion Square

CHARLESTON, SC - JUNE 24: A worker uses a saw at the foot of the statue of John C. Calhoun atop the monument in his honor in Marion Square on June 24, 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina. Work crews began dismantling the monument in Tuesday evening. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

As workers in green cherry pickers first went after John C. Calhoun with a saw on Wednesday morning, I spoke with a woman outside of Big Gun Burgers on Calhoun St. She grew up nearby, still attends church down the street, and her first memories of Marion Square are the result of a KKK rally at the park. She defied her father that day and stopped on the way home, getting out of a vehicle to watch from the sidewalk. On Wednesday, at four in the morning, she was back on a sidewalk near Marion Square watching the removal of a monument honoring a vice president of the United States who fiercely defended the institution of slavery, describing it not as a necessary evil, like others at the time, but rather a “positive good.”

For 17 hours on Wednesday in Charleston, SC, work crews struggled to remove the bronze statue of John C. Calhoun atop a 115 foot monument that had loomed over Marion Square for more than 100 years. A diamond band saw was used to cut through a sandwich of granite, concrete, epoxy, and a metal lightning rod that stretched from Calhoun’s foot to the ground below.

For the entire photo report and/or to license an image: SC: Charleston Removes John C. Calhoun Statue From City's Marion Square

Photos and words by Sean Rayford