OLD DIXIE

SC Gubernatorial Candidate: ‘I'm Proud of the Confederacy’

Catherine Templeton pledged not to “rewrite history” if elected.

A gubernatorial candidate in South Carolina said Tuesday evening that she is “proud of the Confederacy” and pledged not to “rewrite history” if elected to office, upsetting the state’s black leaders, The Post and Courier reported. Catherine Templeton, a former two-time state agency head, was answering a question regarding her views on “Southern heritage and Southern defense.” The Confederate battle flag was controversially removed from the Statehouse grounds two years ago after a racially-charged mass shooting killed nine people at a Charleston church. “I don’t think she understands the diversity we have in South Carolina and that we’re not all a bunch of flag-waving yahoos,” said Joe Darby, a presiding elder in the AME church. “When you elevate the Confederacy, you stomp on the memories of those who were subjugated, the slaves. She’s stomping on my ancestors. If she’s proud of her heritage over nine lives, it’s a shame.”