South Carolina State Reps Bill Chumley and Mike Burns pre-filed a bill that would establish a commission to design an African-American Confederate veterans monument. There's only one problem: historians point out there’s no evidence such combatants ever existed. Historian Walter Edgar, the longtime director of the University of South Carolina’s Institute for Southern Studies said,“In all my years of research, I can say I have ...

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South Carolina State Reps Bill Chumley and Mike Burns pre-filed a bill that would establish a commission to design an African-American Confederate veterans monument. There's only one problem: historians point out there’s no evidence such combatants ever existed. Historian Walter Edgar, the longtime director of the University of South Carolina’s Institute for Southern Studies said,“In all my years of research, I can say I have seen no documentation of black South Carolina soldiers fighting for the Confederacy...In fact, when secession came, the state turned down free (blacks) who wanted to volunteer because they didn’t want armed persons of color." Edgar, who wrote a history of the state, said any black person who served in a Confederate unit in South Carolina was either a slave or an unpaid laborer working against his will.

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Authors Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an award-winning artist, author, educator, and Managing Editor of OpEdNews, where her articles and other contributions have received more than 4.5 million views. She has written for OpEdNews since 2004 and has been Managing Editor since 2013. In 2015, her work on OpEdNews passed one million views with her article about Bree Newsome's removal of a Confederate flag; she was delighted that this particular story carried her across her first million-view milestone. Her article topics range from art, creativity, spirituality, women's issues, and feminine empowerment to politics, social justice, and the occasional irresistible absurdity. Her popular Art & Creativity series includes nearly 200 articles and has received more than half a million views. Butler has been creating and teaching art for many decades. Her artwork, in a wide variety of media, is in collections around the world. She is the author of two quilting books, including a niche-market bestseller. Her adventures have included two trips to the former USSR as a citizen diplomat, where she spoke in Moscow and Odessa and met with artists, craftspeople, and fashion designers about using the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. In 1987-88, she created the historic First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project with a school in Odessa, an exchange that brought the first reciprocal quilt from the former USSR to the United States. Butler's assorted roles have included journalist, international workshop facilitator and speaker, labyrinth designer and builder, founding member of The Labyrinth Society, entrepreneur, Renaissance woman, proud gramma and, on one memorable occasion, unexpected babycatcher, when the midwife was stuck in traffic. Interviews & Features Media appearances include an interview about her Near Death Experience and how it influenced her art on the JeffMara Podcast, with over 17,000 views. Her YouTube channel, @Merylannb, features "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy," "The Art of Creating Wellbeing Amidst Chaos (Art vs. Tyranny)," and "How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler," which has over 79,000 views.