A group studying where to put South Carolina’s first Statehouse monument to an individual African American has decided Robert Smalls’ statue should be staring down a notorious white supremacist

A state panel has decided where a monument memorializing Civil War hero Robert Smalls will stand on the South Carolina State House grounds and what it will look like.

Robert Smalls, an enslaved man, commandeered a Confederate ship during the Civil War to bring slaves to freedom. Later, he was elected to the state Legislature and Congress.

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State lawmakers are preparing for a new legislative session, and one of their top priorities involves South Carolina’s private school voucher program.