How Charleston Got Where It Was

                                                                        Copyright May 2008

 

I hope to have an in-depth interview with Tim Mallard, tomorrow. Mallard was the one who walked out on Joe Riley, Friday and about whom I wrote Saturday.

It might instructive to those not familiar (or that particularly interested) in Charleston history what the Joe Riley saga reveals. I have played a role (however insignificant).

 Just remember that one of my favorite songs is “I Won’t Back Down.” I have been told by the powers that be that I would be ruined if I continued my almost Ahab and the white whale relationship with this man. I was told that I would never work for a certain publication or any spin-off thereof were I to openly oppose Joe Riley. I do so because he is what Jonah Goldberg describes as a liberal fascist.

Hey, Baby There ain’t no easy way out.

This whole thing began a hundred years ago. People on Daniel Island or Mount Pleasant should care because it’s going to affect you sooner than you think. You think if Hugh McColl leaves Bank of America any time soon the loan on the aquarium (which we had not touched the interest on in 2003) will be called in? We all own that aquarium.  Ask your city councilman if the loan is paid off. Really. Ask him.

So how did we get here?

It all started with Robert Goodwin Rhett who served 1903 to 1911. He was the last of a long string of Protestant (probably C of E or some variation thereof) mayors. Then in 1911, John P. Grace, not only the first Irish American, but the first Catholic, was elected mayor of the city of Charleston.

Grace was a man of the people (there used be a bridge named after him – while he was alive before it became fashionable. It’s gone now. No trace is left. (There should be a lesson for others).  He was engaging and had good ideas but he also was a stronger progressive than his compatriots on council.

Grace lost in 1915, but served from 1919 to 1923. He was then trounced by Thomas Stoney and a stake was put in the heart of both Catholcism and the Irish in politics).  From 1923 to 1975, the Protestants controlled it all. Many Charleston mayors went on to become senators.

I will not pretend that Charleston was a paragon of virtue and much it of it was granddaughters living widowed in enormous houses. Families could make it, however. Anyone – black white, Greek, Irish, Jewish, Catholic , in no could particular order could make it if they tried hard . The Protestants (and Palmer Gailiard was a Huguenot (thank you, very much) did not heap scorn on the Irish. Indeed, there was a lot of laughter at Hibernian Hall.

(A quick story about a mayor that I learned from Charleston newspaper legend, Jack Leland: Apparently, the city was in the midst of the Depression and was desperately in the red. Burnet Rhett Maybank (later US Senator) ordered that the bawdy houses be raided once a week at the end of the night and the profits be turned over to the city coffers. The city was in the black the next year and remained so).

Palmer  Gailliard was elected in 1959 and would spell the end of Protestant rule. Mayor Gaillard was an honorable man, wrote a wonderful book and was as honest as he could be. (There were still bagmen in 1974). Interestingly while Murray Boulevard was a donation and was a large landfill in 1911. Lockwood Boulevard (named after another mayor). was the largest landfill project the city ever undertook up until then. When I was a child the marina was across the street from Roper on Calhoun. There’s a lake there now. Arthur Shrimer was mayor for six months and did not stand for election. (Incidentally, everyone of the mayors was a democrat. To see a list, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Charleston,_South_Carolina

n 1974, a young fresh-faced state legislator eyed the office of the mayor. Palmer hadn’t screwed up. President Ford did by appointing him under-secretary of the navy. Interestingly when I gave tours 20 years ago, I would be in city hall pointing out the portraits of the different mayors –Is Joe’s up yet? I haven’t been there in five years.  If not, I vote for the young Elvis — Palmah had been the longest term, Shrimer the shortest,

You can stand me up at the gates of hell
But I won’t back down

The Catholic “Mafia” as it was called in some circles was fit to be tied. It was time for strategy. It was time for payback – some might even term it “revenge.”  Made up of Broad Street Realtors, Joe Riley Sr. had a boy who would be perfect for the job. He was a South Carolina state legislator, young, energetic and could parrot the platitudes of Pug Ravenel with a breath-taking vicissitude. This was the era of Watergate. 

The blacks ate it up with a spoon and they were a constituency Mr. Riley owned until this decade.  Kwadjo’s right: Name one improvement for the black community in thirty years.

Even though he was termed “Little Black Joe,” he won the 1975 election and has not let go of power – not one iota – since. Oh, and a quick question to the black community: How’s that liberal fascist thing working out for you?

Some council members’ have opposed Riley. They are gone.  He was strong, then. Let’s see what Mallard allows.