By the early twentieth century, Charleston seemed more like
a medieval city than a modern port. Hogs and dairy cows lived in the alleys and
walked the streets, while buzzards provided a primary public sanitation
service. The city had no professional fire department or police force. In a
city becoming known as “too poor to paint and too proud to whitewash,”
Charleston’s elite had little interest in or vision of economic renewal. Most
shops and even banks in the city opened in late morning, closed at midday to
allow the proprietors to enjoy a long and leisurely three o’clock dinner, then
reopened briefly before sundown. Charlestonians had the reputation of being
lost in a dreamy contemplation of the past. Grace was unwilling to let the city
sleep. He instituted a series of reforms that began its modernization, such as
raising taxes to pave roads and build sidewalks. Grace held o ffi ce from 1911
to 1915 and again from 1919 to 1923 . Seeing the city’s potential for tourism,
in his second term he saw to it that the city contributed to the building of
the Francis Marion Hotel, which still stands on the corner of King and Calhoun
streets across from Marion Square. The city finally developed professional
police and fire protection and other services. Farm animals disappeared from
the streets. But the old elites of the city hated Grace. He lost in 1915 by a
handful of votes to Tristram T. Hyde. Armed partisans for Grace and equally
well-armed partisans for his opponent showed up at Democratic Party
headquarters at the corner of George and King streets. A scuffle over ballots
led to a wild shootout. Two ballot boxes were hurled into the street, a
Charleston News and Courier reporter was shot and killed, and only intervention
by police and local militia ended the violence. Meanwhile, although African
Americans lacked any meaningful vote in the early twentieth century, they did
more than simply accept the marginal place whites attempted to assign them.
Unable to challenge Jim Crow as a social system, they worked to improve their
position within it. These efforts planted seeds of resistance that would come
to fruition in the civil rights struggle.
Bass, Jack. Palmetto State : The Making of Modern South
Carolina.
Columbia, SC, USA: University of South Carolina Press, 2009.
p 76.
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