South Carolina Democrats to drop Jefferson-Jackson reference

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s Democrats will rename their annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner after the upcoming fundraiser in September, making theirs the latest state party to distance itself from the slave-owning presidents who are considered the party’s founders.

The party’s executive committee voted unanimously Tuesday night to drop the names of the nation’s third and seventh presidents, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Beyond owning slaves, Jackson is known for the forced removal of Native Americans over the Trail of Tears.

State Chairman Jaime Harrison says the committee ultimately decided the dinner should reflect the modern Democratic Party, after “being careful not to judge historical figures solely by modern standards and thus taking full account of the range of views on the issue of slavery and treatment of Native Americans in American society during that era.”

South Carolina’s last Jefferson-Jackson Dinner will be Sept. 30. The committee will take suggestions in the coming months on a new name “that more accurately reflects the ideals of our party,” Harrison said.

Other states to drop the names of the late presidents from party fundraisers cited last year’s massacre in Charleston of nine black parishioners by a white gunman. They include Arkansas, Connecticut, and Georgia.

South Carolina’s dinner has been named for the late presidents since 1987. It had previously been called the Governor’s Dinner but was changed after a Republican won the governor’s seat.