South Carolina Manual Drops ‘Negro’ and ‘Scalawag’ References: COLUMBIA, S.C. — The official manual of the South Carolina Legislature no longer references 'Negro' or 'scalawag' in historical listings of Reconstruction leaders.
The words quietly disappeared from the 2010 manual, a year after drawing scrutiny.
House Clerk Charles Reid said the listings of lieutenant governors and House speakers which included the references were first produced in the early 1900s and simply transferred to the book as is.
African-Americans who held the offices from 1870 to 1876 were noted as 'Negro' in parentheses beside their names. The word 'scalawag' denoted the House speaker who served from 1868-72. The term referred to White Southerners who supported the federal government's actions in the region.
Despite the documents' historical nature, Reid said, he decided to remove the terms from the 700-page manual distributed this week because they're now irrelevant.
