NEWS BRIEF: New bio highlights Reconstruction-era Senate leader

Editor’s Note:  This story, originally published in the Charleston City Paper, follows up on a related Oct. 18 story in Charleston Currents, about a portrait now hanging in the Senate chamber.

By Herb Frazier, Charleston City Paper  |  Four years ago, Civil War historian and Mount Pleasant-based attorney Gordon C. Rhea began an exploration into the life and legacy of a little-known black Civil War hero.

A decade before Rhea’s research of soldier-turn-politician Stephen A. Swails, a private group had commissioned a portrait of Swails for the state South Carolina Senate chamber where he served after the Civil War.

A 13-year wait to place Swails’ portrait in the Senate recently ended when, after questions from a reporter, it was finally taken out of a closet and mounted in the chamber just in time for Rhea’s latest book. This month the Louisiana State University Press is scheduled to release Stephen A. Swails: Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction.

In other recent news:

Cole wins leadership award.  MUSC President and Dr. David J. Cole is the 2021 recipient of the Joseph P. Riley Leadership, which the Charleston Metro Chamber announced last week.  It will be presented to him on Dec. 3.  “The Joseph P. Riley Leadership Award is conferred on a transformative leader who has a deep and meaningful impact on our area,” said Bryan Derreberry, president and CEO of the Charleston Metro Chamber. “Dr. Cole has and continues to provide compassionate, medically advanced and public health savvy leadership in a once-in-a-century global pandemic. He ‘willingly stepped into the gap’ to be the clear signal we all needed to navigate one of the most pressing crises in our region’s history.”

House redistricting plan ruffles feathers.  While the Senate’s redistricting plan advanced out of committee with ease, the House’s plan has drawn bipartisan criticism that it discouraged competition, divided communities of interest, and did not allow sufficient time for informed public comment. More: The Post and Courier  |  AP News.

S.C. lawmaker looks at Texas-style abortion law. S.C. Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, has called a controversial Texas abortion law, which allows private citizens to sue abortion providers, “a very novel approach,” hinting at a possible S.C. adaptation.  More: The State.

Bond denied again for prominent attorney Murdaugh.  Alex Murdaugh will likely remain in jail for many months while awaiting trial on charges of insurance fraud connected to the death of a housekeeper. Murdaugh’s wife and son were found shot to death at their family estate earlier this year, and Murdaugh is facing multiple cases claiming he stole from his law firm, stole insurance money from the heirs of a dead housekeeper, and sought to defraud insurance by trying to have an acquaintance shoot and kill him.

Leatherman, powerful Pee Dee senator, passes away.  S.C. Sen. Hugh Leatherman, the powerful Florence Republican who chaired the Senate Finance Committee, died at home early Friday after a long battle with cancer.  About three weeks ago following surgery for abdominal pain, an aggressive cancer was found.  He then started receiving hospice care at home.  Leatherman, 90, helped to direct state spending, economic development projects and infrastructure deals.  Examples include luring Boeing to the state to make jets and greatly improving infrastructure at the S.C. State Ports Authority,  where a new port terminal is named for him in North Charleston.

SC for Ed survey finds ‘potentially broken’ school system.  A survey released by teacher advocacy group SC for Ed says public school staffing woes have been known for years and yet few actions have been made. The survey found that 38 percent of teachers planned to leave their current positions. In a related report in Charleston County, responses to a survey from 853 educators in the Charleston County School District detail a bleak education experience on both sides of the teacher’s desk.

• Want more headlines every business day that are like this?  Visit our friends at SC Clips.