Press Release
As one of three states in the US with no law specifically protecting citizens targeted by hate crime, it is long past time that South Carolina moves forward with the passage of hate crime legislation.
In the interest of making that happen, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Charleston, Alliance For Full Acceptance, Mother Emanuel AME Church, Charleston Hispanic Association, Lowcountry Coalition Against Hate, the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Columbia Jewish Federation, Charleston Jewish Federation and others have banded together behind a position statement and an official campaign called Stamp Out Hate South Carolina.
For too long, our communities across the state of South Carolina have borne witness to a long history of violence, harassment, and vandalism directed at citizens because of who they are, most notably in 2015 with the murder of nine South Carolinians at Mother Emanuel AME Church by a man steeped in white supremacist ideology. We have no way of prosecuting these crimes as hate crimes through state law.
As legislators are working together to craft a hate crime bill to pre-file for the coming legislative session, our organizations are amassing support for this effort. It is our goal to pass our position statement and its list of signers to our legislature when they reconvene in January. Our hope is to show our legislators just how important this issue is to our communities and the non-profits, grassroots organizations, religious congregations, criminal justice officials, and municipalities that represent them.
Our position statement, the list of signers, the link to add your organization to the list, and information on how to support our campaign are available on our coalition's website: www.stampouthate.sc
