South Carolina will be honoring Robert Smalls with the state’s first African American monument. According to NBC News, he’s most commonly known for helping to free his family and others in 1862 during the Civil War. This act of courage was accomplished by dressing in Confederate clothes to steal a slave owner’s ship.
Smalls also played a part in rewriting South Carolina’s constitution to grant equality for Black Men following the Civil War.
Although he contributed to others for most of his life, Smalls was fired from job as a federal customers collector in 1913. President Woodrow Wilson was to blame as he pushed numerous Black men out of government jobs.
The South Carolina hero passed away in 1915, however he continues to inspire. Chris Barr, Chief for the National Historic Park, stated, “Robert Smalls writes a new future for this country…”
