South Carolina S 508: Monument and Memorial Protection

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 508 Text of Previous Version (May. 14, 2026) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 508

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

Indicates Matter Stricken

Indicates New Matter

Conference Report Adopted - Not Printed

May 14, 2026

S. 508

Introduced by Senators Verdin, Goldfinch, Martin, 
Peeler, Bennett, Young, Blackmon, Kimbrell, Zell, Nutt, Fernandez, Alexander, 
Turner, Adams, Leber, Corbin, Grooms, Hembree, Rice, Massey, Garrett, Chaplin, 
Cromer, Johnson, Gambrell, Kennedy, Davis, Climer, Campsen, Reichenbach, Bright 
and Cash 

S. Printed 5/14/26--S.

Read the first time March 27, 2025

________

statement of estimated fiscal impact

Explanation of Fiscal Impact

<<section info>>

Frank A. Rainwater, Executive Director

Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office

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A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY AMENDING 
SECTION 10 1 165, RELATING TO THE PROTECTION OF CERTAIN MONUMENTS AND 
MEMORIALS, SO AS TO EXPAND THE TYPE OF MONUMENTS OR MEMORIALS THAT MAY NOT BE 
RELOCATED, REMOVED, OR DISTURBED, TO AUTHORIZE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, BY JOINT 
RESOLUTION, TO TAKE ACTIONS REGARDING CERTAIN MONUMENTS, TO ALLOW FOR CERTAIN 
EXCEPTIONS, AND TO PROVIDE THE MANNER IN WHICH AN AFFINITY ORGANIZATION MAY 
BRING A CIVIL ACTION TO PREVENT CERTAIN ACTIONS REGARDING CERTAIN MONUMENTS.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of 
South Carolina:

SECTION 1. The 
General Assembly finds that those who lived through a historical event possess 
a firsthand understanding that later observers can study but never fully 
replicate. Accounts written by people who experienced the event-or who lived closer 
to the time period-carry the texture of context, language, and lived reality 
that inevitably fades with time. The nearer a person stands in time to the 
event, the more likely their description reflects the conditions, perceptions, 
and meanings as they were actually understood when they occurred.

SECTION 2. Section 10-1-165 of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

 Section 
10-1-165. (A) For 
the purposes of this section:

 (1) "Affinity organization" means a 
nonprofit organization registered with the Secretary of State that was 
established for the purpose of, primary or otherwise, honoring a particular 
event, people, or time period including, but not limited to, historic or 
heritage organizations that have a clearly demonstrable record of these 
actions.

 (2) "Historic figure" means a deceased person 
recognized in historical records, scholarship, or public commemoration as 
having played a significant role in past events or developments of public 
importance.

 (3) "Monument preservation 
organization" means a nonprofit organization registered with the Secretary of 
State that was established solely, or in part, for the preservation, defense, 
or protection of monuments and memorials that has a clearly demonstrable record 
of these actions.

 (B) No colonial 
war, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, War Between the 
States, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam 
War, Persian Gulf War, any armed conflict involving South 
Carolinians, Native American, or African-American History, or other historic 
monuments or memorials erected on public property of the State or any of its 
political subdivisions may be relocated, removed, disturbed, or altered. No 
street, bridge, structure, park, preserve, reserve, installation, 
nameplate, or other public area of the State or any of its political 
subdivisions dedicated in memory of or named for any historic figure, or historic 
group of people, historic event, or commemorated 
event may be renamed or rededicated. No person may prevent the public 
body responsible for the monument or memorial from taking proper measures and 
exercising proper means for the protection, preservation, and care of these 
monuments, memorials, or nameplates.

 (C) The prohibition on disturbing or 
altering a monument or memorial contained in this section includes affixing to 
or placing on or near a monument or memorial, or the public property upon which 
the monument or memorial is located, plaques, markers, anything that 
facilitates the transmission of messages through digital or electronic means, 
or other messages or message delivery devices or platforms that are related to 
the monument or memorial but are not original to the monument or memorial.

 (B)(D) The provisions of this section 
may only be amended or repealed upon passage of an act which has received a 
two-thirds vote on the third reading of the bill in each branch of the General 
Assembly.In order to relocate, remove, disturb, or 
alter a monument or memorial or to rename or rededicate a street, bridge, 
structure, park, preserve, reserve, installation, nameplate, or other public 
area of the St