For Immediate Release
August 23, 2016
SCDP CHAIR MESSAGE REGARDING STATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE VOTE TO RENAME JEFFERSON-JACKSON DINNER
Columbia, SC – South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Jaime Harrison emailed the following message to party members on the State Executive Committee’s vote tonight to begin a process to rename the state party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner:
“Earlier this evening, the South Carolina Democratic Party State Executive Committee voted unanimously to begin a process to rename our state party’s annual fundraising dinner, known in recent decades as the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. Though Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson did play integral roles in the institutional development of the Democratic Party, our Executive Committee members—being careful not to judge historical figures solely by modern standards and thus taking full account of the range of views on the issue of slavery and treatment of Native Americans in American society during that era—decided that our annual dinner should be a reflection of the modern Democratic Party.
“The change will take effect after the upcoming Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on September 30; this event will remain the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. In the weeks and months following, the State Executive Committee will be soliciting suggestions from our county parties and will deliberate and decide on a new name for the dinner that more accurately reflects the ideals of our party.
“As we take this step, let us redouble our efforts to elect candidates and enact policies that embody the truth proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence and updated at the Seneca Falls Convention: that all men and women are created equal.”
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