Race Has Long History in SC Politics

South Carolina politics has been entangled with race

ByABC News
October 1, 2008, 12:05 PM

— -- Race always has had a place in South Carolina's politics. It was the first state to secede from the Union, and 140 years later effectively killed John McCain's 2000 presidential bid after rumors about him fathering a black child surfaced.

(This time around, the McCain camp made sure to dispel such rumors months ago by distributing handouts explaining how the McCains adopted their daughter, Bridget, from Bangladesh.)

South Carolina is a place where large numbers of African slaves met their new world and where the black population at times outnumbered the white population though never in government, higher education or prosperity.