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The South Carolina Heritage Act is a South Carolina statute that forbids the removal or alteration of historic monuments located on public property in South Carolina as well as the rededication of any public areas or structures named after a historic person or event. The historic monuments protected include war monuments (including monuments to the American Civil War and both World Wars) as well as monuments representing Native American and African American history.

The Act was seen as a compromise by state legislators who were seeking to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House and legislators who wanted it to remain.

Statutory language
(A) No 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, Native American, or African-American History 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, 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 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.

(B) The provisions of this section may only be amended or repealed upon passage of an act which has received a two-thirds vote on the third reading of the bill in each branch of the General Assembly.

Enactment
The Heritage Act was signed into law on May 23, 2000 by Governor Jim Hodges. The Act was seen as a compromise by state legislators who were seeking to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House and legislators who wanted it to remain. The placement of the flag on top of the State House had become a topic of interest during the 2000 Republican Party presidential primaries. The flag was removed on July 2, 2000, from the State House and moved to a nearby Confederate Soldiers monument. The flag was removed from the statehouse grounds altogether in 2015 following the Charleston church shooting.