COLUMBIA (AP) -- The official manual of the South Carolina Legislature no longer references "Negro" or "scalawag" in historical listings of Reconstruction leaders.
The words quietly disappeared from the 2010 manual, a year after drawing scrutiny.
House Clerk Charles Reid says the listings of lieutenant governors and House speakers which included the references were first produced in the early 1900s and simply transferred to the book as is. African-Americans who held the offices from 1870 to 1876 were noted as "Negro" in parentheses beside their names.
Reid said he decided to remove the terms from the 700-page manual distributed this week because they're irrelevant.
Rep. Todd Rutherford applauded the removal. The black Democrat said the words went unnoticed for years, though he's shocked they had remained so long.
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