A member of the Cayce Historical Museum Commission is accused of stating “Columbia did not need another colored person as mayor” to a City of Cayce employee. He has resigned from the position, according to a city spokesperson

“Moments ago, a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Cayce Museum and Historical Commission was dropped off at Cayce City Hall,” reads the statement given to the Chronicle on Nov. 12. “This letter, signed by Mr. Marion Hutson, a Council-appointed volunteer, states that he is voluntarily resigning from the Cayce Museum and Historical Commission effective immediately.”

Hutson is one of nine commissioners who oversee the city-owned Cayce Historical Museum which seeks to, per the city’s website, “[preserve] the history of the area and [acquire] and [exhibit] historically significant works.”

Mayor Pro Tem James “Skip” Jenkins read an email he said was sent by the anonymous employee at a regularly scheduled Cayce City Council meeting Nov. 9. It detailed an alleged conversation between Hutson and the employee.

Jenkins read the email as part of a motion to dismiss Hutson from his position on the museum commission. The motion failed in a 3-2 vote.

According to Jenkins’ recitation, heard in a recording acquired by the Chronicle, the email stated that the conversation took place during the city’s municipal election on Nov. 2, at Edwards Memorial ARP Church, which was a polling place. It detailed that Hutson told the employee he was out at the polls in support of Hunter Sox, a Cayce City Council candidate who won and was sworn in at the Nov. 9 meeting.

“He stated that Columbia did not need another colored person as mayor,” Jenkins read. “He stated that there were three colored people, and one is an Arab, running for the mayor.”

“Then he stated that in the past more than one white person had run for the mayor,” Jenkins continued.

The email stated that the employee told Hutson they were hoping to cast a ballot at a polling place in Columbia. Hutson then told the staffer to vote for Daniel Rickenmann, who is white, in the mayoral race.

Two candidates on the ballot for Columbia mayor on Nov. 2, City Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine and Sam Johnson, were Black. The other, former City Councilman Moe Baddourah, is from Lebanon. Rickenmann and Devine will face off in a Nov. 16 runoff for the seat.

According to the employee’s email, another person came up to speak to them immediately following Hutson’s comments, keeping the employee from addressing what was said with the commissioner.

“I’m shaking,” said Jenkins, the only Black member of Cayce City Council, before reading the email. “It’s got me disturbed.”

Mayor Elise Partin and the other three council members are white.

In the vote to dismiss Hutson, Jenkins and Partin voted for Hutson to be removed and Councilmen Sox, Phil Carter and Tim James voted against.

The Chronicle attempted to reach Hutson for comment, but has yet to reach him.

“I do not condone either of those statements,” Sox said in response to Jenkins’ reading of the email. “And I hate that he was out there saying things like that and campaigning on my behalf.”

Carter and Mayor Partin argued about whether they had agreed earlier in the day to not bring the motion forward unless the vote would be unanimous.

“I told you I would under no circumstances be put in a position to be a swing vote on this issue,” Carter said. “And that appears to be just where we’re going. And we had agreed that if this council was not unanimous on whatever direction we were going to take that we weren’t going to take any action.”

The mayor said this wasn’t true.

“There’s at least two of us up here right now who are willing to take action and stand up against these words and not let this person continue to represent our city,” Partin said. “If the three of you think differently then vote that way.”

James said that he was looking for due process in the investigation into Hutson’s comments.

“These type things certainly need to be addressed because they do not meet the spirit of our great city,” the councilman said. “I have asked our council to direct staff to immediately investigate this and look at ... any witnesses and bring it back immediately so that we can address it.

“Whether there are other statements that can be obtained or not, I’ve asked for us to look at that and bring this back immediately. So that we can address this issue. This council will address it.”

When James reiterated this stance, Mayor Partin responded, “By kicking the can down the road, you are tolerating it.”

In a statement posted to Facebook on Nov. 11 and updated mutliple times, Partin emphasized that the council members who voted against removing Hutson “DID NOT make a motion or take ANY action to request an investigation” and that the commisioner’s words do not represent Cayce.

“What message does it send when the reporting employee is told they are believed but no action is taken and instead there is discussion to produce more witnesses to the conversation?” the mayor posted. “What message does this send to the rest of our employees about having the courage to speak up when something is wrong? What message does this send our citizens who expect us to stand up for all of them and not just some of them?”

This isn’t the first time that Hutson has been accused of making a controversial statement.

In 2016, when members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans gathered at the Statehouse on the first Confederate Memorial Day following the removal of” the banner from the grounds in Columbia after the Mother Emanuel AME mass shooting, Myrtle Beach’s WBTW interviewed Hutson at the event. Per the story, he was clad in a replica Confederate soldier’s uniform.

“Our governor did not make the right decision. That flag, nor that gun killed those innocent people in Charleston,” Hutson is quoted in the story. “That was a tragic situation, but they just used that to get the flag off the Statehouse. I wonder what would have happened if that boy had been waving the American flag on TV? Would they have taken all the American flags down?”

Per the article, Hutson was also asked what he “would say to people who see the Confederate flag as a symbol of slavery and oppression.”

“Slavery would have ended, by what I can gather reading articles, newspaper articles, in about 10 years,” he is quoted. “The state of Virginia was already drawing up plans to free the slaves, and with the cotton gin and the industrial period there wouldn’t have been a need for slavery.”