Born in Beaufort, South Carolina in 1839, Robert Smalls commandeered a Confederate ship delivering 17 black passengers from slavery to freedom. Amidst todays divisive debates around Confederate statues, white Republican Sen. Greg Gregory and black Democratic Sen. Darrell Jackson, both of South Carolina, are proposing a monument to the former slave who fought for the Union during the Civil War.

If approved, the statue would be placed on State House grounds. In a joint statement to The State, Gregory and Jackson said that the proposal "is an attempt to do something positive as communities debate the role and future of Confederate monuments."

Both senators were in office when White supremacist, Dylan Roof killed nine people attending a prayer service at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Gregory and Jackson were in the state Legislature as debates were waged over the Confederate flag's display at the State House. "At this time in history, our communities, state and country need greater unity and less (dissension)," Gregory said in a statement. "Removal of historical monuments in (South Carolina) will create less of the former and more of the latter," Jackson said.

Essentially, the proposal amounts to a compromise that will allow the state to keep their historical monuments to the Confederacy while adding a monument to honor a black union soldier. Jackson said that while historical monuments should remain on State House grounds, they should represent "all of South Carolina's history."