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The stolen cast
aluminum marker honoring the Pollitzer sisters was discovered
Thursday morning in a vacant lot near the sisters' home and will be
dedicated at 4 this afternoon.
The heavy marker was
installed Tuesday at the sisters' childhood home at 5 Pitt St. in
downtown Charleston. It was stolen several hours later, before a
state Department of Transportation crew could pour cement at its
base.
Jennet Alterman of
the Center for Women, which helped arrange the tribute, said she
was shocked and urged the vandals to bring it back.
"I think this
concerted effort in the press worked," she said Thursday.
"We're just thrilled that whoever removed it did the right
thing."
The marker,
installed Thursday, honors Anita, Mabel and Carrie Pollitzer, who
fought for women's rights and helped give women the right to vote
and to attend the College of Charleston, establish the city's first
public library and its first school lunch program.
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The Center for Women
led the campaign for the marker because of its belief that the
accomplishments of Lowcountry women haven't been as publicly
celebrated as those of men.
Across the state,
there have been about 1,100 historical markers erected or approved
since 1936, and about 50 of them have been primarily associated
with women, said Tracy Power of the S.C. Department of Archives
and History.
"The irony of
this whole thing," Alterman said, "is that far more
people will know about the Pollitzers than if the marker hadn't
been stolen."
Reach Robert
Behre at 937-5771 or at rbehre@postandcourier.com.
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