Bob Sofaly photo
Rev. Kenneth Hodges, paster of Tabernacle Baptist Church on Craven Street, positions the flowers at the Memorial of S.C. statesman Robert Smalls after being blown over by wind Monday morning at the church.  Rev. Hodges said the flowers are placed at Smalls’ monument each year on the anniversary of his death. 
Smalls, an escaped slave and Civil War hero, was elected to U.S. Congress as a Republican in 1867. He died Feb. 23, 1915, and is buried on church grounds. He was 75.