Mar 12, 2014 05:31 PM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Civil rights leaders in South Carolina announced Monday that they oppose the selection of Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell, Civil War re-enactor, for presidents of the College of Charleston, the Associated Press reported.

State and local leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held a press conference Monday on the school's campus in protest of the selection, the AP reported. People held posters of McConnell dressed in Confederate garb. One of the signs said "No Thanks."

NAACP is against this selection because of his long history of revering Confederate history. They question whether the college would be seen as a welcoming place to black students, if McConnell is made president.

The Rev. Nelson B. Rivers, a local minister and former national chief operating officer for the NAACP, said that if McConnell is hired at the college, school officials will regret it.

Leaders warned that if McConnell is made president of the University, they will let prospective students and athletes know of his support for flying the Confederate flag on the grounds of the Statehouse in Columbia.

They will also circulate a 2010 photograph of McConnell dressed as a Confederate general, posing with black people playing the part of slaves.

He also said he should be defined by his record, which he said includes support for historically black colleges and for efforts to attract more black men to teaching, not the civil rights group's rhetoric, the AP reported.

McConnell is one of three finalists for the job.

University President George Benson announced last year that he will step down from the post and return to the classroom as a professor in the college's school of business, effective June 30.

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