Black History Month is celebrated every February to honor the achievements of African Americans who have shaped American history. Historian Carter G. Woodson hoped to raise awareness of African American's contributions to civilization by establishing Negro History Week. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that included both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass' birthdays. The week was later expanded to a month in 1976 during the United States bicentennial.
PHOTO: On March 20, 1969, Black hospital workers at the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston went on strike to protest the firing of twelve employees and to call for higher wages and union recognition.
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After becoming Penn Community Center in 1953, the institution began to focus on social issues affecting the well-being of the native islanders. This expanded to African Americans as a whole in the...
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After viewing the video clip, have students use this handout to learn more. Students can research articles about the debate to remove the Confederate flag. Explain the arguments made from each side...
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The original Scott’s Branch High School was formed to serve African American students in Summerton, South Carolina. Originally known as the Taw Caw School, the school's name changed due to the...
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The Wheeler Hill Elementary school replaced the Celia Dial Saxon Negro Elementary School, which was overcrowded and needed rehabilitation. The neighborhood’s new elementary school was designed by...
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The Booker T. Washington Auditorium Building is the last extant building of Booker T. Washington High School in Columbia, South Carolina. The school opened in 1916 and became an important institution...
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The Rollin Sisters are essentially silenced after Reconstruction, and are forced to move away from South Carolina due to the increasing violence by “Red Shirts”, and Ku Klux Klan members. In the fight...
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The South Carolina Woman Suffrage Association was founded in Columbia in 1870, with Charlotte Rollin as the Chair. A charter is created and sent to Lucy Stone, one of the founders of the American...
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During this period, there were many people, including African Americans, who felt the issue of women’s suffrage was much less important than civil rights for Blacks. In the 1868 Constitutional...
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The Civil War brought an abrupt change to the Rollin Family, ending a period where, according to Frances Rollin, “free people of color were at the zenith of their prosperity”. The Rollin family’s...
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Frances Rollin was propelled into the national spotlight with the Pilot Boy steamship incident, in Charleston, South Carolina, where the captain refused her service due to the color of her skin...
