African American History

Learn about the achievements of African Americans who have shaped South Carolina and American history.

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.

Within this Collection

Title:
Orangeburg Massacre, Part 1 | Project Discovery 1
Orangeburg Massacre, Part 1 | Project Discovery
Episode 1

Video

Part 1 of Project Discovery's look at the Orangeburg Massacre on its 40th anniversary. In 1968, civil rights demonstrations, to desegregate a bowling alley near S.C. State University, resulted in the...
Orangeburg Massacre, Part 4 | The Big Picture 4
Orangeburg Massacre, Part 4 | The Big Picture
Episode 4

Video

Part 4 of the Commemoration of the Orangeburg Massacre on its 40th anniversary: An interview with Martin Luther King, III, who was asked what his father would think about the events that occurred 40...