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.
Video
University of South Carolina scholar, John Sproat, gives a lecture about desegregation in South Carolina. In this clip Sproat discusses the integration of Clemson by Harvey Gantt. CREDIT...
Video
Dr. Charles Thomas was a professor of philosophy at South Carolina State College and a local NAACP official. On at least one occasion, Dr. Thomas mortgaged his home to bail student activists out of...
Video
In 1941, the 99th Pursuit Squadron, the first African-American air fighting unit, began training in Tuskegee, Alabama. The pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen included Ernest Henderson of Laurens...
Video
Mt. Pisgah A.M.E. church in Greenwood, built in 1908, is a unique treasure for the Greenwood community. CREDIT: Palmetto Places: Greenwood, South Carolina ETV, 2004
Video
Waymon Stover talks about his experience marching in Orangeburg in 1963 to desegregate lunch counters and being arrested.
Video
University of South Carolina student, Tom Benning, gives a brief history of the life of John H. McCray. McCray was a pivotal figure in the Waverly Community, Columbia and in the surrounding areas.
Video
Ida McCain's husband was Sumter educator James T. McCain. In 1921, sixteen year old McCain began his involvement in civil rights by registering voters in Sumter county. He was the founding president...
Video
Henry J. Clark attended the Pineview Indian School in the late 1930s and the Varner Indian School in the early 1940s.
Video
Joseph McDomick, Jr., civil rights activist in Beaufort county, relates one experience when he tried to get service at a segregated white restaurant.
Video
Listen to both black and white students as they talk in a round table discussion about desegregation. Each talks about how the transition has affected them and their classes.
