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

Dr. Gloria Blackwell | Road Trip

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Dr. Gloria (Rackley) Blackwell was active in the NAACP Youth Council at Claflin College. As an activist throughout her life, Dr. Blackwell was most noted for her lawsuit against the Orangeburg...
Clarendon County | Road Trip

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Rev. J. A. DeLaine and several others helped build the national case Brown v. Board of Education. DeLaine's family and other Clarendon county residents recall the bravery shown by signers of the...
Chief Justice Ernest A. Finney | Road Trip

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Chief Justice Ernest A. Finney gained respect as an exceptional civil rights advocate defending more than 6,000 people arrested for participating in some type of civil protest. He was appointed to the...
Waymon Stover on Rosenwald Schools | Road Trip

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Waymon Stover describes the segregated Rosenwald school he attended during his elementary years. "A Rosenwald School was the name informally applied to over five thousand schools, shops, and teachers'...
Ferdinand Pearson | Road Trip

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Ferdinand Pearson the son of South Carolina civil rights pioneer, Levi Pearson, talks about the court case that his father brought against the Clarendon County School Board. The court case asked for...
Clarendon Today | Road Trip

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Leola Parks, the executive assistant to the Superintendent for Clarendon County, and others talk about what should be done to improve the school system for everyone. I'm Building A Bridge, L. A...
Ferdinand Pearson on School Conditions | Road Trip

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Ferdinand Pearson talks about the school conditions for black children in Clarendon County. Starting at the age of six, he had to walk to a school which was located over four miles away from his home.
Mary McLeod Bethune | S.C. Hall of Fame

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This profile will show how Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, born to poor cotton farmers in Mayesville, S.C., would brilliantly start a school of her own with just $1.50, which became an internationally...
Maude Callen | S.C. Hall of Fame

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This episode is about Maude Callen (1898 -- 1990), a Nurse-Midwife, who singlehandedly brought health care to rural Pineville, S.C. and the surrounding area of Berkeley County in the early 1920s...