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

Ernest A. Finney | Civil Rights in S.C.

Video

Civil Rights Youth Media Summit: Ernest A. Finney Interviewed by D'Asia Pelzer (C.A. Johnson High School) and Jessica Green (Scott's Branch High School)
Why the Penn Center? | Road Trip

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Joseph McDomick, Jr, civil rights activist and former Penn Center employee, talks about why Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. chose to visit the Penn Center on many occasions during the civil rights...
Civil Rights Photography | Artopia
Episode 1

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Cecil J. Williams did a great deal of civil rights photography. Even as a young boy, before he understood what was going on, he took many important photographs.
Civil Rights Photography | Artopia
Episode 2

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Cecil J. Williams is a native of Orangeburg, South Carolina. He began taking documentary photographs of his community at the age of nine. By 15, he was working professionally as a freelancer for Jet...