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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Matthew James Perry, Jr. was born in Columbia, South Carolina, August 3, 1921. He attended law school at South Carolina State College and would play a central role in nearly every noteworthy civil...
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A pioneer in grassroots citizenship education, Septima Clark was called the ‘‘Mother of the Civil Rights Movement’’ by Martin Luther King. Clark was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1898...
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A Charleston native, Philip Simmons (1912-2009) was famous for his decorative ironwork pieces, which are featured throughout Charleston and in various other parts of the world. When he began his...
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In 1862, Robert Smalls, an enslaved crew-member of the CSS Planter, steals the boat, sails it past the heavily armed defenses of Charleston Harbor in South Carolina and delivers it into the hands of...
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Marian Wright Edelman is founder and President of the Children's Defense Fund, the nation’s strongest advocacy group for children and families. Born in 1939 in Bennettsville, South Carolina, she...
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Joseph McDomick, Jr., former Penn Center project supervisor for over thirty years, tells how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his inner circle worked at Penn to plan events like the March on Washington...
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Joseph McDomick, Jr., former Penn Center project supervisor for over thirty years, talks about Dr. King's many visits to Penn Center and how the visits had to be kept quiet because of the threats on...
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Mr. Billie Fleming explains the hardship that farmers, teachers and anyone associated with the NAACP during the civil rights movement encountered in their communities from white citizens.
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Civil Rights Youth Media Summit: James Clyburn Interviewed by Juli Cross (A.C. Flora High School) and Kevin Baxter (Scott's Branch High School)
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Joseph McDomick, Jr., civil rights activist in Beaufort county, shares his story of helping to organize the Welfare Rights Organization (WRO) in Beaufort. McDomick relates how he and other community...
