Learn about some of the contributions and facets of African American culture.
For more information about the various tribes, visit the African American History collection.
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Recorded at the 1998 Fall Folklife Festival, McKissick Museum. Notice the differences between this version and the version in the video clip. As with most forms of folk narrative, variation is an...
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West Africans brought to the South Carolina and Georgia coasts as slaves settled on geographically isolated plantations whose owners often were absent. Such conditions allowed lowcountry slaves to...
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Veronica Gerald’s familiarity with the South Carolina Gullah culture extends well beyond her professional career of researching and teaching about this unique community. One could say she has spent...
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Queen Quet (Marquetta L. Goodwine) is a published author, computer scientist, lecturer, mathematician, historian, columnist, preservationist, and "The Art-ivist." She has not only provided histo...
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The working Benevolent State Grand Lodge of South Carolina was a health, welfare, and burial benefit society for African Americans in South Carolina. The Lodge designed, built, and financed this...
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Columbia Museum of Art’s latest exhibit, Remix, is a wide variety of works that look at what many African American artists practice – a retelling of ideas from their own perspective. One of the...
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African call-and-response patterns and improvisation survived the Middle Passage and became two of the basic elements of one of today’s most popular forms of music. In the 1970s, rap music began in...
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Music was an important tradition in Africa centuries before Africans were brought to America. Singing was a part of everyday life when people were at work, worship or play. The drum was the most...
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Excerpt from 1986 USC News production. Dale Rosengarten discusses sweetgrass basketry as a part of the Charleston tourist trade, as well as a one of the most highly recognized African-American art...
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Basket maker Vera Manigault talks about the history and culture of Sweetgrass baskets.