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| charleston sc black history: Charleston in Black and White Steve Estes, 2015-07-10 Once one of the wealthiest cities in America, Charleston, South Carolina, established a society built on the racial hierarchies of slavery and segregation. By the 1970s, the legal structures behind these racial divisions had broken down and the wealth built upon them faded. Like many southern cities, Charleston had to construct a new public image. In this important book, Steve Estes chronicles the rise and fall of black political empowerment and examines the ways Charleston responded to the civil rights movement, embracing some changes and resisting others. Based on detailed archival research and more than fifty oral history interviews, Charleston in Black and White addresses the complex roles played not only by race but also by politics, labor relations, criminal justice, education, religion, tourism, economics, and the military in shaping a modern southern city. Despite the advances and opportunities that have come to the city since the 1960s, Charleston (like much of the South) has not fully reckoned with its troubled racial past, which still influences the present and will continue to shape the future. |
| charleston sc black history: A Gullah Guide to Charleston Alphonso Brown, 2008-05-09 An expert in Gullah culture introduces the rich history of black Charlestonians through a series of local walking tours plus a sightseeing drive. The Gullah people of the Lowcountry South are famous for their cuisine, Creole language, and exquisite crafts—yet there is so much more to this unique culture than most people realize. Alphonso Brown, the owner and operator of Gullah Tours, Inc., guides readers through the history and lore of this storied people in A Gullah Guide to Charlestown. With this volume guiding the way, you can visit Denmark Vesey's home, Catfish Row, the Old Slave Mart and the Market; learn about the sweetgrass basket makers, the Aiken-Rhett House slave quarters, black slave owners and blacksmith Philip Simmons. Brown's distinctive narration, combined with detailed maps and vibrant descriptions in native Gullah, make this an authentic and enjoyable way to experience the Holy City. |
| charleston sc black history: Denmark Vesey’s Garden Ethan J. Kytle, Blain Roberts, 2018-04-03 One of Janet Maslin’s Favorite Books of 2018, The New York Times One of John Warner’s Favorite Books of 2018, Chicago Tribune Named one of the “Best Civil War Books of 2018” by the Civil War Monitor “A fascinating and important new historical study.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times “A stunning contribution to the historiography of Civil War memory studies.” —Civil War Times The stunning, groundbreaking account of the ways in which our nation has tried to come to grips with its original sin (Providence Journal) Hailed by the New York Times as a fascinating and important new historical study that examines . . . the place where the ways slavery is remembered mattered most, Denmark Vesey's Garden maps competing memories of slavery from abolition to the very recent struggle to rename or remove Confederate symbols across the country (The New Republic). This timely book reveals the deep roots of present-day controversies and traces them to the capital of slavery in the United States: Charleston, South Carolina, where almost half of the slaves brought to the United States stepped onto our shores, where the first shot at Fort Sumter began the Civil War, and where Dylann Roof murdered nine people at Emanuel A.M.E. Church, which was co-founded by Denmark Vesey, a black revolutionary who plotted a massive slave insurrection in 1822. As they examine public rituals, controversial monuments, and competing musical traditions, Kytle and Roberts's combination of encyclopedic knowledge of Charleston's history and empathy with its inhabitants' past and present struggles make them ideal guides to this troubled history (Publishers Weekly, starred review). A work the Civil War Times called a stunning contribution, Denmark Vesey's Garden exposes a hidden dimension of America's deep racial divide, joining the small bookshelf of major, paradigm-shifting interpretations of slavery's enduring legacy in the United States. |
| charleston sc black history: African American Genealogical Research Paul R. Begley, 1996 |
| charleston sc black history: Black Charlestonians Bernard E. Powers, 1999-08-01 The Legacy of Reconstruction: A Postscript -- Appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index |
| charleston sc black history: Slave Badges and the Slave-Hire System in Charleston, South Carolina, 1783-1865 Harlan Greene, Harry S. Hutchins, Jr., Brian E. Hutchins, 2008-09-08 The slave-hire system of Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1700s and the 1800s produced a curious object--the slave badge. The badges were intended to legislate the practice of hiring a slave from one master to another, and slaves were required by law to wear them. Slave badges have become quite collectible and have excited both scholarly and popular interest in recent years. This work documents how the slave-hire system in Charleston came about, how it worked, who was in charge of it, and who enforced the laws regarding slave badges. Numerous badge makers are identified, and photographs of badges, with commentary on what the data stamped on them mean, are included. The authors located income and expense statements for Charleston from 1783 to 1865, and deduced how many slaves were hired out in the city every year from 1800 on. The work also discusses forgeries of slave badges, now quite common. There is a section of 20 color plates. |
| charleston sc black history: Charleston, South Carolina John W. Meffert, Sherman E. Pyatt, 2000 Charleston, a living museum of Southern culture, is famous for its charm, Lowcountry cuisine, unique architectural stylings, and leisurely pace of life. A side of Charleston that many tourists do not witness and explore, the African-American community is a vibrant part of the Charleston identity, having shaped the Holy CityAa's very essence since the days of slavery. |
| charleston sc black history: Voices of Black South Carolina Damon L. Fordham, 2009-02-01 Discover the contributions notable Black South Carolinians gave to bring encouragement and inspiration to their communities. Did you know that eighty-eight years before Rosa Parks's historic protest, a courageous black woman in Charleston kept her seat on a segregated streetcar? What about Robert Smalls, who steered a Confederate warship into Union waters, freeing himself and some of his family, and later served in the South Carolina state legislature? In this inspiring collection, historian Damon L. Fordham relates story after story of notable black South Carolinians, many of whose contributions to the state's history have not been brought to light until now. From the letters of black soldiers during the Civil War to the impassioned pleas by students of Munro's School for their right to an education, these are the voices of protest and dissent, the voices of hope and encouragement and the voices of progress. |
| charleston sc black history: Right to Ride Blair L. M. Kelley, 2010-05-03 Through a reexamination of the earliest struggles against Jim Crow, Blair Kelley exposes the fullness of African American efforts to resist the passage of segregation laws dividing trains and streetcars by race in the early Jim Crow era. Right to Ride chronicles the litigation and local organizing against segregated rails that led to the Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896 and the streetcar boycott movement waged in twenty-five southern cities from 1900 to 1907. Kelley tells the stories of the brave but little-known men and women who faced down the violence of lynching and urban race riots to contest segregation. Focusing on three key cities--New Orleans, Richmond, and Savannah--Kelley explores the community organizations that bound protestors together and the divisions of class, gender, and ambition that sometimes drove them apart. The book forces a reassessment of the timelines of the black freedom struggle, revealing that a period once dismissed as the age of accommodation should in fact be characterized as part of a history of protest and resistance. |
| charleston sc black history: Historic Preservation Resources , 1994 |
| charleston sc black history: This Is My South Caroline Eubanks, 2018-10-01 You may think you know the South for its food, its people, its past, and its stories, but if there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that the region tells far more than one tale. It is ever-evolving, open to interpretation, steeped in history and tradition, yet defined differently based on who you ask. This Is My South inspires the reader to explore the Southern States––Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia––like never before. No other guide pulls together these states into one book in quite this way with a fresh perspective on can’t-miss landmarks, off the beaten path gems, tours for every interest, unique places to sleep, and classic restaurants. So come see for yourself and create your own experiences along the way! |
| charleston sc black history: 101 African Americans Who Shaped South Carolina Bernard E. Powers, Jr., 2020-10-12 The first people of African descent to live in what is now South Carolina, enslaved people living in the sixteenth century Spanish settlements of San Miguel de Gualdape and Santa Elena, arrived even before the first permanent English settlement was established in 1670. For more than 350 years South Carolina's African American population has had a significant influence on the state's cultural, economic, and political development. 101 African Americans Who Shaped South Carolina depicts the long presence and profound influence people of African descent have had on the Palmetto State. Each entry offers a brief description of an individual with ties to South Carolina who played a significant role in the history of the state, nation, and, in some cases, world. Drawing upon the landmark text The South Carolina Encyclopedia, edited by Walter Edgar, the combined entries offer a concise and approachable history of the state and the African Americans who have shaped it. A foreword is provided by Walter Edgar, Neuffer Professor of Southern Studies Emeritus and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of South Carolina. |
| charleston sc black history: Born to Rebel Benjamin E. Mays, 2011-07-01 Born the son of a sharecropper in 1894 near Ninety Six, South Carolina, Benjamin E. Mays went on to serve as president of Morehouse College for twenty-seven years and as the first president of the Atlanta School Board. His earliest memory, of a lynching party storming through his county, taunting but not killing his father, became for Mays an enduring image of black-white relations in the South. Born to Rebel is the moving chronicle of his life, a story that interlaces achievement with the rebuke he continually confronted. |
| charleston sc black history: True Stories of Black South Carolina Damon L. Fordham, 2008-03-07 From the Upstate to the Lowcountry, African Americans have had a gigantic impact on the Palmetto State. Unfortunately, their stories are often overshadowed. Collected here for the first time, this selection of essays by historian Damon L. Fordham brings these stories to light. Rediscover the tales of Samuel Smalls, the James Island beggar who inspired DuBose Heywards Porgy, and Denmark Vesey, the architect of the great would-be slave rebellion of 1822. Learn about the blacks who lived and worked at what is now Mepkin Abbey, the Spartanburg woman who took part in a sit-in at the age of eleven and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s visit to Charleston in 1967. These articles are well-researched and provide an enlightening glimpse at the overlooked contributors to South Carolinas past. |
| charleston sc black history: Charleston Syllabus Chad Williams, Kidada Williams, Keisha Blain, 2016-05-01 On June 17, 2015, a white supremacist entered Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and sat with some of its parishioners during a Wednesday night Bible study session. An hour later, he began expressing his hatred for African Americans, and soon after, he shot nine church members dead, the church’s pastor and South Carolina state senator, Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, among them. The ensuing manhunt for the shooter and investigation of his motives revealed his beliefs in white supremacy and reopened debates about racial conflict, southern identity,systemic racism, civil rights, and the African American church as an institution. In the aftermath of the massacre, Professors Chad Williams, Kidada Williams, and Keisha N. Blain sought a way to put the murder—and the subsequent debates about it in the media—in the context of America’s tumultuous history of race relations and racial violence on a global scale. They created the Charleston Syllabus on June 19, starting it as a hashtag on Twitter linking to scholarly works on the myriad of issues related to the murder. The syllabus’s popularity exploded and is already being used as a key resource in discussions of the event. Charleston Syllabus is a reader—a collection of new essays and columns published in the wake of the massacre, along with selected excerpts from key existing scholarly books and general-interest articles. The collection draws from a variety of disciplines—history, sociology, urban studies, law, critical race theory—and includes a selected and annotated bibliography for further reading, drawing from such texts as the Confederate constitution, South Carolina’s secession declaration, songs, poetry, slave narratives, and literacy texts. As timely as it is necessary, the book will be a valuable resource for understanding the roots of American systemic racism, white privilege, the uses and abuses of the Confederate flag and its ideals, the black church as a foundation for civil rights activity and state violence against such activity, and critical whiteness studies. |
| charleston sc black history: Uncontrollable Blackness Douglas J. Flowe, 2020-05-12 Early twentieth-century African American men in northern urban centers like New York faced economic isolation, segregation, a biased criminal justice system, and overt racial attacks by police and citizens. In this book, Douglas J. Flowe interrogates the meaning of crime and violence in the lives of these men, whose lawful conduct itself was often surveilled and criminalized, by focusing on what their actions and behaviors represented to them. He narrates the stories of men who sought profits in underground markets, protected themselves when law enforcement failed to do so, and exerted control over public, commercial, and domestic spaces through force in a city that denied their claims to citizenship and manhood. Flowe furthermore traces how the features of urban Jim Crow and the efforts of civic and progressive leaders to restrict their autonomy ultimately produced the circumstances under which illegality became a form of resistance. Drawing from voluminous prison and arrest records, trial transcripts, personal letters and documents, and investigative reports, Flowe opens up new ways of understanding the black struggle for freedom in the twentieth century. By uncovering the relationship between the fight for civil rights, black constructions of masculinity, and lawlessness, he offers a stirring account of how working-class black men employed extralegal methods to address racial injustice. |
| charleston sc black history: Freedom's Debt William A. Pettigrew, 2013-12-30 In the years following the Glorious Revolution, independent slave traders challenged the charter of the Royal African Company by asserting their natural rights as Britons to trade freely in enslaved Africans. In this comprehensive history of the rise and fall of the RAC, William A. Pettigrew grounds the transatlantic slave trade in politics, not economic forces, analyzing the ideological arguments of the RAC and its opponents in Parliament and in public debate. Ultimately, Pettigrew powerfully reasons that freedom became the rallying cry for those who wished to participate in the slave trade and therefore bolstered the expansion of the largest intercontinental forced migration in history. Unlike previous histories of the RAC, Pettigrew's study pursues the Company's story beyond the trade's complete deregulation in 1712 to its demise in 1752. Opening the trade led to its escalation, which provided a reliable supply of enslaved Africans to the mainland American colonies, thus playing a critical part in entrenching African slavery as the colonies' preferred solution to the American problem of labor supply. |
| charleston sc black history: Black Slaveowners Larry Koger, 2011-12-02 Drawing on the federal census, wills, mortgage bills of sale, tax returns, and newspaper advertisements, this authoritative study describes the nature of African-American slaveholding, its complexity, and its rationales. It reveals how some African-American slave masters had earned their freedom and how some free Blacks purchased slaves for their own use. The book provides a fresh perspective on slavery in the antebellum South and underscores the importance of African Americans in the history of American slavery. The book also paints a picture of the complex social dynamics between free and enslaved Blacks, and between Black and white slaveowners. It illuminates the motivations behind African-American slaveholding--including attempts to create or maintain independence, to accumulate wealth, and to protect family members--and sheds light on the harsh realities of slavery for both Black masters and Black slaves. • BLACK SLAVEOWNERS--Shows how some African Americans became slave masters • MOTIVATIONS FOR SLAVEHOLDING--Highlights the motivations behind African-American slaveholding • SOCIAL DYNAMICS--Sheds light on the complex social dynamics between free and enslaved Blacks • ANEBELLUM SOUTH--Provides a perspective on slavery in the antebellum South |
| charleston sc black history: African American Historic Places National Register of Historic Places, 1995-07-13 Culled from the records of the National Register of Historic Places, a roster of all types of significant properties across the United States, African American Historic Places includes over 800 places in 42 states and two U.S. territories that have played a role in black American history. Banks, cemeteries, clubs, colleges, forts, homes, hospitals, schools, and shops are but a few of the types of sites explored in this volume, which is an invaluable reference guide for researchers, historians, preservationists, and anyone interested in African American culture. Also included are eight insightful essays on the African American experience, from migration to the role of women, from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement. The authors represent academia, museums, historic preservation, and politics, and utilize the listed properties to vividly illustrate the role of communities and women, the forces of migration, the influence of the arts and heritage preservation, and the struggles for freedom and civil rights. Together they lead to a better understanding of the contributions of African Americans to American history. They illustrate the events and people, the designs and achievements that define African American history. And they pay powerful tribute to the spirit of black America. |
| charleston sc black history: A Guide to Charleston's African American Historical Markers Theresa Jenkins Hilliard, 2020-11-13 This book takes the reader on a tour of African Americans Historical Markers in the city of Charleston, SC. Many sites where Free Blacks lived, worked, went to school, and owned businesses during slavery and reconstruction have disappeared, others have been repurposed or remodeled into something unrecognizable. Some of the sites are marked with historical markers and many have disappeared without a trace. Charleston is a city where hundreds of thousands of visitors visit each year to enjoy its rich history of beautiful homes and gardens that were built by enslaved Africans and African Americans and to learn about the history of slavery in this city. This city has a rich Gullah-Geechee culture. This author grew up in this culture and is passionate about sharing her history. Between these pages you will find markers of African and African American homes, schools, churches and businesses. This book takes you on a tour of those sites. Most are in the city of Charleston but some significant markers from nearby cities have been included. It gives you a glimpse of Black History at a time when Blacks had no history. This is a book with all of the markers in one place by streets making it easy for you to plan your visit. You can use it as an educational tool or a guide. As you visit the markers, think of the dearly departed and pause for a moment to celebrate their lives and reminisce about their history and perseverance. Living through the pain of slavery and Jim Crow laws to obtain home ownership, educate themselves, and start their own businesses was a huge challenge, but they made it and many were extremely successful in business, politics and many occupations. I hope this book makes your visit a bit easier and more enjoyable. |
| charleston sc black history: My Vanishing Country Bakari Sellers, 2020-05-19 New York Times Bestseller: This insightful and deeply personal portrait of African American working-class life “offers something so authentic . . . compelling” (Charleston Post and Courier). Part memoir, part historical and cultural analysis, My Vanishing Country is an eye-opening journey through the South’s past, present, and future. Anchored in Bakari Sellers’ hometown of Denmark, South Carolina, My Vanishing Country illuminates the pride and pain that continues to fertilize the soil of one of the poorest states in the nation. He traces his father’s rise to become a friend of Stokely Carmichael and Martin Luther King, civil rights hero, and member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), in the process exploring the plight of the South’s dwindling rural black working class—many of whom can trace their ancestry back for seven generations. In his poetic personal history, we are awakened to the crisis affecting the other “forgotten men and women,” seldom acknowledged by the media. For Sellers, these are his family members, neighbors, and friends. He humanizes the struggles that shape their lives—to gain access to healthcare as rural hospitals disappear; to make ends meet as the factories they have relied on shut down and move overseas; to hold on to precious traditions as their towns erode; to forge a path forward without succumbing to despair. My Vanishing Country is also a love letter to fatherhood—to Sellers’ father, his lodestar, whose life lessons have shaped him, and to his newborn twins, who he hopes will embrace the Sellers family name and honor its legacy. “An engaging memoir.” —Kirkus Reviews “Family trauma—even inherited trauma—can take a tremendous toll on children. But as Bakari Sellers makes plain in My Vanishing Country, family trauma can also be a source of strength.” —BookPage |
| charleston sc black history: Beyond the Fields Barbara Doyle, Mary Edna Sullivan, Tracey Todd, 2008 An examination of slavery at Middleton Place, a plantation near Charleston, S.C. Provides both general information and details about specific individuals, including a list of slaves owned by the Middleton family from 1738 to 1865. |
| charleston sc black history: We Are Charleston Herb Frazier, Bernard Edward Powers, Marjory Wentworth, 2016-06-14 We Are Charleston not only recounts the events of that terrible day but also offers a history lesson that reveals a deeper look at the suffering, triumph, and even the ongoing rage of the people who formed Mother Emanuel A.M.E. church and the wider denominational movement. On June 17, 2015, at 9:05 p.m., a young man with a handgun opened fire on a prayer meeting at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine members of the congregation. The captured shooter, twenty-one-year-old Dylan Roof, a white supremacist, was charged with their murders. Two days after the shooting, while Roof’s court hearing was held on video conference, some of the families of his nine victims, one by one, appeared on the screen—forgiving the killer. The “Emanuel Nine” set a profound example for their families, their city, their nation, and indeed the world. In many ways, this church’s story is America’s story—the oldest A.M.E. church in the Deep South fighting for freedom and civil rights but also fighting for grace and understanding. Fighting to transcend bigotry, fraud, hatred, racism, poverty, and misery. The shootings in June 2015, opened up a deep wound of racism that still permeates Southern institutions and remains part of American society. We Are Charleston tells the story of a people, continually beaten down, who seem to continually triumph over the worst of adversity. Exploring the storied history of the A.M.E. Church may be a way of explaining the price and power of forgiveness, a way of revealing God’s mercy in the midst of tremendous pain. We Are Charleston may help us discover what can be right in a world that so often has gone wrong. |
| charleston sc black history: South Carolina State University William C Hine, 2018-04-16 The turbulent history of one of South Carolina's historically black colleges and its significant role in the civil rights movement Since its founding in 1896, South Carolina State University has provided vocational, undergraduate, and graduate education for generations of African Americans. Now the state's flagship historically black university, it achieved this recognition after decades of struggling against poverty, inadequate infrastructure and funding, and social and cultural isolation. In South Carolina State University: A Black Land-Grant College in Jim Crow America, William C. Hine examines South Carolina State's complicated start, its slow and long-overdue transition to a degree-granting university, and its significant role in advancing civil rights in the state and country. A product of the state's separate but equal legislation, South Carolina State University was a hallmark of Jim Crow South Carolina. Black and white students were indeed provided separate colleges, but the institutions were in no way equal. When established, South Carolina State emphasized vocational and agricultural subjects as well as teacher training for black students while the University of South Carolina offered white students a broad range of higher-level academic and professional course work leading to a bachelor's degree. Through the middle decades of the twentieth century, South Carolina State was an incubator for much of the civil rights activity in the state. The tragic Orangeburg massacre on February 8, 1968, occurred on its campus and resulted in the deaths of three students and the wounding of twenty-eight others. Using the university as a lens, Hine examines the state's history of race relations, poverty and progress, and the politics of higher education for whites and blacks from the Reconstruction era into the twenty-first century. Hine's work showcases what the institution has achieved as well as what was required for the school to achieve the parity it was once promised. This fascinating account is replete with revealing anecdotes, more than sixty photographs and illustrations, and a cast of famous figures including Benjamin R. Tillman, Coleman Blease, Benjamin E. Mays, Marian Birnie Wilkinson, Mary McLeod Bethune, Modjeska Simkins, Strom Thurmond, Essie Mae Washington Williams, James F. Byrnes, John Foster Dulles, James E. Clyburn, and Willie Jeffries. |
| charleston sc black history: Race and Reunion David W. BLIGHT, 2009-06-30 No historical event has left as deep an imprint on America's collective memory as the Civil War. In the war's aftermath, Americans had to embrace and cast off a traumatic past. David Blight explores the perilous path of remembering and forgetting, and reveals its tragic costs to race relations and America's national reunion. |
| charleston sc black history: The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook Sara Roahen, John T. Edge, 2015-04-15 Everybody has one in their collection. You know—one of those old, spiral- or plastic-tooth-bound cookbooks sold to support a high school marching band, a church, or the local chapter of the Junior League. These recipe collections reflect, with unimpeachable authenticity, the dishes that define communities: chicken and dumplings, macaroni and cheese, chess pie. When the Southern Foodways Alliance began curating a cookbook, it was to these spiral-bound, sauce-splattered pages that they turned for their model. Including more than 170 tested recipes, this cookbook is a true reflection of southern foodways and the people, regardless of residence or birthplace, who claim this food as their own. Traditional and adapted, fancy and unapologetically plain, these recipes are powerful expressions of collective identity. There is something from—and something for—everyone. The recipes and the stories that accompany them came from academics, writers, catfish farmers, ham curers, attorneys, toqued chefs, and people who just like to cook—spiritual Southerners of myriad ethnicities, origins, and culinary skill levels. Edited by Sara Roahen and John T. Edge, written, collaboratively, by Sheri Castle, Timothy C. Davis, April McGreger, Angie Mosier, and Fred Sauceman, the book is divided into chapters that represent the region’s iconic foods: Gravy, Garden Goods, Roots, Greens, Rice, Grist, Yardbird, Pig, The Hook, The Hunt, Put Up, and Cane. Therein you’ll find recipes for pimento cheese, country ham with redeye gravy, tomato pie, oyster stew, gumbo z’herbes, and apple stack cake. You’ll learn traditional ways of preserving green beans, and you’ll come to love refried black-eyed peas. Are you hungry yet? |
| charleston sc black history: The Negro Motorist Green Book Victor H. Green, The Negro Motorist Green Book was a groundbreaking guide that provided African American travelers with crucial information on safe places to stay, eat, and visit during the era of segregation in the United States. This essential resource, originally published from 1936 to 1966, offered a lifeline to black motorists navigating a deeply divided nation, helping them avoid the dangers and indignities of racism on the road. More than just a travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book stands as a powerful symbol of resilience and resistance in the face of oppression, offering a poignant glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the African American experience in the 20th century. |
| charleston sc black history: A True Likeness Thomas L. Johnson, Phillip C. Dunn, 2019-07-30 Extraordinary photos that reveal the social, economic, and cultural realities of the Black South A True Likeness showcases the extraordinary photography of Richard Samuel Roberts (1880–1935), who operated a studio in Columbia, South Carolina, from 1920 to 1935. He was one of the few major African American commercial photographers working in the region during the first half of the twentieth century, and his images reveal the social, economic, and cultural realities of the black South and document the rise of a small but significant southern black middle class. The nearly two hundred photographs in A True Likeness were selected from three thousand glass plates that had been stored for decades in a crawl space under the Roberts home. The collection includes true likenesses of teachers, preachers, undertakers, carpenters, brick masons, dressmakers, chauffeurs, entertainers, and athletes, as well as the poor, with dignity and respect and an eye for character and beauty. Thomas L. Johnson and Phillip C. Dunn received a 1987 Lillian Smith Book Award for their work on this book. This new edition of A True Likeness features a new foreword by Elaine Nichols, the supervisory curator of culture at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. A new afterword is provided by Thomas L. Johnson. |
| charleston sc black history: Challenging History Leah Worthington, Rachel Clare Donaldson, John W. White, 2021-07-22 A collection of essays that examine how the history of slavery and race in the United States has been interpreted and inserted at public historic sites For decades racism and social inequity have stayed at the center of the national conversation in the United States, sustaining the debate around public historic places and monuments and what they represent. These conversations are a reminder of the crucial role that public history professionals play in engaging public audiences on subjects of race and slavery. This difficult history has often remained un- or underexplored in our public discourse, hidden from view by the tourism industry, or even by public history professionals themselves, as they created historic sites, museums, and public squares based on white-centric interpretations of history and heritage. Challenging History, through a collection of essays by a diverse group of scholars and practitioners, examines how difficult histories, specifically those of slavery and race in the United States, are being interpreted and inserted at public history sites and in public history work. Several essays explore the successes and challenges of recent projects, while others discuss gaps that public historians can fill at sites where Black history took place but is absent in the interpretation. Through case studies, the contributors reveal the entrenched false narratives that public history workers are countering in established public history spaces and the work they are conducting to reorient our collective understanding of the past. History practitioners help the public better understand the world. Their choices help to shape ideas about heritage and historical remembrances and can reform, even transform, worldviews through more inclusive and ethically narrated histories. Challenging History invites public historians to consider the ethical implications of the narratives they choose to share and makes the case that an inclusive, honest, and complete portrayal of the past has the potential to reshape collective memory and ideas about the meaning of American history and citizenship. |
| charleston sc black history: The Hanging of Thomas Jeremiah J. William Harris, 2009-11-17 The tragic untold story of how a nation struggling for its freedom denied it to one of its own: a free Black man A searing portrayal of the central paradox of the American Revolution—the centrality of slavery to the struggle for political liberty.—Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Harvard University An insightful reflection and commentary on the vexed relationships among liberty, slavery, and the British Empire in the era of the Declaration of Independence.—Richard D. Brown, The Journal of Law and History Review In 1775, Thomas Jeremiah was one of fewer than five hundred “Free Negros” in South Carolina and, with an estimated worth of £1,000 (about $200,000 in today’s dollars), possibly the richest person of African descent in British North America. A slaveowner himself, Jeremiah was falsely accused by whites—who resented his success as a Charleston harbor pilot—of sowing insurrection among slaves at the behest of the British. Chief among the accusers was Henry Laurens, Charleston’s leading patriot, a slaveowner and former slave trader, who would later become the president of the Continental Congress. On the other side was Lord William Campbell, royal governor of the colony, who passionately believed that the accusation was unjust and tried to save Jeremiah’s life but failed. Though a free man, Jeremiah was tried in a slave court and sentenced to death. In August 1775, he was hanged and his body burned. J. William Harris tells Jeremiah’s story in full for the first time, illuminating the contradiction between a nation that would be born in a struggle for freedom and yet deny it—often violently—to others. |
| charleston sc black history: Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery John Garrison Marks, 2020-10-13 Prior to the abolition of slavery, thousands of African-descended people in the Americas lived in freedom. Their efforts to navigate daily life and negotiate the boundaries of racial difference challenged the foundations of white authority--and linked the Americas together. In Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery John Garrison Marks examines how these individuals built lives in freedom for themselves and their families in two of the Atlantic World's most important urban centers: Cartagena, along the Caribbean coast of modern-day Colombia, and Charleston, in the lowcountry of North America's Atlantic coast. Marks reveals how skills, knowledge, reputation, and personal relationships helped free people of color improve their fortunes and achieve social distinction in ways that undermined whites' claims to racial superiority. Built upon research conducted on three continents, this book takes a comparative approach to understanding the contours of black freedom in the Americas. It reveals in new detail the creative and persistent attempts of free black people to improve their lives and that of their families. It examines how various paths to freedom, responses to the Haitian Revolution, opportunities to engage in skilled labor, involvement with social institutions, and the role of the church all helped shape the lived experience of free people of color in the Atlantic World. As free people of color worked to improve their individual circumstances, staking claims to rights, privileges, and distinctions not typically afforded to those of African descent, they engaged with white elites and state authorities in ways that challenged prevailing racial attitudes. While whites across the Americas shared common doubts about the ability of African-descended people to survive in freedom or contribute meaningfully to society, free black people in Cartagena, Charleston, and beyond conducted themselves in ways that exposed cracks in the foundations of American racial hierarchies. Their actions represented early contributions to the long fight for recognition, civil rights, and racial justice that continues today. |
| charleston sc black history: A Short History of Charleston Robert N. Rosen, 2021-05-07 A lively chronicle of the South's most renowned city from the founding of colonial Charles Town through the present day A Short History of Charleston—a lively chronicle of the South's most renowned and charming city—has been hailed by critics, historians, and especially Charlestonians as authoritative, witty, and entertaining. Beginning with the founding of colonial Charles Town and ending three hundred and fifty years later in the present day, Robert Rosen's fast-paced narrative takes the reader on a journey through the city's complicated history as a port to English settlers, a bloodstained battlefield, and a picturesque vacation mecca. Packed with anecdotes and enlivened by passages from diaries and letters, A Short History of Charleston recounts in vivid detail the port city's development from an outpost of the British Empire to a bustling, modern city. This revised and expanded edition includes a new final chapter on the decades since Joseph Riley was first elected mayor in 1975 through its rapid development in geographic size, population, and cultural importance. Rosen contemplates both the city's triumphs and its challenges, allowing readers to consider how Charleston's past has shaped its present and will continue to shape its future. |
| charleston sc black history: Forging Freedom Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, 2011 For black women in antebellum Charleston, freedom was not a static legal category but a fragile and contingent experience. In this deeply researched social history, Amrita Chakrabarti Myers analyzes the ways in which black women in Charleston acquired, de |
| charleston sc black history: The Lords of Discipline Pat Conroy, 2022-12-20 “The Lords of Discipline is, simply, an American classic.” -- Larry King The Lords of Discipline is a novel about coming of age, brotherhood, betrayal, and a man’s forging of his own personal code of honor. Will McLean, a senior on the cadets’ honor court, is an outsider by nature: a basketball star at a school that prizes military prowess above athletics, a military man in training who dares to question the escalating Vietnam war. And yet his greatest struggle will be with the corrupt institution of which he is a part. Rich in humor and suspense, abounding in a rare honesty and generosity of feeling, this novel established Pat Conroy as one of the strongest fictional voices in a generation. “A work of enormous power, passion, humor, and wisdom.” – Washington Star “God preserve Pat Conroy.” – Boston Globe |
| charleston sc black history: Porgy DuBose Heyward, 1925 Basis for light opera Porgy and Bess. Story of crippled Negro beggar and his friends and enemies in Charleston, S.C. |
| charleston sc black history: A Tangled Mercy Joy Jordan-Lake, 2017 2015: After the sudden death of her troubled mother, struggling Harvard grad student Kate Drayton walks out on her lecture-- and her entire New England life. She flees to Charleston, South Carolina, the place where her parents met, convinced it holds the key to understanding her fractured family and saving her career in academia. Her mother was researching a failed 1822 slave revolt-- and Kate will continue her work. 1822: Tom Russell, a gifted blacksmith and slave, grappled with a terrible choice: arm the uprising spearheaded by members of the fiercely independent African Methodist Episcopal Church or keep his own neck out of the noose and protect the woman he loves. |
| charleston sc black history: Slavery to Civil Rights Ruth Miller, Alec Cooley, 2018-10 Walking tour guide to locations in Charleston significant to African-American history |
| charleston sc black history: The Invention of Wings Sue Monk Kidd, 2014-01-07 The newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection: this special eBook edition of The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd features exclusive content, including Oprah’s personal notes highlighted within the text, and a reading group guide. Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world. Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women. Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love. As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements. Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better. This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved. Please note there is another digital edition available without Oprah’s notes. Go to Oprah.com/bookclub for more OBC 2.0 content |
| charleston sc black history: Lizzie Demands a Seat! Beth Anderson, 2020-06-02 In 1854, Elizabeth Lizzie Jennings, an African American schoolteacher, fought back when she was unjustly denied entry to a New York City streetcar, sparking the beginnings of the long struggle to gain equal rights on public transportation. One hundred years before Rosa Parks took her stand, Elizabeth Lizzie Jennings tried to board a streetcar in New York City on her way to church. Though there were plenty of empty seats, she was denied entry, assaulted, and threatened all because of her race--even though New York was a free state at that time. Lizzie decided to fight back. She told her story, took her case to court--where future president Chester Arthur represented her--and won! Her victory was the first recorded in the fight for equal rights on public transportation, and Lizzie's case set a precedent. Author Beth Anderson and acclaimed illustrator E. B. Lewis bring this inspiring, little-known story to life in this captivating book. |
| charleston sc black history: Seaward Born Lea Wait, 2010-05-11 A young enslaved boy who dreams of sailing must choose whether to risk everything to fight for freedom in this historical middle grade novel. Sometimes a man has to risk everything to do what’s right. Doing it is what makes him a man. Thirteen-year-old Michael knows he is lucky. Few enslaved people in 1805 Charleston are where they want to be. But Michael works on the docks and ships in Charleston Harbor, close to the seas he longs to sail. Life seems good. But when Michael’s protective mistress dies, everything changes, and Michael’s friend Jim encourages him to run away. Michael is torn. Should he risk everything for a chance at freedom in some unknown place? Is staying safe worth staying enslaved? |
Charleston SC | The Official guide
Charleston.com is here to show you the rich history and culture of this friendly waterfront city. Whether you're a longtime resident or returning visitor, we're here to show you the best places …
Things to Do In Charleston SC
From exploring the plantations and history of the city to kayaking with dolphins in the harbor, discover all the fun things to do in Charleston, SC.
Charleston's Top Historical Sites
Start your adventure at Charleston County Parks, the perfect place for nature lovers, history buffs, thrill seekers and families.
The Best Attractions of Charleston
As the world’s favorite city, Charleston has a wealth of offerings including amazing cuisine, historic landmarks and museums, art galleries, weekly markets, yearly festivals, and lots of family fun.
Charleston SC | The Official guide | Charleston.com
Charleston.com is the official city website dedicated to helping you find the best of everything in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1670, Charleston is cited for its beauty, its history, its …
Downtown Charleston
Find information about Downtown Charleston where you can search local businesses, local real estate, and learn about the Downtown Charleston region.
Hotels | Charleston.com
The abundant choices of Hotels and rental houses include waterfront Hotels and resorts on barrier islands within short, easy driving distance to downtown Charleston, Mt Pleasant, North …
Places to Stay in Charleston SC Best Hotels & Rentals
From luxury vacation rentals, to quaint bed and breakfasts, to historic and family friendly hotels, you'll find it in Charleston, SC. There is a wide variety of accommodations to choose from …
Your Guide to Eating & Drinking in Charleston, SC
From fine dining establishments to casual eateries, there are plenty of great places to eat and drink in Charleston. Charleston is renowned for its classic Lowcountry cuisine, which features …
Our Calendar of Events | Charleston.com
Charleston County Parks’ live music series on the Mount Pleasant Pier, Dancing on the Cooper, is back on select Friday evenings! The season’s first Dancing on the Cooper will be March 21, …
Charleston SC | The Official guide
Charleston.com is here to show you the rich history and culture of this friendly waterfront city. Whether you're a longtime resident or returning visitor, we're here to show you the best places to …
Things to Do In Charleston SC
From exploring the plantations and history of the city to kayaking with dolphins in the harbor, discover all the fun things to do in Charleston, SC.
Charleston's Top Historical Sites
Start your adventure at Charleston County Parks, the perfect place for nature lovers, history buffs, thrill seekers and families.
The Best Attractions of Charleston
As the world’s favorite city, Charleston has a wealth of offerings including amazing cuisine, historic landmarks and museums, art galleries, weekly markets, yearly festivals, and lots of family fun.
Charleston SC | The Official guide | Charleston.com
Charleston.com is the official city website dedicated to helping you find the best of everything in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1670, Charleston is cited for its beauty, its history, its …
Downtown Charleston
Find information about Downtown Charleston where you can search local businesses, local real estate, and learn about the Downtown Charleston region.
Hotels | Charleston.com
The abundant choices of Hotels and rental houses include waterfront Hotels and resorts on barrier islands within short, easy driving distance to downtown Charleston, Mt Pleasant, North …
Places to Stay in Charleston SC Best Hotels & Rentals
From luxury vacation rentals, to quaint bed and breakfasts, to historic and family friendly hotels, you'll find it in Charleston, SC. There is a wide variety of accommodations to choose from …
Your Guide to Eating & Drinking in Charleston, SC
From fine dining establishments to casual eateries, there are plenty of great places to eat and drink in Charleston. Charleston is renowned for its classic Lowcountry cuisine, which features seafood, …
Our Calendar of Events | Charleston.com
Charleston County Parks’ live music series on the Mount Pleasant Pier, Dancing on the Cooper, is back on select Friday evenings! The season’s first Dancing on the Cooper will be March 21, …
