Featured Stories
The Education of Harvey Gantt
In 1960, a talented African-American student from Charleston, Harvey Gantt, graduated from high school and decided to become an architect. Clemson College was...
Gullah Bible | Palmetto Scene
South Carolina has a rich Gullah culture in the state’s Lowcountry. Many of the Gullah people adopted Christianity, but the laws, for hundreds of years, prohibited them from learning to read. It was a...
From The Sky | Gullah
When you look at the scenery of South Carolina’s Lowcountry, it’s hard not to admire its beauty and wildlife. Also native to this region, is one of South Carolina's most unique group of people... the...
Carolina Stories: Black History
We curated some of the Carolina Stories that feature African Americans who made an impact on the palmetto state and beyond. Carolina Stories are documentaries that highlight the rich cultural and...
Black History resources
Refresh your resources and lesson plans for Black History Month with our KnowItAll series and collections on African American History, Noted African Americans, and the South Carolina African American...
South Carolina Hall of Fame
Benjamin Elijah Mays | SC Hall of Fame
Benjamin Mays (1894-1984) was a minister, educator, scholar and social activist. He was known as the "Father of the Civil Rights Movement." Mays was born the...
Septima Clark | SC Hall of Fame
Septima Poinsette Clark was known as the “Queen Mother” or “Grandmother” of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Martin Luther King, Jr., commonly referred to Ms. Clark, as “The Mother of...
David Drake aka “Dave the Potter” | SC Hall of Fame
David Drake was an enslaved African American in Edgefield, South Carolina during the first three quarters of the nineteenth century. He’s known today for the magnificent quality of the pots he made...
Ronald Erwin McNair | SC Hall of Fame
Inducted into the South Carolina Hall Of Fame, Ronald McNair was the second African-American to go into space, and was part of the STS-51L crew that died when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded...
Ernest Finney | SC Hall of Fame
Ernest A. Finney, Jr. (1931-2017) was South Carolina’s first appointed African-American Supreme Court Justice, since Reconstruction. Born 1931 in Smithfield, Virginia, his mother died when he was an...
SC African American History Calendar
SC African American History Calendar: May 2022 Honorees - The Gaither Family
Walter B. Gaither, one of seven children of Fairfield County farmers Walter and Fancie Gaither, and Fannie Mae Little, second daughter born to Anderson County...
SC African American History Calendar January Honorees: Karen Alexander-Banks and Sergio Hudson
Karen Alexander-Banks left an eleven-year corporate position with Xerox Corporation to pursue her passion for educating and utilizing the arts. Before working for Xerox, she spent six years as a first...
SC African American History Calendar: December Honoree, Dorris Wright
Dorris “Dee Dee” Wright was born in Greenville, S.C. At only fifteen, she joined the Civil Rights Movement, serving as president of the Youth Council of the NAACP Greenville Branch and secretary of...
SC African American History Calendar: November Honoree, A.J. Whittenberg
Abraham Jonah Whittenberg was born in 1918, one of fourteen children in Fork Shoals, S.C. At sixteen he moved to Simpsonville to attend St. Alban’s Training School, graduating in 1931. In 1941...
SC African American History Calendar: October Honoree - Nathaniel Spells, Sr.
Nathaniel Spells, Sr. was born in Bowman, S.C. in 1950, but his family relocated to Columbia, S.C. when he was still a child. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Building Construction from the School of...