SC African-American History & Culture

South Carolina SC African Americans

SC African-American Guide

This open repository – created and maintained by SCIWAY as a public resource – seeks to collect reliable information about the black experience in South Carolina, from the long years of slavery to the present day. Our goal is to present educational material for students of black history and culture. Much of the content in this guide is original to SCIWAY, compiled by ourselves and Mr. Michael Trinkly of the Chicora Foundation in Columbia. Additional links lead to information compiled by schools, historians, and other valued members of the South Carolina community.

Black South Carolinians

• Notable SC African-Americans

Black History in South Carolina

Timeline

• Timeline of major events - 1525-1997

Historic Periods

• Slavery and the Civil War in South Carolina - 1525-1865
  
• Reconstruction and Restoration in South Carolina - 1865-1900
  
• Modern Era - 1900-present
  
• Heritage, Not Hate? - reflections on slavery, Reconstruction, the KKK, lynching, and Jim Crow by noted SC archeologist Michael Trinkley, founder of the Chicora Foundation

Historic African-American Places in South Carolina

SC Black Cemeteries

• Graveyards, cemeteries - also includes information about burial traditions, fellowship societies, and current preservation efforts
  
• McLaurin-Roper-McColl Farmstead - site of slave cemetery in the Marlboro County community of Clio

SC Black Schools, Colleges, and Libraries

• Black schools and libraries in South Carolina - Rosenwald Schools, normal schools, and more
  – SC Equalization Schools - 1951-1960 new schools were constructed to provide "separate but equal" education for African American students in an attempt to prolong the desegregation of public schools - click on underlined school names to view picture
• Historically black colleges in South Carolina
  – Payne Institute - historically black college founded in Hodges (Greenwood County) moved and renamed Allen University in 1880
  – Vorhees College - historically black college located in Denmark (Bamberg County)
  
• Penn Center - St. Helena Island
• Immanuel School - founded in Aiken in 1881 by a missionary from the African American Presbyterian Missions for Freedom
  – Dennis High School
  

SC Black Homes and Communities

• Dr. Benjamin E. Mays Historical Preservation Site - childhood home of Benjamin Mays
  
• Hamburg - includes info on Carpentersville community
  
• Hewn-timber slave cabins - Florence - 1836
  
• Jamestowne - Reconstruction-era African-American settlement in Mars Bluff (Florence County)
• Mitchelville - Hilton Head
• Plantations in South Carolina - learn about the families who worked on SC's 1600+ plantations - a public repository to contribute and consolidate information about all members of the plantation system
  
• Remleys Point - located at Scanlonville in Mt. Pleasant, previously known as Riverside Beach
• Woodlands Plantation - learn about the shared history of the Simms family from Midway in Bamberg County

SC Black Landmarks and Museums

• African American Monument - located at the South Carolina State House
• Big Apple - African-American nightclub in Columbia where the "Big Apple" dance evolved
• Cecil Williams Civil Rights Museum - Orangeburg - tours by appointment only
  
• International African American Museum - Charleston
• Old Slave Mart Museum - Charleston
  
• Peg Leg Bates Monument - legendary tap dancer's statue is located in his hometown of Fountain Inn
  
• Progress Club - Johns Island
• Seashore Farmers' Lodge Museum and Cultural Center - James Island
• Tuskegee Airmen Memorial - monument in Walterboro honors the men who enlisted during WWII to become America's first black military airmen
  

More African-American Place Resources for South Carolina

• African-American Historic Places in South Carolina - PDF - by county
  
• Road Trip! Through South Carolina Civil Rights History - virtual tours
  
• SC Preservation Toolkit - provides resources to help organizations meet their preservation goals for African American history
  

SC Black Culture

• Gullah heritage, language - music, dance, art, crafts, food, religion, West African traditions and influences, and more
  
• Center for Southern African-American Music - includes print, audio and video archives - University of South Carolina
  
• Freewoods Farm - Horry County - living farm highlights the contributions of family-owned, African-American farms in the post-Civil War era
  
• The Gullah Creole Language
• Transatlantic Linkage: The Gullah/Geechee-Sierra Leone Connection
• Lifestyle of the Mende People of South Carolina - African traditions and crafts retained in Gullah cluture
  
• From Africa to South Carolina: the Sea Grass Basket Tradition

SC African-American Organizations

• Black organizations in South Carolina

SC African-American Genealogy

• African Americans in the Armed Forces - from the Revolution to Vietnam
  
• LowcountryAfricana.com - African American genealogy resource for South Carolina, Georgia, and northeast Florida
• Most Overlooked Record Types in South Carolina - 66-minute genealogy research video, particularly helpful with African American research
  
• SCGenWeb's African American Research
• Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database - documents 300 years of slave trade from Africa - users can search nearly 35,000 voyages and over 70,000 names