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“N” is for Nelson, Annie Greene (1902-1994)

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“N” is for Nelson, Annie Greene (1902-1994). Writer, playwright. The first African American South Carolina woman to publish a novel, Nelson was a native of Darlington County. Overcoming an impoverished childhood, she attended Benedict College and received degrees in education and nursing from Vorhees College. Her first novel, After the Storm appeared in 1942. Nelson subsequently published two more. Set in the South Carolina environment in which she grew up, her writing typically recounts what life was like for the ordinary African Americans of her community. Set in the Pee Dee region, her novels portray the home lives and customs of Black Carolinians and their fight for dignity in the midst of deep poverty. Late in her life Annie Greene Nelson was still an active author, frequently travelling the state to give book readings.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.