The jaws of an excavator began chewing away at the old YWCA on Coming Street in downtown Charleston two weeks ago, spitting out chunks of concrete and jagged metal.
The College of Charleston has been razing the historic building in hopes of constructing new dorms on the site. But for Carolyn Murray, the crumbling walls evoke memories.
“Everything about my childhood, in some way, I think about the YWCA,” she says.
Childhood memories
The long-time, local television news anchor says the Coming Street Y was her second home during the early ‘70s. It’s where she danced, learned and grew confident in herself.
“Very often it was just a place where we could go and we could feel safe, particularly as young Black girls,” says Murray.
In Charleston, there were once two YWCA’s, the one Murray attended and the other for whites only on George Street. While separate, they were not equal as the White Y oversaw the Black branch.
One of the women who helped change that was longtime Coming Street YWCA Executive Director Christine Osburn Jackson. Murray says Jackson became a mentor who helped forge her career.
“She always made me feel valuable,” says Murray.
Civil rights history
Jackson took the helm of the Coming Street Y in 1966, two years after the federal Civil Rights Act outlawed segregation. The national YWCA had been pushing for integration. Jackson did too, bringing diverse people together to encourage inclusion
But the white Y refused to accept Black women and lost its national affiliation. Jackson spoke about it with South Carolina Public Radio decades later.
“I was brand new,” she said. “I’d never had any experience like that," said Jackson.
Jackson was confronted with racism again in 1969 and the Coming Street YWCA was pivotal.
This time, Jackson called on her first cousin Corretta Scott King, the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She asked for help for striking nurses in Charleston.
King responded by marching with hundreds of workers who’d walked off the job at what is now the Medical University of South Carolina. And she had a message that was captured in the 1970 documentary “I Am Somebody.”
“I feel that the Black woman in our nation, the Black working woman is perhaps the most discriminated against,” said King.
The nurses, joined by thousands of others, protested for more than one hundred days. They demanded equal pay and treatment. Organizers frequently strategized at the Coming Street Y because it was safe from retaliation.
Ultimately, the hospital caved to the nurses' demands.
Current YWCA director Lavanda Brown says she took the job ten years ago because she knew Jackson would guide her. She says Jackson was a humble force.
“Anyone will tell you that when she called, you answered and the answer was yes,” said Brown.
The mission
Brown says the YWCA of Greater Charleston, now located in West Ashley, still has the same mission of eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, racial justice, freedom, and dignity for all.
But, she says, that mission may be even more important today. She worries about recent attacks on voting rights as well as policies involving diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“We’re not that far from Jim Crow,” she said. “We’ve seen this. We just have to continue to persevere and fight it. That’s what they did in the ‘60s."
Brown says Charleston’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations that were begun by Jackson in 1972 are a reminder. The January events were established more than a decade before Dr. King's work was recognized with a national holiday.
Christine Jackson passed away earlier this year at the age of 97. Murray spoke through tears at her funeral.
“May her memory be a steady light guiding us to work together for a more just, inclusive world,” she said.
Murray says it’s hard to lose both Jackson and the Coming Street Y. But she hopes the hard-fought lessons learned will live on through generations of all women.
