Laura Tolliver Jefferson was a consequential figure among Columbia’s Little Camden, Arthurtown, and Taylors communities. During her lifetime, Jefferson was a strong advocate for literacy, civic engagement, and bringing essential systems like sidewalks, streetlights, water, and sewage access to her community.
In May of 2023, a road dedication ceremony took place at the intersection of Shop Rd. and Beltline Blvd. where a sign now stands to honor her legacy.
The following year, her daughter, 98-year-old Josephine Jefferson Hall, joined her friend and USC professor Bobby Donaldson at StoryCorps to discuss her mother’s positive influence among those who sought her wisdom and leadership, and the vital infrastructure she helped usher in to formerly neglected area neighborhoods.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hall: I am from the Little Camden community, right below the highway department on Shop Road. And we've had some of everything in that little community. Arthurtown, Little Camden, and Taylors, Washington park were like one. Our church, Brown Chapel AME, was the center and the oldest church, 173 years old, just celebrated that.
Donaldson: I'm told that those people who are from Taylors and Little Camden, Arthurtown, all remember a lady named Laura Jefferson. Tell me about your mother and her impact in the community.
Hall: My mother, a little girl, when we had no life, she loved to read. One day she was bent over at the fireplace with her head in a book. And my grandfather told my grandmother, (he) says, “Ida, that little girl going to make you proud one day.” And she certainly has. Every year for Christmas, we would get a storybook or rhyme book and how she taught us to read with the lead pencil, every word. And if you couldn't go to the next word, she would keep that pencil on that word until you could read that word. Oh, she worked in libraries, she worked somewhere everywhere, at the Olympia precinct over 30 years. So, when Darrell Jackson ran the first time for senator, everybody in that precinct in Olympia voted for Darrell Jackson, but one person. She said, “Well, I certainly would like to meet that person.” So, Darrell Jackson used to follow her around as a little boy. Also, Reverend Epps and Jim Clyburn, they all wanted to adopt “Mama Laura.” That's just naming a few. She said, “Now in your first campaign, let me tell you, keep it clean. If you do right, you’ll sleep tight.” Those were her words. And he tells that everywhere he goes. She had in front of her gate, the president from Washington sent Patricia Harris press conference. She said, “Go back and tell the president we're not a forgotten neighborhood, but we are neglected. We can walk to the highway department. They have lights, they have sewage,” she said, “but what about our communities?” She said, “I have three septic tanks, but what about my neighbors? They need something for themselves.” So, Bernice Scott, after 20 years, she went to Washington D.C. and brought back the grant. And “The Big Flush,” they called it, was turned on in Mother Laura Jefferson's bathroom among all people from walks of life. And the news camera rushed down that hall. It wasn't even standing room, hardly. And then under the walnut tree we had Senator Ernest Fritz Hollings. He came and he was concerned about the neighborhood. Politicians were just all around.
