“S” is for Simkins, Modjeska Monteith [1899-1992] Educator, civil rights organizer, community activist. Simkins’s inspiration to become an advocate for the black community came from her parents. After graduating from Benedict College, she taught mathematics at Booker T. Washington High School and later became director of the Negro Program for the South Carolina Tuberculosis Association. Simkins joined the NAACP and served as a member of the Columbia branch’s executive board. She encouraged black teachers in Charleston and Columbia to fight for equal pay. In the 1950s when the white community applied economic pressure to black plaintiffs in the Briggs v. Elliott case, she functioned as a liaison between black residents of Clarendon County and organizations willing to provide aid. For more than sixty years Modjeska Monteith Simkins was an independent leader and advocate for black South Carolinians.
“S” is for Simkins, Modjeska Monteith [1899-1992]
