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“F” is for Frederick, Nathaniel Jerome (1877-1938)

“F” is for Frederick, Nathaniel Jerome (1877-1938). Lawyer, editor. A native of Orangeburg County, Frederick graduated from Claflin College and the University of Wisconsin. From 1902-1918, he served as principal of Columbia’s Howard School. During that time, he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1913. Despite the racial barriers that hampered African Americans in the early twentieth century, Frederick became a successful lawyer. He appeared before the South Carolina Supreme Court thirty-three times—winning twelve appeals and three of four criminal cases that appeared before the court. He was a crusading newspaperman and editor of the Southern Indicator and the Palmetto Leader. Frederick also helped organize the Victory Savings Bank, a Black-owned financial institution. An ardent Republican, Nathaniel Jerome Frederick was a delegate to his party’s national convention in 1924, 1928, and 1932.

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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.