Black history

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.

“P” is for Praise houses. Praise houses (sometimes called “prayer houses”) functioned on antebellum South Carolina plantations as both the epitome of slave culture and symbols of resistance to slaveholders’ version of Christianity.

“P” is for Praise houses. Praise houses (sometimes called “prayer houses”) functioned on antebellum South Carolina plantations as both the epitome of slave culture and symbols of resistance to slaveholders’ version of Christianity.

This week we will be talking with Sara from the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, art historian Frank Martin, and with artist Leo Twiggs about his exhibition at the Gibbes called Revelations: The Art of Leo Twiggs. At 92 years of age, Leo Twiggs has a perspective on life in South Carolina that covers fundamental changes in our state and our nation. His art is both intensely personal and a commentary of the struggles that both Black and White South Carolinians share.The show ends May 3rd at the Gibbes and opens at the Florence Museum June 1 for an extended run.

“B” is for Brawley, Benjamin Griffith (1882-1939). Educator, author, editor, clergyman.

“B” is for Brawley, Benjamin Griffith (1882-1939). Educator, author, editor, clergyman.

The original Columbia neighborhood of Wheeler Hill is now just a memory for those who once called the historically African American community “home.” That includes former resident Crissandra Elliott, whose childhood home was located at 215 Bull Street.

USC women's basketball coach Dawn Staley will hold a meet-and-greet at this year's annual Black Expo at the Charleston Area Convention Center in March.

Cecil Williams is well-known as a chronicler of the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina. The photojournalist was born and raised in the town of Orangeburg where he still resides, as does the museum which he built. The South Carolina Civil Rights Museum is home to hundreds of photographs Williams captured that bore witness to the realities of striving for racial equality.

In the early 1950s, Holly Scott enrolled in the Columbia Hospital School of Nursing, which was first established in 1935 as the School of Nursing for Black Students. When it closed in 1965, the school had graduated a total of 401 nurses in its history, including Holly Scott.