SC African American Calendar
SC African American History Calendar June 2018 Honoree: James L. Felder
James L. Felder has spent his life working for justice as a civil rights activist and South Carolina legislator. A native of Sumter, S.C., Felder spent his early adult years in Washington, D.C., and has lived in Columbia, S.C. since 1967. Felder received an undergraduate degree from Clark Atlanta University and earned his Juris doctor…
Read MoreSC African American History Calendar May 2018 Honoree: Percival Everett
Percival Everett was born in Fort Gordon, Georgia in 1956 and grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. Upon graduation from the University of Miami, he attended the University of Oregon, and received a master’s from Brown University, where he wrote his first book, Suder, in 1983. Everett is a critically acclaimed author of several genres,…
Read MoreSC African American History Calendar April 2018 Honoree: Mabel James Dickey
Mabel James Dickey has worked tirelessly to see that the Mt. Zion Rosenwald School of Florence, S.C. earned its place on the National Register of Historic Places. Her parents died at an early age, and as children, Dickey and her siblings lived with her aunts and uncles in Florence, where she attended the Mt. Zion…
Read MoreSC African American History Calendar March 2018 Honoree: Louise Miller Cohen
Louise Miller Cohen, a preservationist of Gullah culture and heritage, is a fifth-generation Hilton Head Islander. From an early age, she was immersed in the traditions of her Gullah relatives who were descendants of enslaved Africans that lived on the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia. Cohen has long championed preserving the Gullah way…
Read MoreSC African American History Calendar February 2018 Honoree: Maude E. Callen
Maude E. Callen was born in Quincy, Florida in 1898. She had many siblings and was orphaned at age six. Callan was raised by her uncle, a physician in Florida, and became a devoted nurse. She served as a nurse-midwife in the Lowcountry of South Carolina for more than 60 years. Callen graduated from Florida…
Read MoreSC African American History Calendar January 2018 Honoree: J. Arthur Brown
Arthur Brown was born in Charleston, S.C. After graduating from the Avery Institute, he continued his education at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, S.C. When he returned to Charleston, he worked as a real estate and insurance broker. Outside of work, however, he connected with the local chapter of the NAACP. Brown eventually became…
Read MoreSC African American History Calendar December 2017 Honoree: Moving Forward
In the aftermath of the shootings, Mother Emanuel received a tremendous outpouring of love and support and sympathy. People from around the world visited to offer condolences, hold prayer vigils and place letters, cards and flowers at the church. Nadine Collier, daughter of Ethel Lance, one of the nine victims, captured the community’s response and…
Read MoreSC African American History Calendar November 2017 Honoree: Mother Emanuel AME Church
Established in 1816, the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest AME church in the Deep South and a historic symbol of faith, community building, and resistance to slavery and racism. Rev. Morris Brown, one of the first ordained pastors of the AME denomination and its second Bishop, organized Black members of Charleston’s Methodist…
Read MoreSC African American History Calendar October 2017 Honorees: Jennifer Pinckney, Felicia Sanders, Polly Sheppard
Among the victims of the Emanuel AME Church shooting are five survivors – three adults and two children who have shown incredible grace in becoming examples of powerful forgiveness for Charleston and the nation. As an example, Polly Sheppard, a retired nurse and Emanuel AME Church trustee, was participating in the Bible study the night…
Read MoreSC African American History Calendar September 2017 Honoree: Myra Singleton Thompson
Charleston native Myra Singleton Quarles Thompson joined Mother Emanuel AME Church as a young child, beginning a lifetime of devotion to the church and its members. Her deep faith and love for the church’s members led her to study to become a minister, and just before her death, her preaching certificate was renewed. One of…
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