Lesson
Grades
- 8
Students will explore information regarding the Orangeburg Massacre and research other Civil Rights Era movements as they focus on the Essential Question. See below.
Briggs v. Elliott
African American History
Learn about the achievements of African Americans who have shaped South Carolina and American history.
Black History Month is celebrated every February to honor the achievements of African Americans who have shaped American history. Historian Carter G. Woodson hoped to raise awareness of African American's contributions to civilization by establishing Negro History Week. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that included both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass' birthdays. The week was later expanded to a month in 1976 during the United States bicentennial.
PHOTO: On March 20, 1969, Black hospital workers at the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston went on strike to protest the firing of twelve employees and to call for higher wages and union recognition.
Within this Collection
Friendship Nine
The Friendship Nine consisted of a group of nine African American young men who were sent to jail after staging a sit-in at a segregated McCrory's lunch counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina in 1961.
Video
Grades
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Sharon Murray talks about her role in teaching the Gullah culture and language at the Boone Hall Plantation. She also shares the history of the Gullah.
Photo
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Gullah communities are located where enslaved Africans once lived and worked on Sea Island plantations that were owned by American colonists. Native Americans were also part of these communities. The...
Document
Grades
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
From West Africa During the late 1600s, English settlers in the new colonies needed more workers to farm thousands of acres of land on Sea Island plantations. Although some of the workers were Native...
Video
Grades
- 5
- 8
This is the story of an African American girl born to a half-white, half-black brick mason who came from relative wealth and married into wealth, but she dedicated her life to helping the...
Video
Grades
- 4
- 8
Paul then leaves to check on some trucks at one of his plantations. There he visits two slaves, Tricia and John Judah, who describe for him the functional operation of the Trunk System. This was...
Photo
Grades
- Higher Education
Few vernacular art forms have made as impressive a mark on American culture as the Blues. From the expressive experiences of African-American life, skilled musicians fashioned a distinctive idiom that...
Audio
Grades
- Higher Education
Episode
3
Researcher Dale Rosengarten reads a passage from a Penn School program dating the first year that basketmaking was taught at the school.
Audio
Grades
- Higher Education
Episode
2
Resident of St. Helena Island, SC (Beaufort County). His father, George Brown, taught basketmaking at the Penn School on St. Helena Island in the early 20th Century. The school was founded in the...
Interactive
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Students will understand how enslaved Africans created music for their worship experience. Religious meetings in “praise houses” provided the spiritual outlet for enslaved Africans on the plantation...
Interactive
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Students will understand that music and material culture became a mode of covert communication between slaves. Aunt Pearlie Sue is our guide as students uncover hidden messages in the work songs...
Photo
Grades
- 3
- 4
- 5
Isaac “Ike” Williams was known as “Mr. NAACP.” for his many leadership roles in the organization. Williams was born in Charleston and has ten siblings. He was introduced to the NAACP as a youth. While...
Photo
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 8
Cecil J. Williams is the author of Freedom & Justice. He is a noted civil rights photographer. At 14-years old, Williams was hired by JET Magazine to record the images of the civil rights movement in...
Photo
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 8
Victoria Way DeLee, Courtesy of Modern Political Collection, USC Considered a grass roots activist, Victoria Way DeLee's fervent faith in God and her early childhood experiences fueled her involvement...
Photo
Grades
- 5
- 8
In 1947 Judge J. Waties Waring's monumental ruling in the George Elmore suit (Elmore v. Rice) eliminated the all-white Democratic primary system in South Carolina. For the first time since 1876, the...
Photo
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 8
Dr. Albert N. Thompson is shown as a young teacher instructing a 4th grade class in Richland County. Photo courtesy of Cecil Williams. In September 1944, Thompson, who was then teaching at Booker T...
Photo
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 8
John Wesley Stroman was a student leader at SC State during the student protests. Cleveland Sellers has erroneously been identified as the leader of the students at South Carolina State when it was...
Photo
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 8
Born in Sumter, and reared in Columbia, the Honorable Willie T. Smith was at the forefront of the civil rights movement in South Carolina. He served on the NAACP legal team that included Harvey Gantt...
Photo
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 8
Henry Smith, a victim of Orangeburg Massacre. Photo courtesy of Cecil Williams.
Photo
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 8
Best known for her fierce stance on behalf of civil rights in South Carolina, the successful businesswoman served as NAACP State Secretary during the 1950s. The Columbia native Mrs. Simkins was...
Photo
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 8
In 1968, Sellers was then a student at Harvard University. He was visiting Orangeburg as a recruiter for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). On the night of February eighth, he...
Photo
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 8
In 1965 Mrs. Irene Williams, a home economics and family living teacher at Manchester High School, sued Sumter County School District 2. Despite a stellar record, the district refused to tell her why...
Photo
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 8
A native of Sumter, SC, Donald J. Sampson practiced law in Greenville and his sisters, Irene S. Williams and twin, Dorothy remained in Sumter. Both he and Dorothy were civil rights lawyers and...
Photo
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 8
In 1965, Dorothy Sampson became a partner in the law firm Sampson and Sampson. She was the first African American female attorney in Sumter. Her area of interest was civil rights litigation, voter...
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