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

Spirituals | Gullah Music
Episode 4

Audio

Spirituals developed at the same time as work songs on the plantations. Although they were religious songs with a Christian message, spirituals were also heartfelt expressions of the slave experience...
Old Man River | Digital Traditions

Video

Smith singing at the 1988 Harborwalk Festival in Georgetown, SC. Aired on "Midday 5" program with WCSC-TV in Charleston, South Carolina
Reconciliation | ETV Shorts

Video

Two men, Larry Doby and Bernard Baruch, are honored together in the form of bronze sculptures in downtown Camden, South Carolina. Both were Camden natives who went on to leave an indelible mark on the...
South Carolina Jazz Festival | ETV Shorts

Video

Jazz king John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was born in Cheraw in 1917. Dizzy was a founder of modern jazz, an innovative trumpeter known for his bent horn and bulging cheeks. The South Carolina Jazz...
Tragedy at Orangeburg: 25 Years Later, Part 1: Intro
Episode 1

Video

Part 1 of Tragedy at Orangeburg: 25 Years Later, an introduction to the events in Orangeburg in 1968. (Documentary produced in 1993 by Beryl Dakers of South Carolina ETV.) Two reporters, Jack Bass and...
Family Across the Sea, Part 4 | SCETV Specials (1990)
Episode 4

Video

Family Across the Sea, Part 4 Like the Black Seminoles who fled white civilization, blacks began to return to Africa in the 19th century. Historian Alpha Bah has studied the return of blacks to Sierra...