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As a child, Major General Charles Bolden knew that he wanted to be a pilot. Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Charles grew up in the 1950s, a time when a young African American boy might be...
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There are hundreds of Philip Simmons's gates and fences around Charleston. One of his gates hangs in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He has won national awards and was commissioned to...
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At the age of 12, Philip became an apprentice to a blacksmith. It was a hard job. Apprentices swept floors, shoed horses and worked simple pieces of iron while laboring around a hot forge. Only after...
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When Philip Simmons was a child, he liked to draw the wrought iron gates around Charleston, South Carolina. The spirals and loops he saw in the ironwork inspired his artistic abilities. Philip would...
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In the 1950s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became known as the leader of the civil rights movement. More than 20 years before Dr. King, Modjeska Simkins began her own work for the civil rights of...
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Mary continued to open more schools, created a hospital and promoted voting rights for African Americans. President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited her to become an advisor in 1936. Her job required her...
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In 1904, Mary McLeod Bethune began a school for poor African American children in Daytona, Florida. With only $1.50 to start the school, she had to be very creative. The desks were made from packing...
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At a time when there were few educational opportunities for African Americans, Mary McLeod Bethune created schools and a thriving college for them. Mary was born in Mayesville, South Carolina to freed...
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On the evening of May 12, 1862, the captain and officers of the Planter left the ship to spend the night on the shore. Robert and the rest of the slave crew had to stay on board under captain's orders...
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In 1839, Robert Smalls was born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina. As a slave, he worked in the Charleston shipyards. After learning the local harbor and surrounding waters, 23-year-old Robert...
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The British officer Captain Christian Huck upset many with his cruel and agressive mishandling of local residents in the backcountry. Captain Huck and the British Legion were on their way towards...
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Ruby still lives in New Orleans. She runs the Ruby Bridges Foundation to help troubled children at William Frantz and other schools. With the group, Ruby travels the country advocating the importance...
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Ruby's friend, psychiatrist Dr. Robert Coles, wrote "The Story of Ruby Bridges." At William Frantz, Ruby attended an empty classroom. Some parents refused to let their children go to the integrated...
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Design and play unique, student-made versions of traditional Gullah musical instruments.
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By the time Ruby was six years old, there were new laws stating that African American and white students had to integrate, or share, schools. People such as Martin Luther King, Jr. had worked for...
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When enslaved Africans came to the coast of South Carolina they brought many foods with them that have become traditional Southern favorites. They include peanuts, sweet potatoes, okra, black-eyed...
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Ruby was born in 1954. At the time, African-American children and white children had to attend separate schools. Segregation, or the separation of African American and white people, was practiced by...
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Ruby Bridges' first day at William Frantz Elementary School was very unusual. Integration, or the sharing of schools by African American and white people, had recently become law in 1960. She was one...
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Dr. King's efforts would lead to wider recognition of equal rights, education and political representation for African Americans and other minorities. For his work, he earned a Nobel Peace Prize in...
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Dr. King traveled around the world giving speeches and organizing peaceful protests. He met with presidents to urge support for civil rights. His "I Have a Dream" speech was delivered in Washington, D...
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In 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress living in Montgomery, Alabama, wanted to peacefully demonstrate what civil rights meant to her. She was arrested for sitting at the front of the bus, a place reserved...
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Like Gandhi, Dr. King committed his life to peacefully helping people attain civil rights. Much of Dr. King's work concerned the civil rights of African Americans. During the 1950s, there were fewer...
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Gandhi used nonviolent protest to promote civil rights for the people of India. "True nonviolence should mean a complete freedom from ill will and anger and hate and an overflowing love for all." –...
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Read maps, use charts, and go to various sites to discover facts about the Gullah culture.
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with President Lyndon Johnson at White House in 1966 In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. told a crowd of 250,000 people, "I have a dream." To many people, Dr. King is...
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The goal for this project is to create an electronic storybook to teach younger students about Gullah. The storybook should be a multi-sensory, interactive experience for young readers so that they...
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Fifty years apart... February 1926: First Negro History Week observed. February 1976: Negro History Week expanded by Congress to National Black History Month.
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February 12, 1909: NAACP founded; became the largest and oldest civil rights organization in America.
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General Thomas Sumter was an American Revolutionary War militia leader and later a U.S. Congressman. After the crushing defeat at Waxhaws, General Sumter gathered militia troops in South Carolina...
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February 3, 1870: 15th Amendment passed, granting right to vote to African Americans.