S.C. Portraits spotlights people who have made an impact on South Carolina history, including Robert Smalls, Mary McLeod Bethune, Modjesha Simkins, Philip Simmons, Charles Bolden, Dori Sanders, and Congressman James Clyburn.
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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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...