Learn about the movers and shakers of the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina and nationally in the United States.
Biographies are provided with permission from the exhibit "A More Convenient Season: Civil Rights in South Carolina, 1948-1968." Installed 2005 at the South Carolina State Museum, courtesy of Cecil Williams and the I.P. Stanback Museum.
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Samuel Hammond, Jr., a victim of Orangeburg Massacre was a 20 year old student attending South Carolina State College. Photo courtesy of Cecil Williams.
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Harvey Gantt was born on January 14, 1943. On January 1963, Harvey Gantt of Charleston, South Carolina, became the first black student to enroll at Clemson College (now Clemson University). Gantt, at...
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In June 1954 Sarah Mae Fleming, a 20-year-old African-American boarded a local bus, owned and operated by South Carolina Electric and Gas Company. According to Fleming the bus driver told her to move...
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A native of Smithfield, Va, Ernest A. Finney Jr. gained respect as an exceptional civil rights advocate, defending more than 6,000 people arrested for participating in some type of civil protest. In...
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In 1946, George Elmore attempted to vote in the all-White Democratic primary but was denied the right to vote. In February 1947, the NAACP filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against John I...
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A native of Bennettsville, Marian Wright Edelman In the mid-1960s as a human rights activist began directing the Legal Defense and Education Fund for the Mississippi NAACP. As the first African...
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Described as courageous, fearless, confident, faithful, committed, humble and a man of integrity, the Rev. Joseph Armstrong DeLaine was the primary impetus behind the Clarendon County desegregation...
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Born at Maddens Station, South Carolina, Culbertson was the sixth of 14 children. A Greenville defense attorney he was an advocate for the needs of all people, regardless of race, or the ability to...
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A Charleston arts patron and gifted vocalist, Ruby Pendergrass Cornwell used her voice to make a difference in Charleston's cultural arts society. She was known as an inspiring teacher in civil rights...
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A life member of the NAACP, Clyburn has actively worked to support the principles of inclusion upon which the organization was founded. The Sumter native and graduate of South Carolina State...