The Civil Rights Movement in SC - Books
Blood and Bone by
On the night of February 8, 1968, South Carolina state highway patrolmen fired on civil rights demonstrators in front of South Carolina State College, a historically black institution in the town of Orangeburg. Three young black men--Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith--were killed, and twenty-seven other protestors were injured. Preceding the infamous events at Kent State University by more than two years, the Orangeburg Massacre, as it came to be known, was one of the first violent civil rights confrontations on an American college campus. The patrolmen involved were exonerated while victims and their families were left still seeking justice. To this day the community of Orangeburg endeavors to find resolution and reconciliation. In Blood and Bone, Orangeburg native Jack Shuler offers a multifaceted examination of the massacre and its aftermath, uncovering a richer history than the one he learned as a white youth growing up in Orangeburg. Shuler focuses on why events unfolded and escalated as they did and on the ramifications that still haunt the community. Despite the violence of the massacre and its contentious legacy, Orangeburg is a community of people living and working together. Shuler tells their fascinating stories and pays close attention to the ways in which the region is shaping a new narrative on its own, despite the lack of any official reexamination of the massacre. He also explores his own efforts to understand the tragedy in the context of Orangeburg's history of violence. His native connections gave him access to individuals, black and white, who have previously not spoken out publicly. Blood and Bone breaks new ground as an investigation of the massacre and also as a reflection by a proud Orangeburg native on the meanings of Southern community. Shuler concludes that the history of race and violence in Orangeburg mirrors the history of race relations in the United States--a murky and contested narrative, complicated by the emotions and motivations of those who have shaped the story and of those who have refused to close the book on it. Orangeburg, like the rest of the nation, carries the historical burdens of slavery, war, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and civil rights. Blood and Bone exposes the ways in which historical memory affects the lives of ordinary Americans. Shuler explores how they remember the Orangeburg Massacre, what its meaning holds for them now, and what it means for the future of the South and the nation.
Charleston in Black and White by
Once one of the wealthiest cities in America, Charleston, South Carolina, established a society built on the racial hierarchies of slavery and segregation. By the 1970s, the legal structures behind these racial divisions had broken down and the wealth built upon them faded. Like many southern cities, Charleston had to construct a new public image. In this important book, Steve Estes chronicles the rise and fall of black political empowerment and examines the ways Charleston responded to the civil rights movement, embracing some changes and resisting others. Based on detailed archival research and more than fifty oral history interviews, Charleston in Black and White addresses the complex roles played not only by race but also by politics, labor relations, criminal justice, education, religion, tourism, economics, and the military in shaping a modern southern city. Despite the advances and opportunities that have come to the city since the 1960s, Charleston (like much of the South) has not fully reckoned with its troubled racial past, which still influences the present and will continue to shape the future.
Crossing the Line by
"Combines a remarkable amount of close research with a deep understanding of the role of gender in the making of the Freedom Struggle. This book will hold a place of honor on the growing shelf of scholarship on the movement in South Carolina."--W. Scott Poole, author of Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting "Rediscovering fascinating black and white women, Jones-Branch thoughtfully analyzes how they endeavored to change South Carolina's racial climate."--Marcia G. Synnott, author of The Half-Opened Door: Discrimination and Admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900-1970 Although they were accustomed to a segregated society, many women in South Carolina--both black and white, both individually and collectively--worked to change their state's unequal racial status quo. In this volume, Cherisse Jones-Branch explores the early activism of black women in organizations including the NAACP, the South Carolina Progressive Democratic Party, and the South Carolina Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. At the same time, she discusses the involvement of white women in such groups as the YWCA and Church Women United. Their agendas often conflicted and their attempts at interracial activism were often futile, but these black and white women had the same goal: to improve black South Carolinians' access to political and educational institutions. Examining the tumultuous years during and after World War II, Jones-Branch contends that these women are the unsung heroes of South Carolina's civil rights history. Their efforts to cross the racial divide in South Carolina helped set the groundwork for the broader civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Washing Our Hands in the Clouds by
In Washing Our Hands in the Clouds, Bo Petersen masterfully crafts a reflection on the Civil War, emancipation, Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement in the personal story of how it affected one man's life in a specific South Carolina locale. Petersen's accomplishment is that, in studying the Pee Dee region of Dillon and Marion Counties, he illuminates those issues throughout the Deep South. Through conversations with Joe Williams, his family, and acquaintances, white and black, Petersen merges the Williams family history back to Joe's great-great-grandfather, Scipio Williams, with the lives and fortunes of four generations of South Carolinians--black and white. Scipio, the family progenitor, was a man free in spirit and action before the Civil War destroyed chattel slavery. Scipio was a free black farmer who worked land that he owned in the Pee Dee before and after the war and during the worst days of Jim Crow white supremacy. Petersen uses the Williams family genealogy, neighborhood, and, most important, their farmlands to understand Pee Dee and South Carolina history from the 1860s to the present. In his research he discovers historical currents that run deeper than events--currents of agriculture, land ownership, and allegiance to native soil--and transcend the march of time and carry the Williams family through slavery, war, Jim Crow, and economic dislocation to today's stories of Joe Williams. In gathering what Petersen describes as a collection of front porch stories, he also writes a history of what matters most to this family and this locale. The resulting narrative is surprising, unconventional, and true for all families in all places. In Dillon County, tobacco production followed cotton farming. Old-time logging coexisted with textile factories. Jim Crow gave way to uncertain prospects of racial harmony. Those were monumental changes of circumstance, but they did not change human character. Washing Our Hands in the Clouds is a history of human character, of life that endures outside of the restraints of time. To understand this phenomenon is to realize that both Scipio and Joe and the generations between them wash their hands in the timeless clouds of South Carolina's sky.
The Civil Rights Movement in SC - Web resources
- Columbia63 Civil Rights Timeline Part of a project commemorating the 50th anniversary of 1963 Civil Rights accomplishments.
- The State: Malcolm X, RFK brought heated rhetoric of civil rights fight to Columbia The heated national rhetoric of the civil rights period hit home in Columbia in April 1963, with two very different speakers making their point to very different crowds eight days apart.
- African American Historic Places in SC This publication provides information on properties in South Carolina that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places or have been recognized with South Carolina Historical Markers as of May 2015 and have important associations with African American history. (Opens as PDF)
- Commemorating South Carolina's Civil Rights History "A sampling of historically significant places on the road to equality and a bit of what you will find there."
The National Civil Rights Movement - Online Resources
- Library of Congress Civil Rights History Project Video interviews with Civil Rights activists.
- US Archives - "Bloody Sunday," 1965 Access primary source documents from the National Archives.
- JFK Library - 1963: The Struggle for Civil Rights An interactive timeline of important events in the Civil Rights Movement.
- The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (PBS) THE RISE AND FALL OF JIM CROW explores segregation from the end of the civil war to the dawn of the modern civil rights movement. It was a brutal and oppressive era in American history, but during this time, large numbers of African Americans bravely fought against the status quo, acquiring many opportunities for African Americans.
- Hank Thomas: Video Interview Hank Thomas describes his experiences in the St. Augustine civil rights movement, his participation in the Freedom Rides, his combat experiences in Vietnam, his business enterprises, and reflects on the legacy of America's racially divided past.
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Encyclopedia Over 280 articles on civil rights movement figures, events, and organizations from Stanford University's Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute.
Print Resources from the MTC Library
Beyond Charlottesville: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism by
The former governor of Virginia tells the behind-the-scenes story of the violent "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville--and shows how we can prevent other Charlottesvilles from happening. When Governor Terry McAuliffe hung up the phone on the afternoon of the violent "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, he was sure Donald Trump would do the right thing as president: condemn the white supremacists who'd descended on the college town and who'd caused McAuliffe to declare a state of emergency that morning. He didn't. Instead Trump declared there was "hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides." Trump was condemned from many sides himself, even by many Republicans, but the damage was done. He'd excused and thus egged on the terrorists at the moment when he could have stopped them in their tracks. In Beyond Charlottesville, McAuliffe looks at the forces and events that led to the tragedy in Charlottesville, including the vicious murder of Heather Heyer and the death of two state troopers in a helicopter accident. He doesn't whitewash Virginia history and discusses a KKK protest over the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. He takes a hard real-time behind-the-scenes look at the actions of everyone on that fateful August 12, including himself, to see what could have been done. He lays out what was done afterwards to prevent future Charlottesvilles--and what still needs to be done as America in general and Virginia in particular continue to grapple with their history of racism.Forward by Rep. John Lewis.
Graphic Novels
Understanding Comics by
Traces the 3,000 year history of storytelling through pictures, discussing the language and images used
Call Number: PN6710 .M33 1993Publication Date: 1994
Graphic Subjects by
Some of the most noteworthy graphic novels and comic books of recent years have been entirely autobiographical. In Graphic Subjects, Michael A. Chaney brings together a lively mix of scholars to examine the use of autobiography within graphic novels, including such critically acclaimed examples as Art Spiegelman's Maus, David Beauchard's Epileptic, Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, Alan Moore's Watchmen, and Gene Yang's American Born Chinese. These essays, accompanied by visual examples, illuminate the new horizons that illustrated autobiographical narrative creates. The volume insightfully highlights the ways that graphic novelists and literary cartoonists have incorporated history, experience, and life stories into their work. The result is a challenging and innovative collection that reveals the combined power of autobiography and the graphic novel.
Call Number: PN6710 .G7375 2011Publication Date: 2011
- Writing About Comic & Graphic Novels (Duke U.) A study guide from Duke University (opens as a PDF)
Grant Green - "Selma March" (1965)
March: Book 1
March by Call Number: E840.8 .L43 A3 2013Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon, one of the key figures of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president. Now, to share his remarkable story with new generations, Lewis presents March, a graphic novel trilogy, in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell (winner of the Eisner Award and LA Times Book Prize finalist for Swallow Me Whole). March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis' lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis' personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement. Book One spans John Lewis' youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall. Many years ago, John Lewis and other student activists drew inspiration from the 1958 comic book "Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story." Now, his own comics bring those days to life for a new audience, testifying to a movement whose echoes will be heard for generations.
March: Book 2 by
Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, continues his award-winning graphic novel trilogy with co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell, inspired by a 1950s comic book that helped prepare his own generation to join the struggle. Now, March brings the lessons of history to vivid life for a new generation, urgently relevant for today's world. After the success of the Nashville sit-in campaign, John Lewis is more committed than ever to changing the world through nonviolence - but as he and his fellow Freedom Riders board a bus into the vicious heart of the deep south, they will be tested like never before. Faced with beatings, police brutality, imprisonment, arson, and even murder, the movement's young activists place their lives on the line while internal conflicts threaten to tear them apart. But their courage will attract the notice of powerful allies, from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy... and once Lewis is elected chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, this 23-year-old will be thrust into the national spotlight, becoming one of the "Big Six" leaders of the civil rights movement and a central figure in the landmark 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. New York Times Bestseller One of YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens 2016 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work - Winner 2016 Harvey Award for Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation - Winner 2016 Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album Original - Winner 2016 Street Literature Book Award Medal for Best Graphic Novel - Winner 2016 Denver Independent Comic & Art Expo Award for Best Work - Mid/Large Press - Winner
Call Number: E840.8 .L43 .A3 2015
March: Book Three by
Welcome to the stunning conclusion of the award-winning and best-selling MARCH trilogy. Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, joins co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell to bring the lessons of history to vivid life for a new generation, urgently relevant for today's world. By the fall of 1963, the Civil Rights Movement has penetrated deep into the American consciousness, and as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis is guiding the tip of the spear. Through relentless direct action, SNCC continues to force the nation to confront its own blatant injustice, but for every step forward, the danger grows more intense- Jim Crow strikes back through legal tricks, intimidation, violence, and death. The only hope for lasting change is to give voice to the millions of Americans silenced by voter suppression- "One Man, One Vote." To carry out their nonviolent revolution, Lewis and an army of young activists launch a series of innovative campaigns, including the Freedom Vote, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and an all-out battle for the soul of the Democratic Party waged live on national television. With these new struggles come new allies, new opponents, and an unpredictable new president who might be both at once. But fractures within the movement are deepening ... even as 25-year-old John Lewis prepares to risk everything in a historic showdown high above the Alabama river, in a town called Selma.
Call Number: E 840.8 .L43 A3 2016
Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story
Click on the image above to read the 1956 comic book that inspired John Lewis
1963 - Two Voices
Sit-in on the House floor
Daily Show Extended Interview
From AVON (Academic Video Online)
- Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968 Although home to a majority black population, in 1968 Orangeburg still clung to Jim Crow traditions. When a black Vietnam War veteran was denied access to a local bowling alley protestors converged on the site, and what began as a nonviolent demonstration ended with the wounding of 28 students and the slaying of three. The film interviews key participants on both sides of the tragedy, some of whom speak about the Massacre for the first time.
- While I Breathe, I Hope A feature documentary film that explores what it means to be young, Black, and Progressive in the American South through the experiences of South Carolina Politician Bakari Sellers.
- February One In one remarkable day, four college freshmen changed the course of American history. February One tells the inspiring story surrounding the 1960 Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins that revitalized the Civil Rights Movement and set an example of student militancy for the coming decade.
- Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement 1954–1985 View all 14 episodes of the award-winning PBS documentary series.
Who was John Lewis?
- Bio from Roll Call magazine From Rep. Lewis' official website
- NPR: 45 Years Since Selma, Rep. John Lewis Reflects Transcript and audio file from the public radio program
- Stephen Colbert Interviews Rep. Lewis YouTube video from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert
- PBS Newshour interview with John Lewis Transcript and video from the TV interview program
March - Online Resources
- Using Graphic Novels in Education: March Teaching and discussion suggestions for March from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
- A Teacher's Guide to March: Book One Study and teaching guide developed by Top Shelf Comix. (Opens as a .pdf file)
- Comics Alliance interview with John Lewis Rep. Lewis and co-writer Andrew Aydin discuss the decision to tell their story in the comic format.
- March wins National Book Award 2016 Youtube video from the award ceremony
- John Lewis discusses March Book 1 Video from "Talks at Google"
Major Figures of the Civil Rights Movement - Books
Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights Movement by
Combining the latest scholarship with John Kirk's informed commentary, this sourcebook throws a powerful light on the civil rights movement and its most influential leader. Debates that until now have been carried out across a range of books and journals are here brought together for the first time in a clear, helpful volume which introduces readers to key topics, debates and scholars in the field. Essential reading for all those with an interest in the man and the movement.
Call Number: E185.97 .K5 M325 2007Publication Date: 2007
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by
ONE OF TIME'S TEN MOST IMPORTANT NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY With its first great victory in the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the civil rights movement gained the powerful momentum it needed to sweep forward into its crucial decade, the 1960s. As voices of protest and change rose above the din of history and false promises, one voice sounded more urgently, more passionately, than the rest. Malcolm X--once called the most dangerous man in America--challenged the world to listen and learn the truth as he experienced it. And his enduring message is as relevant today as when he first delivered it. In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement to veteran writer and journalist Alex Haley . In a unique collaboration, Haley worked with Malcolm X for nearly two years, interviewing, listening to, and understanding the most controversial leader of his time. Raised in Lansing, Michigan, Malcolm Little journeyed on a road to fame as astonishing as it was unpredictable. Drifting from childhood poverty to petty crime, Malcolm found himself in jail. It was there that he came into contact with the teachings of a little-known Black Muslim leader renamed Elijah Muhammad. The newly renamed Malcolm X devoted himself body and soul to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and the world of Islam, becoming the Nation's foremost spokesman. When his conscience forced him to break with Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity to reach African Americans across the country with an inspiring message of pride, power, and self-determination. The Autobiography of Malcolm X defines American culture and the African American struggle for social and economic equality that has now become a battle for survival. Malcolm's fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand America. Praise for The Autobiography of Malcolm X "Malcolm X's autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me; the blunt poetry of his words, his unadorned insistence on respect, promised a new and uncompromising order, martial in its discipline, forged through sheer force of will."--Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father "Extraordinary . . . a brilliant, painful, important book."--The New York Times "A great book . . . Its dead level honesty, its passion, its exalted purpose, will make it stand as a monument to the most painful truth."--The Nation "The most important book I'll ever read, it changed the way I thought, it changed the way I acted. It has given me courage I didn't know I had inside me. I'm one of hundreds of thousands whose lives were changed for the better."--Spike Lee "This book will have a permanent place in the literature of the Afro-American struggle."--I. F. Stone
Call Number: E185.97 .L5 A3 1993Publication Date: 1992
Rosa Parks: My Story by
"Even those familiar with her name will realize on reading this engrossing account how little they really know of Parks's life and the events that surrounded the dawning Civil Rights movement. Setting her historic refusal to give up her seat on a bus in the context of a life that began in 1913 in rural Alabama dramatizes the fact that her action came at a time and place that gave it the force to challenge the rigors of a lopsided system of justice. Few will be unmoved by the tactics employed by whites to disrupt the subsequent boycott; at the center, always, is Parks's dignified, calm recounting of outrages against her and other women and men, giving her words weight and impact as no raw fury could. Like sitting at the knee of an elder with much to tell, reading her story leads to ever more questions ('What was it really like then?') and shock that such injustices not only existed in the recent past but still linger." - Kirkus Reviews
Call Number: E185.93 .A3 P37 1992Publication Date: 1992
This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer by
" WITH A FOREWORD BY MARION WRIGHT EDELMAN The award-winning biography of black civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. ""Riveting. Provides a history that helps us to understand the choices made by so many black men and women of Hamer's generation, who somehow found the courage to join a movement in which they risked everything."" --New York Times Book Review ""One is forced to pause and consider that this black daughter of the Old South might have been braver than King and Malcolm."" --Washington Post Book World ""An epic that nurtures us as we confront today's challenges and helps us Keep Hope Alive.'"" --Jesse L. Jackson ""Not only does This Little Light of Mine recount a vital part of America""s history, but it lights our future as readers are inspired anew by Mrs. Hamer's spirit, courage, and commitment."" --Marian Wright Edelman ""This book is the essence of raw courage. It must be read."" --Rep. John Lewis
Call Number: E185.97 .H35 M55 2007Publication Date: 2007
Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary by
Presents a biography of the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court, from his crusade against segregation to his friendships with other famous Black figures.
Call Number: KF8745.M34 W55 1998Publication Date: 1998
Map: Civil Rights Landmarks in SC
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