Old stories cast new light on S.C. Civil Rights story. Traveling exhibit coming to St. Helena
In many ways, it all started here.
A prominent traveling exhibition that tells the story of South Carolina’s essential role in the American Civil Rights Movement is coming to St. Helena Island’s Penn Center. The exhibit, says Dr. Bobby Donaldson, professor of history and executive director of the university’s Center for Civil Rights History and Research, highlights overlooked chapters in the history of the movement.
“South Carolina’s Lowcountry region played a critical role in the nation’s civil rights movement,” Donaldson said in a news release.
Martin Luther King Jr. visited St. Helena Island five times between 1964-67, using Penn Center — which began in 1862 as a school for freed slaves — as a retreat and place to plan.
The new exhibit tells the story of the state’s fundamental role in the national Civil Rights Movement using oral history recordings, news film footage, photographs, postcards, newspapers and letters. Those items are among hundreds archived in special collections at the University of South Carolina.
It’s called “Justice for All: South Carolina and the American Civil Rights Movement.” It was organized by the University of South Carolina’s Center for Civil Rights History and Research.
The center is working with Reconstruction Era National Historical Park and Penn Center to shed light on the individuals, organizations and key events that shaped “one of the most transformative movements in our nation’s history,” Donaldson said.
The exhibit opens with guided tours from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at Darrah Hall of the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park, within the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District, 24 Penn Center Circle West.
The exhibition will be on display from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through September.
Visitors will see interpretive panels that tell the story of the Civil Rights Movement, beginning in Reconstruction following the Civil War and continuing through the 1960s.
Students and visitors will learn about activists and institutions who demanded racial justice in South Carolina and across the country, Donaldson said.
“Justice for All” has already visited Columbia, Sumter, Orangeburg, Hartsville and Spartanburg. After Beaufort, the traveling exhibition will visit Georgetown through December 2023.
The traveling exhibition was designed with groups and students in mind. Traveling trunks with materials and lesson plans for students are available by request. For information about traveling trunks or our other initiatives such as oral history interviews, please email the Center at sccivilrights@sc.edu.
