September 11, 2023
The University of South Carolina commemorated the 60th anniversary of desegregation with an observance at the site where a monument will be placed in early 2024 to honor the three Black students who enrolled six decades ago.
August 31, 2023, Hannah Cambre
In 2021, a group of 20 students from across majors and class standings journeyed to Peru to explore the modern day capital city of Lima as well as the ancient Incan capital in Cusco and the sacred site of Machu Picchu. This year, another cohort will return for a winter session to explore the rich history and culture of Peru.
August 30, 2023
The University of South Carolina will commemorate the 60th anniversary of desegregation with an observance at the site where a statue will be placed in early 2024 to honor the three Black students, Henrie Monteith Treadwell, Robert G. Anderson and James L. Solomon Jr., who enrolled six decades ago.
August 30, 2023, Lauryn Jiles
The university never sleeps, but it does slow down a bit during the summer. With the start of the fall semester, here’s a reminder of some recent happenings that you might have missed, plus a heads up about some major upcoming events.
August 22, 2023, Thom Harman
Researchers from USC Lancaster’s Native American Studies Center contributed to a Columbia Museum of Art exhibition that honors Catawba Nation’s artistry and culture. It’s an event that’s been years in the making — at least.
June 07, 2023, Rose Cisneros
For Terrance Weik, the gravesite of his great-grandmother was a sacred place: Her headstone memorialized a place where he could remember her and those who came before. Weik is working on research and preservation efforts at three burial grounds across South Carolina: sites in Blythewood, Daufuskie Island and Hilton Head.
May 18, 2023, Chris Horn
An integral part of the oldest building on campus, the Rutledge Chapel has been in continuous use since 1805 and has a rich history of its own. But that history is still being written as, every year, alumni say their wedding vows inside the venerable chapel's walls.
May 11, 2023, Chris Horn
Since its founding in 1801, the University of South Carolina, its students and alumni have been profoundly affected by wars, most notably the Civil War, WWI, WWII and the Vietnam War. As Memorial Day draws near, it is a fitting time to remember.
May 01, 2023, Chris Horn
Decades ago, an illustrator named Robert L. Ripley presented tales of the strange, the bizarre and the unexpected — and challenged the public to 'believe it or not!' In that spirit, here are three such tales from the University of South Carolina's past.
April 20, 2023, Jeff Stensland
The University of South Carolina celebrated the naming of a residential hall after pioneering educator and civil rights advocate Celia Dial Saxon at a public ceremony on Friday (April 21). Saxon is the first African American to be honored with a building name on the Columbia campus.
April 17, 2023, Chris Horn
Sixty years ago, the University of South Carolina opened its doors to all students, regardless of race, when it enrolled three Black students — Henrie Monteith, Robert Anderson and James Solomon. But what was campus life like for the Black students who immediately followed in their footsteps in 1964 and beyond?
March 23, 2023, Chris Horn
Ever made a meal out of a few appetizers? In today's episode, we’re serving up three bite-sized stories from the centuries-old history of the University of South Carolina.
March 14, 2023, Rebekah Friedman
As a tribute to the Black alumnae featured in the student-produced documentary The Backbone, USC’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion installed 18 personalized bricks on the Horseshoe. The honorees' stories span seven decades of university history.
March 13, 2023, Chris Horn
In the past 100 years, USC has been a member of four athletics conferences. Here's a quick primer on the whens and whys of each affiliation and a look back at the university's 21-year stretch as a football independent.
March 03, 2023, Chris Horn
The state of South Carolina has a surprisingly rich history of Jewish presence dating back more than three centuries. It's not surprising, then, that the University of South Carolina would have its own history of Jewish life on campus.
March 01, 2023, Alexis Watts
David Banush took the helm as dean of University of South Carolina Libraries in November. He has seen his career come full circle from shelving books as a 17-year-old to leading the libraries into a new era.
March 01, 2023, Reagin von Lehe
From building the city’s canal to founding St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Irish immigrants and their descendants have a rich history in Columbia dating back to the 19th century. Eric Friendly, research coordinator for Historic Columbia, the community from the first wave of immigrants that arrived in the 1820s.
February 22, 2023, Carol J.G. Ward
As a respected scholar of Southern history and African American culture, Bobby Donaldson has served as a consultant for museum exhibitions, archival collections, oral history initiatives, documentary films and historic preservation projects. He also has been recognized for his teaching and community outreach. He credits his parents and educators — from his elementary school librarian to a “drill sergeant” professor at Wesleyan University to his mentors and colleagues at USC — for inspiring his career.
February 16, 2023, Chris Horn
USC students in 1977 buried an eclectic assortment of items for a time capsule that was unearthed in 2001 as part of the university's bicentennial celebration. That same year, another time capsule was buried on the Horseshoe — with its own treasure trove of items — with an opening scheduled for 2051.
February 14, 2023, Alexis Watts
New age treasure hunters, part of the South Carolina Digital Newspaper Program, are saving crucial historical information buried in old publications that are being preserved and presented online. The newspapers reveal stories from the state’s Black residents and rural communities, often overlooked by larger news outlets.
February 13, 2023, Carol J.G. Ward
The University of South Carolina’s Moving Image Research Collections in a partnership with the History Division of the Marine Corps is digitizing films shot by more than 50 Marine combat cameramen during the Battle of Iwo Jima, which began Feb. 19, 1945. The goal is to provide public access to the video and expand historical understanding.
February 03, 2023, Chris Horn
For more than 110 years, USC alumni and students have been singing the university alma mater — 'We hail theee, Carolina!' But what, exactly, is an alma mater and how did USC end up with one?
January 17, 2023, Rebekah Friedman
Indigo is tightly woven into South Carolina history, but few have worked with the rich natural dye since it fell out of favor nearly 150 years ago. Alumna Caroline Harper is bringing it back.
January 13, 2023, Craig Brandhorst
English professor and heirloom foodways expert David Shields introduces us to South Carolina seed saver Carold Wicker, whose Newberry County freezer chest is the stuff of legend among farmers, gardeners and heirloom produce detectives like Shields.
January 04, 2023, Rose Cisneros
Archaeologists with the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at USC have studied the Camden Battlefield for decades, but their most recent finding is the discovery of a lifetime.
December 14, 2022, Communications and Marketing
Did campus feel just a little bit livelier this year? A touch more spirited? A tad more optimistic? We thought so, too — and not only because we named a new president back in January. Yeah, that was one heck of a way to ring in the new year, and it set the tone for the months ahead, but in the end, 2022 was about all of us, from the President’s House to Russell House, from Colonial Life to Williams-Brice. It was about respecting tradition, rediscovering our identity, remembering our past and reimagining our future. In 2022, the University of South Carolina reminded us all what it means to be USC.
December 08, 2022, Craig Brandhorst
When tenor Johnnie Felder finished the master’s program in vocal performance at USC’s School of Music, he had no intention of staying on for a doctoral degree. Now, he’s got teaching assignments across the state, a calendar filled with upcoming performances and freshly-minted Ph.D.
December 07, 2022, Chris Horn
For two centuries, social dances have been knitted into the fabric of the campus social scene at Carolina. Waltzes, the One-step, shag and hip-hop—the style of dance changes but the beat goes on.
December 01, 2022, Jeff Stensland
The University of South Carolina hosted a reception on Wednesday (Nov. 30) to thank those who supported the establishment of the Anne Frank Center on the Columbia campus and its ongoing mission to educate visitors about antisemitism and other forms of discrimination. Reception attendees included university President Michael Amiridis, former President Harris Pastides, state Rep. Beth Bernstein, S.C. Ports Authority Chairman Bill Stern and former state Sen. Joel Laurie.
November 29, 2022, Aïda Rogers
The university’s second Black woman student body vice president, Hannah White, is sharing the influential stories from 21 of Carolina’s Black women leaders who broke down barriers in her award-winning documentary.
November 22, 2022, Chris Horn
When The Gamecock student newspaper began publishing in 1908, there were only 300 students on campus to read it. Since then, the award-winning paper has published myriad stories about campus life and helped launch the careers of innumerable writers and journalists.
November 14, 2022, Chris Horn
Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton engaged in an infamous duel in 1804, and a number of South Carolina College students nearly got tangled up in duels in the years before the Civil War. History records only one duel involving South Carolina College students that ended in fatality — and this is the strange story of that tragedy.
October 31, 2022, Chris Horn
USC's Honors College was established in the 1970s around the time that several other of the nation's first honors colleges came into being. But the South Carolina Honors College would eventually emerge as one of the nation's best, boasting hundreds of honors courses and attracting some of the best students from the Palmetto State and beyond.
October 27, 2022, Téa Smith
In 1974, Gail Bush Diggs became just the second Black woman to be named Homecoming Queen at the University of South Carolina. The announcement of her selection on the football field 48 years ago was greeted with racial abuse and she never received the traditional scepter that went with title. Students, looking to rectify that slight, will honor Diggs with the scepter at this year's Homecoming.
October 26, 2022, Alexis Watts
This year marks the 200-year anniversary of the massive 1822 storm that hit Horry and Georgetown Counties. Cary Mock, professor of geography and a climatologist, says the storm transformed future development in the lowcountry. It also marked the first sighting of a legendary ghost.
October 20, 2022, Abe Danaher
The Boeing Co. has provided the University of South Carolina with a $1.5 million gift to establish the James E. and Emily E. Clyburn Endowed Chair of Public Service and Civic Engagement Fund. This endowed chair, awarded to associate professor Bobby Donaldson, will allow the university’s Center for Civil Rights History and Research to further its programming and outreach initiatives within the university community and across the state.
October 17, 2022, Chris Horn
Curtis Frye, head coach of field and track head at USC, knows a thing or two about coming in first place and being the first to do something. He's done all of those in his time at Carolina, including bringing home the university's first-ever national championship trophy. Perhaps most importantly, Coach Frye understands the importance of putting first things first.
October 14, 2022, Rebekah Friedman
Internationally acclaimed sculptor Basil Watson has been selected to design a statue commemorating Robert Anderson, Henrie Monteith Treadwell and James Solomon Jr., the first Black students admitted to the university since Reconstruction.
September 28, 2022, Alexis Watts
Under a five-year agreement with the National Park Service, the center will receive $3.4 million to expand the center’s existing work in civil rights education and scholarly research, including support for exhibits and programming at South Carolina sites in the African American Civil Rights Network. The center will help to grow the network in South Carolina by serving as a resource to property owners, community leaders and organizations interested in joining the network.
September 27, 2022, Chris Horn
Every year, tens of thousands of prospective students and their families visit the University of South Carolina for a campus tour. Here's the story of how the university's Visitor Center came to be, as well as a peek behind the curtains at some unscripted moments in the lives of campus tour guides.
September 26, 2022, Chris Horn
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world … is a garden.” When Frances Hodgson Burnett penned those words more than a century ago in her classic children’s book The Secret Garden, there probably were very few, perhaps not any flower gardens on the University of South Carolina campus. But we’ve made up for it in the past 50 years or so. On this short tour, you'll learn the history of several not-so-secret gardens on campus and what's planted in each one.
August 25, 2022, Craig Brandhorst
“The History of American College Football: Institutional Policy, Culture, and Reform,” edited by UofSC faculty members Christian Anderson and Amber Falluca, examines the role of the popular American sport on college campuses from its 19th century roots to its contemporary cultural dominance.
August 25, 2022, Chris Horn
What building on the University of South Carolina campus was named for a Confederate navy commodore and commemorated on a picture postcard? It's a trick question! A high-rise residence hall was featured on a postcard in the late 1960s, and the caption on the postcard said the building was named in honor of alumnus Epaminondas J. Capstone, a Confederate commodore. But separate fact from fiction is the real story.
August 22, 2022, Chris Horn
Fifty years ago, it wasn't uncommon to hear professors give the "look to your left, look to your right — one of you will have failed by the end of the semester" speech. But exactly 50 years ago, Carolina tried something different: a course designed to help freshmen feel like they belonged along with the academic tools they needed to succeed. It was called University 101, and it became model for hundreds of colleges across the country.
June 20, 2022, Carol J.G. Ward
The University of South Carolina’s Center for Civil Rights History and Research will receive $500,000 in federal funding to further its mission to preserve civil rights history and tell critical stories of the movement. The African American Civil Rights grant administered by the National Park Service will be used to continue rehabilitation and preservation of the historic Booker T. Washington Auditorium Building.
June 09, 2022, Chris Horn
The space around Allen Stokes' desk looks much the same as it did a half century ago when he began working for the South Caroliniana Library. He’s still surrounded by boxes of correspondence, photos, memorabilia and other materials related to the history and culture of the state.
June 08, 2022, Alexis Watts
The Anne Frank Center located at the University of South Carolina is now home to 100 letters and cards written by Otto Frank, the father of Holocaust victim and world-renowned diarist Anne Frank. The donation comes as the world honors her life and legacy on the 75th anniversary of the publication of her diary and her birthday on June 12.
June 07, 2022, Craig Brandhorst
Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, corresponded with thousands of young people as he worked to promote his daughter’s legacy. His decades-long correspondence with author Cara Wilson-Granat is now the foundation of the university’s new Anne Frank Center Archive.
June 07, 2022, Craig Brandhorst
The university’s Anne Frank Center is dedicated to the legacy of the famous Holocaust diarist — and is committed to changing the world through education and conversation.
June 03, 2022, Chris Horn
Women's college sports barely on the radar in the early 1970s, but Title IX changed everything by leveling the playing field for men's and women's sports at the collegiate level. Meet two of the first 18 women to receive athletics scholarships at the University of South Carolina, which is now a national leader in parity for its men's and women's sports programs.
May 20, 2022, Chris Horn
Eighty-one graduates of the University of South Carolina have died in military service since the Spanish-American War at the close of the 19th century. In observance of Memorial Day, we remember three who died serving their country in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War.
May 03, 2022, Chris Horn
Pranks and pratfalls are part of life in any college residence hall, but one dormitory complex at the University of South Carolina seemed to have more than its fair share. Stories about life in the Towers, also known as the Honeycombs and the Veilblocks, are now almost the stuff of legend. Here are a few anecdotes from yesteryear about those long-gone dorms.
April 19, 2022, Chris Horn
Sarge Frye knew how to make grass grow, and for five decades he made sure the University of South Carolina's athletic fields were green and trimmed. But much more than that, Sarge had a heart for people and connected with everyone he met. It's why his name continues to be synonymous with Gamecock sports.
April 05, 2022, Carol J.G. Ward
UofSC junior combines curiosity about the 1970s, a love of history and an interest in culture and media into an undergraduate research project to assist history professor Lauren Sklaroff with research for a book proposal on 1970s popular culture.
April 04, 2022, Chris Horn
Tom Jones was one of the university's longest serving presidents, and during his 12 years at the helm the university added scores of buildings and thousands of students. Significantly, Jones helped transform South Carolina into a modern research university and brought a spirit of innovation to its instructional mission.
March 28, 2022, Chris Horn
Nearly 60 years ago in 1966, the Concert Choir at the University of South Carolina was formed, and from the beginning, it was a special thing. its founder, a Hungarian-born music educator named Arpad Darazs, turned the ensemble into the university's first internationally touring choral group and the legacy lives on.
March 28, 2022, Chris Horn
Long before texting, Facetime and email were a thing, university students sat down with pen and paper to ask their parents for money, beg forgiveness when they got in trouble and invite someone special for a date. This quaint assortment of letters from University of South Carolina students of yesteryear covers all of those topics and more.
February 28, 2022, Chris Horn
Built in 1840, the South Caroliniana Library was the nation's first free-standing college library. Here's the story of how it came to be and what it has become in the years since.
February 23, 2022, Megan Sexton
The African American Studies program celebrates 50 years of commitment to sharing a deeper understanding of the Black experience.
February 15, 2022, Peggy Binette
A $1.5 million gift from Williams, an energy infrastructure company, will enhance the University of South Carolina’s Center for Civil Rights History and Research’s ability to share South Carolina’s important role in the broader national movement.
February 11, 2022, Chris Horn
Jotaka Eaddy grew up on a dirt road in a small town in the Pee Dee region of the state. But she wound up pursuing big dreams when she came to the University of South Carolina, and that success propelled her toward even bigger goals as a professional.
February 07, 2022, Chris Horn
Born to sharecroppers in 1944 in Yemassee, S.C., Edna Smith Primus was among the first Black graduates from the University of South Carolina in 1966. She became the first Black woman enrolled at the School of Law.
January 31, 2022, Chris Horn
The University of South Carolina desegregated in 1963, but the history of Black people on campus extends back to the university’s beginning in the early 19th century. In 10 illuminating essays edited by Robert Greene II and Tyler Parry, Invisible No More (USC Press 2021) tells that story.
January 31, 2022, Chris Horn
When we think back to our college days, some of us remember old boyfriends and girlfriends or maybe former roommates that we still stay in touch with. And for some, college is where they met that special someone — the person with whom they fell in love and then, quite possibly, lived happily ever after.
January 10, 2022, Chris Horn
When it was dedicated in 1855, the building we now know as Longstreet Theater was already a disappointment. The audience gathered could scarcely understand what was being said because of the poor acoustics. So how did this echo chamber eventually become the premier stage for live theater at the university? Sound engineering!
January 07, 2022, Jeff Stensland
The University of South Carolina Board of Trustees voted unanimously Friday (Jan. 7) to name a campus residence hall for University of South Carolina graduate and revered African American educator Celia Dial Saxon, one of the best-known and respected educators in the state’s history.
December 07, 2021, Chris Horn
For much of the first half of the 19th century, students at South Carolina College were not pleased with the quality of food served on campus. In 1852, the wormy biscuits and rancid meat were too much to stomach, so the students issued an ultimatum — that ultimately gave them a case of indigestion.
December 06, 2021, Chris Horn
JFK once had a bad night's rest in the President's House, and Burt Bacharach tickled the ivories there. Pope John Paul II addressed a crowd of thousands packed onto the Horseshoe. This trip down memory lane has us remembering some of the famous visitors who've come to campus over the years.
November 23, 2021, Madeline Steiner
A bizarre cast of characters involved in the exotic animal trade returns in ‘Tiger King 2.’ Madeline Steiner, a post-doctoral fellow of history, examines parallels between larger-than-life Joe Exotic and 19th-century circuses and showmen for The Conversation.
November 15, 2021, Chris Horn
He loved fly fishing and bird hunting and wrote numerous tales about both of those sporting passions. And when he wasn't doing those things, Havilah Babcock was in the classroom, a favorite English professor for generations of students at the University of South Carolina.
November 02, 2021, Chris Horn
Were there always so many squirrels on the Horseshoe? And how else has campus changed in the past 200 years in regards to insects, birds, snakes and such? Take a stroll with naturalist-in-residence Rudy Mancke to learn what's changed and still changing in the natural world of campus.
October 14, 2021, Chris Horn
Like other universities across the nation, the University of South Carolina needed more land in the 1960s to keep up with skyrocketing student enrollment brought on by the Baby Boom. In a previous episode, we talked about the campus migration that created the east campus in the middle of the University Hill neighborhood. This episode explores the underpinnings of the campus expansion into Ward One and Wheeler Hill, which were largely obliterated by 'urban renewal' efforts that acquired more land for the university.
October 13, 2021, Bryan Gentry
In “At War with Ourselves: 400 Years of You,” Nikky Finney, the poet and English professor, covers four centuries of American history, recounting uncomfortable truths about racism and violence. But she also sings of success and resilience.
October 03, 2021, Chris Horn
When students at the University of South Carolina elected a new Student Government president in 1971, the event made national news. That's because, just eight years after the university was desegregated, an African American student won the election, riding a wave of support from white and Black students who were tired of the "establishment" and "the system."
October 01, 2021, Chris Horn
In the late 19th century, students at South Carolina College who were stalwart members of the institution's two debate societies felt that their clubs were threatened by the presence of fraternities on campus. They contrived a way to boot the Greek letter organizations off campus, but the ploy ultimately failed.
September 21, 2021, Chris Horn
University Terrace Apartments began as a federal housing project, and became married student housing after they were acquired by the University of South Carolina. Alumni Joe and Missie Walker reminisce on what life was really like in their first humble abode.
September 21, 2021, Christopher Moore
About 3,600 years ago, a giant space rock exploded in a massive fireball in the atmosphere above an ancient Middle Eastern city. The explosion destroyed the city, killing its 8,000 inhabitants and setting off a massive shockwave that ripped through the city and surrounding areas. University of South Carolina archaeologist Christopher Moore and his colleagues explain for The Conversation how they know how this actually happened near the Dead Sea in Jordan thousands of years ago.
September 09, 2021, Office of Communications and Public Affairs
September 11, 2001, altered the course of history. It was also a call to action for University of South Carolina faculty seeking to address new challenges in a changing world. Five UofSC professors reflect on the aftermath of 9/11 and how it changed the trajectory of their scholarship and research.
August 23, 2021, Chris Horn
When the Gamecocks take to the football field every fall, Williams-Brice Stadium roars with the full-throated spirit of 80,000-plus diehard fans, a battalion of marching band members, cheerleaders, baton twirlers and dancers and a hyperkinetic mascot, Cocky. It’s a far cry from the first football game played on the University of South Carolina campus in 1898 when a few hundred fans huddled on simple wooden bleachers beside a field situated where the Russell House Student Union now stands.
August 23, 2021, Savannah Bennett
Marjorie Weber was a widow in her 40s when she decided to return to college to earn her teaching degree from the University of South Carolina where her late husband had been an education professor. She also served as a starting point for a string of family members attending South Carolina, including a granddaughter and two great-granddaughters, who are current education students. They are among the hundreds of students who follow family members to become Gamecocks each year.
August 09, 2021, Carol J.G. Ward
The University of South Carolina is now home to a permanent exhibition and educational program in partnership with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, becoming one of only four partner sites in the world and the only one in North America.
August 09, 2021, Chris Horn
Since its inception more than 200 years ago, the University of South Carolina has had three different names and several nicknames. But Juliet was right — that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
July 16, 2021, Jeff Stensland
The University of South Carolina’s Presidential Commission on University History issued its final report on July 16, detailing the complex histories and legacies of some of the individuals who shaped the institution since its founding in 1801.
July 06, 2021, Chris Horn
Nicole Maskiell grew up mesmerized by stories about her family, including the tale of her grandmother’s grandmother who escaped from enslavement in the South with an infant in her arms. Now a history professor, Maskiell is uncovering obscure stories from Colonial history, particularly the narrative of slavery in America’s Northeast.
June 30, 2021, Barry Markovsky
The origins of many superstitions are unknown. Others can be traced to specific times in history, sociology professor Barry Markovsky writes in The Conversation. Included in this second category is a superstition that is between 2,000 and 2,700 years old: Breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck.
June 30, 2021, Woody Holton
In celebration of the United States’ 245th birthday, history professor Woody Holton writes in The Conversation about six surprising facts about the nation’s founding document – including that it failed to achieve its most immediate goal and that its meaning has changed from the founding to today.
June 14, 2021, Rebecca Janzen
The film “Lady of Guadalupe” available on many streaming services, mixes a fictional retelling of the 16th-century appearance of the Virgin Mary to a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego with the tale of a wholly fictional 21st-century reporter. Professor of Spanish and comparative literature Rebecca Janzen writes in The Conversation although the film portrays the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe for a broad audience, ultimately itsanitizes the real-life brutality of the Church toward Indigenous peoples in the 16th century.
June 14, 2021, Page Ivey
Allie Trice was an outstanding undergraduate student at the University of South Carolina, excelling in class and conducting publishable research. But a dedication to the pursuit of truth is even more important for the university’s first recipient of the Barry Scholarship, which opened the door to graduate school at the University of Oxford.
May 27, 2021, Megan Sexton
James Hull works in the Office of Veterans and Military Services at the University of South Carolina, certifying veteran education benefits for students. He also has taken on a project that combines both his love of history and his military service: Documenting every UofSC student or alumni who died while serving in uniform over the past 120 years.
May 20, 2021, Chris Horn
The University of South Carolina experienced enormous enrollment growth in the 1960s and began expanding its campus in several directions. Its move eastward into the University Hill neighborhood greatly expanded the campus footprint, but also stirred tensions with the residents when construction on the high-rise Capstone House began.
April 30, 2021, Chris Horn
Patricia Moore-Pastides and her husband, Harris Pastides, the 28th president of the university, lived in the President's House for 11 years with thousands of college students as their closest neighbors. Patricia has a few favorite stories about that experience.
April 19, 2021, Chris Horn
The President's House on the historic Horseshoe has been home to every university president since 1952. Patricia Moore-Pastides, who lived in the house as university first lady for 11 years, talked with the now-grown children of those former presidents to find out what life was like for them during their years in the President's House.
April 13, 2021, Bobby J. Donaldson and Christopher Frear
In 1961, a group that would come to be known as the “Friendship Nine” hoped to reinvigorate the sit-in movement with a “Jail, No Bail” strategy to push the costs of enforcing segregation onto the city, rather than onto civil rights supporters, who paid substantial bail fees every time students were arrested. Bobby Donaldson, history professor and director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research, writes about the strategy and a 60-year-old letter by activist Thomas Gaither – arrested with the Friendship Nine during a sit-in in Rock Hill, South Carolina – deep in a records box in the South Caroliniana Library.
April 01, 2021, Chris Horn
In the long history of schoolteachers in South Carolina, Matilda Pinckney's story stands out. Born a slave on the historic Horseshoe at the University of South Carolina, Pinckney was later trained at a Normal School on the university campus and would go on to a 30-plus year career as an educator.
March 22, 2021, Chris Horn
From its founding in the early 19th century, the University of South Carolina was keenly interested in building a library collection to properly educate its students. Since then, the library's holdings have become a treasure trove that includes rare books and special collections that attract scholars from around the world.
March 08, 2021, Chris Horn
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 1954 that racial segregation of school children was unconstitutional. When South Carolina's segregationist governor spoke out against that ruling, the School of Education dean at the University of South Carolina courageously spoke up. The dean kept his integrity — but not his job.
March 08, 2021, Chris Horn
In one of his first official acts as the University of South Carolina's 29th president, Bob Caslen authorized the Presidential Commission on University History. Since then, the commission has been researching building and place names on campus and considering ways to expand and disseminate the history of the institution.
March 04, 2021, Chris Horn
The steady rise in podcast popularity has produced a bountiful crop of shows for listeners worldwide — 1.75 million and counting — including a growing list of podcasts produced by University of South Carolina faculty, staff and students.
March 02, 2021, Carol J.G. Ward
The Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina unveiled a historical marker on March 2 to commemorate the courage of hundreds of students who marched on the South Carolina State House 60 years ago. Many of the students were arrested, and the appeal of their convictions eventually was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, leading to a legal precedent protecting the rights of protesters.
February 25, 2021, Megan Sexton
Alumnus Regan Freeman is working to help turn a former Ku Klux Klan store in Laurens, South Carolina, into a center for diversity and reconciliation.