Eugene C. Hunt graduated from the Avery Normal School and went on to Talladega College, where he received a Degree in English in 1940. He earned a Masters Degree in Theater from Northwestern University in 1954 and continued with postgraduate study in Speech and Education. Mr. Hunt taught English and Speech at Burke High School …
The Young Women’s Christian Association of Greater Charleston, which originated in 1907, has served communities in Charleston and the Lowcountry area of South Carolina for over a century. Currently, the YWCA of Greater Charleston, Inc., strives to provide programs and services for all people and holds a mission to eliminate racism and to empower women. …
Anna D. Kelly (1913-2007) is known for her efforts to connect Lowcountry African Americans with the Highlander Folk School, most notably recruiting Septima Clark. A graduate of the Avery Normal Institute in Charleston, South Carolina, Kelly was a charter member of the Avery Institute of African American History and Culture. She then played a crucial …
Millicent Ellison Brown (b. 1948) is an educator and civil rights activist. Born in Charleston to MaeDe and J. Arthur Brown, local and state president of NAACP (1955-1965), Brown, in 1963, replaced her older sister Minerva as the primary plaintiff in a NAACP-sponsored lawsuit (Millicent Brown vs. Charleston County School District #20). The collection consists …
William (“Bill”) Saunders, a community and Civil Rights activist in Charleston, South Carolina, was an organizer and lead negotiator of the Charleston Hospital Strike of 1969. In 1970, Saunders established the Committee on Better Racial Assurance (COBRA) to address race-related community problems and provide assistance to community members in need. He also operated the AM …
After growing up very poor on a farm as the fifth of eight children, Gussie Kennerly Johnson (1915-2000) defied the odds: she got a college degree and served as an officer in the U.S. Army during World War II as a member of the Women’s Army Corps (WACs). After the Pearl Harbor attacks on December …
A collection of photographs from private collections, digitized by the Greenville County Library System.
In 1932, the WPA built “So Big” on a vacant lot on Augusta Road. After the diminutive building, the bookmobile served the area until 1975 when the library rented a storefront next to Pickwick Pharmacy. In 2004 the Ramsey Family Branch Library replaced the rented space.
In 1961, citizens persuaded the Library to stock books in two unused rooms of Mauldin town hall. A visit to this little collection from Arthur Magill resulted in the gift of a building, which opened in 1962. The branch moved to the new W. Jack Greer Library in August 29, 1999.
Greenville’s library opened in 1921 under the leadership of Thomas F. Parker in a storage room on E. Coffee St. Over the years the Main library has been housed in the Jervey Jordan building, old Park School building, College Street building, and, in 2002, moved to its current location.