Educators

Black and white photograph of Fannie Adams

Fannie Phelps Adams

Educator, community leader

Black and white photograph of Mattie Adams

Mattie Jean Adams

Educator

Black and white photograph of Babcock sitting in front of a typewriter

Havilah Babcock

Havilah Babcock was chair of the English Department at the University of South Carolina for many years and a passionate outdoorsman and famous outdoor writer.

Black and white photograph of Baker showing a book to a child.

Augusta Baker

Augusta Baker was a librarian and storyteller known for her contributions to children's literature, especially regarding the portrayal of Black Americans in works for children.

Jack Bass

Jack Bass is an author and journalist.

Elise Blackwell

Elise Blackwell is a novelist and writer.

Laura Bragg

Laura Bragg was the first woman director of a major American museum when she became the head of the Charleston Museum in 1920.

Black and white photograph of Benjamin Brawley

Benjamin Griffith Brawley

Benjamin Griffith Brawley was an author and educator from Columbia, SC. Many of his books were considered standard college texts.

Lucy Hughes Brown

First black female physician to practice in South Carolina

Balck and white photograph of Matthew Bruccoli

Matthew J. Bruccoli

Matthew J. Bruccoli was a professor at the University of South Carolina and the preeminent expert on F. Scott Fitzgerald.

An older man sitting outside in a black suit jacket.

Orville Vernon Burton

Dr. Orville Vernon Burton is a historian, educator, and author from Ninety-Six, SC.

Emory Shaw Campbell

Born in Hilton Head Island, SC, Emory Shaw Campbell is an author and community leader among the Gullah people who live in the coastal Lowcountry region of South Carolina.

Black and white photograph of Abbie Christensen holding a child in her lap

Abbie Holmes Christ

Folklorist, educator, suffragist

Septima Clark wearing a dark jacket, light colored shirt, pearl earrings and pearl necklace.

Septima Poinsette Clark

Septima Poinsette Clark was an African American educator and activist for equal rights who worked with the NAACP and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thomas Green Clemson

Thomas Green Clemson was a statesman, ambassador, US Superintendent of Agriculture, and founder of Clemson University.

Elizabeth Boatwright Coker

Wife of James Lide Coker III, Elizabeth Boatwright Coker was the author of nine historical romance novels based on southern and South Carolina cultural life.

Black and white photograph of James Coker

James Lide Coker

Businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist born in Darlington, SC. Coker was educated at the Citadel and Harvard where he studied to better prepare himself for managing agricultural property.

Thomas Cooper

Thomas Cooper was a professor, philosopher, and second president of South Carolina College, now the University of South Carolina, from 1820-1833.

Ida Jane Dacus

Librarian

Guy Davenport

Guy Davenport was a writer, translator, illustrator, painter, and teacher from Anderson, SC.

Kwame Dawes

Poet, editor, novelist, cultural critic

James Dickey

James Dickey was a professor at the University of South Carolina known for his poetry and novels.

Samuel Dickson wearing a dark and light suit.

Samuel Henry Dickson

Samuel Henry Dickson was a poet, physician, writer, and educator. He was one of the founders of the Medical College of South Carolina (now the Medical University of South Carolina).

photograph of Louise DuBose's gravemarker

Louise Jones DuBose

Louise Jones DuBose was the Assistant State Director of the South Carolina Writers' Project.

Pam Durban

Aiken native, Pam Durban is a novelist, short story writer, and educator.

Walter Edgar

Walter B. Edgar is a historian and author specializing in Southern history and culture, particularly for South Carolina.

Stephen Elliott

Stephen Elliott was a legislator, banker, and botanist. He is best known for his work, A Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia. The plant genus Elliottia is named after him.

Percival Everett

Percival Everett is a novelist, short story writer, poet, and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.

Mamie Garvin Fields

Mamie Garvin Fields was a teacher, civil rights and religious activist, and memoirist.

Ernest Adolphus Finney, Jr.

Ernest Adolphus Finney, Jr. was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice appointed to the South Carolina Supreme Court since the Reconstruction Era.

Martha Thomas Fitzgerald

Elizabeth Martha Thomas "Mattie" Fitzgerald was an educator and politician. She was the first woman elected in South Carolina in the House of Representatives in a General election.

Nick Aaron Ford

Nick Aaron Ford was a pioneer of Black literary criticism and a crucial voice in the establishment of Black studies as an academic discipline.

Ruby Ethel Middleton Forsythe

Educator

Mack Gipson, Jr.

Dr. Mack Gipson, Jr. was the first African American man to obtain a Ph.D. in Geology.

Juanita Willmon Goggins

Juanita Willmon Goggins was the first Black woman to be elected to the SC General Assembly

Black and white photograph of Richard Greener

Richard Theodore Greener

Teacher, diplomat

Angelina Grimkè

Angelina Grimkè Weld was an abolitionist, political activist, women's rights advocate, and supporter of the Women's Suffrage Movement.

Sarah Grimkè wearing a frilly bonnet and checked dress.

Sarah Moore Grimkè

Sarah Moore Grimkè was a prominent abolitionist and is widely held to be the mother of the Women's Suffrage Movement.

Peggie Lois Hartwell

Peggie Lois Hartwell is a fourth-generation quilter and educator.

Terrance Hayes

Terrance Hayes is a poet and educator from Columbia, SC. His collection, Lighthead, won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2010.

Sherman James

Hartsville, SC native Dr. Sherman James is an epidemiologist and currently the Susan B. King Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.

Black and white photograph of Lott sitting at his desk with shelved books in background

Bret Lott

Bret Lott is the bestselling author of fourteen books and professor of English at the College of Charleston

Rudy Mancke

Naturalist Rudy Mancke served as naturalist and co-host of South Carolina ETV's NatureScene, which began its long run in 1978.

Benjamin Elijah Mays

Benjamin Elijah Mays was a teacher, civil rights leader, president of Morehouse College, dean of Howard University's School of Religion, and first black president of Atlanta's school board.

Black and white photograph of Elliott McCants

Elliott Crayton McCants

Elliott Crayton McCants was an author and educator. He is the author of In the Red Hills: A Story of the Carolina Country.

Johnnie McFadden

Dr. Johnnie McFadden is the Benjamin Elijah Mays Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of South Carolina.

Amanda McNulty

Amanda McNulty is a Clemson University Extension Horticulture agent and the host of South Carolina ETV's Making It Grow!

Black and white photograph of Kelly Miller

Kelly Miller, Jr.

Born in Winnsboro, South Carolina, Dr. Kelly Miller, Jr. was the first African American to attend Johns Hopkins University.

Arthenia J. Bates Millican

Arthenia J. Bates Millican was a poet, short-story writer, essayist, and educator from Sumter, South Carolina.

A white woman sitting next to two black girls.

Ellen Murray

Ellen Murray co-founded the Penn Center with Laura Towne.

An older man with round wired glasses sits in a leather chair holding a book.

Daniel Alexander Payne

Daniel Alexander Payne was a bishop, educator, college administrator, and author from Charleston, SC.

Anita Pollitzer

Educator, suffragist, reformer

Gloria Blackwell Rackley

Gloria Blackwell Rackley was a Civil Rights activist and educator.

Bernice Robinson

Educator, civil rights activist

Rollin Sisters

Born to an aristocratic free Black family in Charleston, the Sisters were noted for their influence and political savvy in Reconstruction politics.

Celia Dial Saxon

Celia Dial Saxon was a teacher and one of the founders of the Fairwold Industrial Home for Negro Girls and the Wilkinson Orphanage of Negro Children.

Black and white photograph of Cleveland Sellers, Jr.

Cleveland L. Sellers, Jr.

Civil rights activist, educator

Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor

Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor was a culinary anthropologist, griot, food writer, and broadcaster on public media.

Photograph of Steadman's book "McAfee County: A chronicle"

Mark Steadman

Mark Steadman is a writer. He taught humor and the American novel at Clemson University.

Black and white photograph of Max Steel sitting at a desk

Max Steele

Max Steele was an author and educator from Greenville, SC.

John R. Stevenson

Educator

Susie King Taylor

Nurse, teacher

A middle aged woman with hair styled in a bun.

Laura Matilda Towne

Laura Matilda Towne was an abolitionist and educator known for forming the Penn School.

Leo Twiggs

Leo Twiggs developed the Fine Art Department at South Carolina State University.

Moses Waddel

Moses Waddel was an educator and minister in antebellum Georgia and South Carolina. He is the author of "Memoirs of the Life of Miss Caroline Elizabeth Smelt."

David Duncan Wallace

David Duncan Wallace was a historian and author of "History of South Carolina."

black and white photograph of Clemmie Webber

Clemmie E. Webber

Advocate of women’s rights and suffrage and co-founder of the literacy movement in South Carolina

black and white photograph of Lucille Whipper

Lucille Simmons Whipper

Lucille Simmons Whipper was the first Black woman to represent a Charleston County seat in the legislature and the first woman of color ever to be elected to the SC General Assembly.