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101. David Cosgrove, Interview by Summer Lane and Maggie Heslin, 15 April 2019

Date:

2019-04-15

Description:

David Cosgrove?s parents both came to America in 1964 and met in Elizabeth, New Jersey. David's parents are from rural areas in County Galway and County Mayo. Davd's father lived in Ireland until he was twenty two years old, when he moved to London with his brother, and David's mother came to America straight from Ireland at the age of nineteen. He has been to Ireland several times, as his parents regularly took him and his four brothers over to their hometowns during his childhood. David takes care to discuss similarities and differences between life and politics in Ireland and Charleston.

102. Cheryl Daniels, Interview by Nora Wright, Foster Lewis, and Tom Tate, 11 April 2019

Date:

2019-04-11

Description:

Cheryl Daniels was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. Both of Cheryl?s parents were also born in Jersey City and their parents immigrated from Galway and Cork. Cheryl?s grandparents initially immigrated to America for better job opportunities. She discusses their journey to Americanize themselves upon entering the country by changing their names. She discusses the influence of Catholicism on her family and her public school education experience in America. Cheryl has lived in New Jersey, Colorado, and South Carolina.

103. Jeanne Chirdon, Interview by Anderson Heggemeier and Molly Dolan, 4 May 2019

Date:

2019-05-04

Description:

Jeanne Chirdon discusses her experience with Irish heritage and the journey of her family?s immigration from Ireland. After her great great grandparents immigrated from Ireland, they settled in Pennsylvania. Some of her family traveled through the port in Cork, Ireland and most of her family immigrated through Ellis Island, New York. One of seven siblings, Jeanne grew up Roman Catholic and discusses Catholic traditions and how they have influenced her life. Jeanne shares the role of Irish music in her life, which developed from her relationship with "the Toms" at the age of 16. Music, for Jeanne, influenced her sense of community and comfort in Irish culture. After living in Cork, Ireland from 2003-2006, Jeanne moved to Asheville for graduate school, and later moved to Charleston with her husband. She plays the banjo, and is very involved in the Irish music scene in Charleston.

104. Interview of Arthur Lawrence

Date:

2019-03-20

Description:

Interview by Valerie Perry of Arthur Lawrence who lives in Charleston's West Side. Mr. Lawrence reminisces about growing up on the West Side when it was primarily an African-American community. He recalls day-to-day life in the West Side, referring to businesses, grocery and corner stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and hotels/boarding houses. He also talks about the changes to both Charleston and the West Side community and reflects on gentrification, segregation, integration, housing, and heirs' rights, about the roles of hotels for African-American visitors during segregation. Mr. Lawrence, who was president of the neighborhood association for 20 years, worked with Mayor Riley and the Chief of Police on efforts to improve the community. He discusses the efforts and its successes. He also touches upon the importance of the church in the community. Grants from both the South Carolina Humanities Commission and the Employees Community Fund of Boeing allowed HCF to proceed with this initiative and several oral history interviews have been conducted that focus on specific neighborhoods and the changes these residents have experienced over time.

105. Interview of Erica and Dan Lesesne

Date:

2019-03-25

Description:

Interview by April Wood of Erica and Dan Lesesne who purchased their home on Warren Street in 1989 from Historic Charleston Foundation through its Home Ownership Program (revolving fund). They are now some of the longest-term residents in the neighborhood in Radciffborough. The Lesesnes talk about the changes they have observed in the neighborhood including the demographics. For example, there had been many more older families who lived in there but they have moved out, and also are fewer African-American families than there used to be. They also describe the neighborhood as eclectic, which appealed to them. They discuss their experience purchasing the house from HCF and how they appreciate that it is protected by a covenant. They reminisce about Charleston architect Randolph Martz and also about Robert Ballard, who was the president of the neighborhood association and very involved in civic affairs. The Lesesnes also discuss their backgrounds. Mrs. Lesesne was an English teacher at Porter Gaud and an acting teacher. They also talk about spearheading an effort to preserve the family cemetery on Daniel Island. Grants from both the South Carolina Humanities Commission and the Employees Community Fund of Boeing allowed HCF to proceed with this initiative and several oral history interviews have been conducted that focus on specific neighborhoods and the changes these residents have experienced over time.

106. Vivian Cleary, Interview by April Silva and Roslyn Cleary, 10 April 2019

Date:

2019-04-10

Description:

Vivian Cleary, 64, was born in Dublin, Ireland. He shares stories about life in the Northside of Dublin. Vivian lived in Dublin until he was three years old when his parents moved to Birmingham, England, where he lived until the age of 17. Vivian shares experiences of family holidays in Ireland. Vivian came to Charleston twenty years ago and discusses how different life is in America. He discusses political issues with America during this time along with the process for applying for permanent residency. Vivian is also able to shed light on historical events in Ireland, such as experiences with the IRA, and separation of Northern Ireland and the Republic.

107. Interview with Sunshine Bella Goodman, September 16, 2019

Date:

2019-09-16

Description:

Sunshine Goodman (pronouns: She/Her/Hers) discusses life experiences, spirituality, work in the beauty industry, her philosophy and attitude to life and her assumption of the role as a “self-proclaimed ambassador of authenticity.” Growing up in Roanoke, VA, Goodman spent time as a youth with her mother’s family in Charleston, SC. Bullied in school for appearing feminine and steered away from coming out in a small conservative town, Goodman left after high school to live with an aunt in Charleston. First working in women’s fashion stores, Goodman then became an apprentice with a stylist to gain a barber’s license. While pursuing a strong sense of personal style and founding a brand called Celebritimage, Goodman also searched for the most authentic way of living and manifesting a God-given individuality. While getting both positive and negative feedback for the change she made in her appearance, Goodman refused to be defined by an image, instead feeling that “everything I do...is for the benefit of other people. Even the way I look is not just for me.” Goodman discusses her feelings about God’s watching out for all, her experiences with angels, numerology, and prophetic voices telling her truths about others and herself. It is a gift she uses to help others find confidence, their true calling, and to embrace their bodies and sexuality, also the theme of her book Three Seasons of Life: Discovery, Believe, Faith. Living briefly in Los Angeles, Goodman speaks of being gender fluid and identifying with the trans community, saying that all are capable of transformation. In response to questions, she addresses homophobia within the African American and African American religious communities, prejudice within the LGBTQ community, and she describes many Charleston bars such as Dudley’s, Pantheon, the Cure, and others, especially the once Black-friendly Déjà Vu. She notes the positive effects of increasing LGBTQ visibility yet thinks that it drives some back into hiding for fear of being identified with it. While Goodman uses social media to help influence people to embrace their true selves, she laments the abuse of dating apps. She concludes the interview with her thoughts on gentrification in Charleston, and the need of leaving a legacy, especially being Black and gay. Note: This interview was conducted when the narrator preferred male pronouns. The narrator now uses she/her pronouns and requested they be changed. The pronouns were substituted and are bracketed in the transcript, but they were not altered, or removed, from the audio file.

108. Interview with Stephen Cagle, July 9, 2020

Date:

2019-10-12

Description:

Stephen “Steve” Cagle (pronouns: He/Him/His) discusses his upbringing in North Carolina, education as a pharmacist, service in the armed forces, his experiences as a gay man in the South, abroad and in California, and eventually opening a gay bed and breakfast with his domestic partner, Charles S. Holt, at Folly Beach, SC. Born in Concord NC, he grew up with an ailing father who died young, and a mother who struggled to find her son positive male role models. Knowing he was gay from an early age, Cagle, while having sexual experiences, kept quiet about his orientation in his hometown where such things were not discussed, but not necessarily condemned. He had somewhat closeted affairs when he attended pharmacy school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Drafted into the army, Cagle, wanting to serve his country to fulfill his father’s inability to do so, found a fairly tolerant attitude to gays in the military. Despite others being out, he was more reserved, yet he mentions sexual experiences at bases at home and abroad in his service in northern Italy. After leaving the service Cagle lived in Henderson, NC, and then in Charlotte, NC, working as a pharmacist. He describes a gay bar in Charlotte sharing a site with a Denny’s Restaurant and explains the allure and dangers of anonymous sex in rest stops on the Interstate 85 Highway corridor in North Carolina, mentioning a Highway Patrolman who frequented those sites. Having been raised an only child and feeling he lacked social skills in befriending people, Cagle did find relationships, eventually falling in love with a married US Marine who suggested Cagle move to California in 1977 to be near him. There, the affair ended, as Cagle knew it would, but he met Charles (Chuck) Holt, who worked in Los Angeles, reading film scripts and crossing paths with celebrities such as Liberace and Rock Hudson. The men became a couple, and they began to explore their options in 1986 after Holt discovered he was HIV positive. The couple pulled up stakes, began an extended road trip across the country, guided by Damron’s Gay Guides, and ended up founding and running the gay Charleston Bed and Breakfast at Folly Beach. Cagle discusses the place’s importance, its success, the friendly acceptance it met on Folly Beach, also mentioning Hurricane Hugo, and how others, including his mother, came to accept him and help run the B and B after Holt’s death in 1995. Cagle sold the B and B, retired from the Ralph Johnson Veterans Administration Hospital and now lives in Charleston with his husband John Meffert.

109. Interview with Pat Patterson, May 16, 2019

Date:

2019-05-16

Description:

Pat Patterson (pronouns: He/Him/His) speaks of family life, childhood, growing up, coming out, his political activism through drag performance, interactions with the Methodist Church, and his perceptions of the LGBTQ community. Born and reared in a loving and accepting family environment in Spartanburg, SC, he attended Wofford College, the 37th family member to do so. “I’m a Palmetto tree with fairly deep roots,” he notes. He came out in graduate school at the University of SC, and speaks about the founding of its Bisexual Gay and Lesbian Association (BGLA) and how he assumed his drag persona Patti O’Furniture, “a bully pulpit to raise awareness,” on a dare. At various points in the interview, Patterson speaks of the stratification of the LGBTQ community (“part of our charm and part of our problem”), with most of the focus on Charleston, identifying the conservative “blazer gays” who practice “an odd social decorum” at private parties, the “SIN” or service industry gays who are more out, and other socially and geographically distanced groups. He speaks of racism, and racial and trans insensitivity, the difference between the Charleston Pride and the Columbia, SC-based South Carolina Pride organizations, the gay rugby team, the Charleston Blockade, and K. J. Ivery, once a student of his and now an out trans officer of the Charleston Police Department. Having first done AIDS work in Columbia, SC with his friend Bill Edens, he became involved with the SC Equality Coalition, and he mentions a variety of other LGBTQ organizations and leaders. He began commuting to Charleston to perform drag at the bar Patrick’s, eventually moving there, arranging performances at Dudley’s, and he now also performs at brunches, breweries and bingo, usually emceeing, giving his tips from the audience to charity and passing the hat at performances for different causes and organizations. Straight audiences, he notes, are often more appreciative, and in describing his own indoctrination into drag, he shares some of the vocabulary, mentions those icons who influenced him and praises Jay White for his Brooke Collins performances. He names and describes many bars throughout the state, speaks of his evolution as a performer and activist, as well as the need to be aware of how unintended insults or slurs can occur. Making distinctions between religion and faith, the latter very important to him, Patterson also describes his family’s attachment to their local Methodist congregation in Spartanburg and their dedication to liberalizing the Methodist Church in general.

110. Interview with K.J. Ivery, August 14, 2019

Date:

2019-08-16

Description:

K. J. Ivery (pronouns: He/Him/His), the first openly trans officer with the Charleston Police Department, discusses growing up, coming into his sexuality and gender identity, schooling, family relations and a variety of other topics. A Charleston native, Ivery grew up in a religious family where sexual non-conformity was not encouraged, and in a city where one faced further discrimination for being both Black and queer. He experienced difficulties with his parents after identifying as bisexual in middle school. Later identifying as gay, Ivery had a girlfriend in high school. He speaks of using the internet to find information and peers while in school, having attended Charles Towne Academy and later the Academic Magnet High School. He found the latter place very accepting, despite not being permitted to start a Gay-Straight Alliance, which he nevertheless did, using a different name to mask it. Identifying as trans-masculine, he discusses how he didn't come out to his family until he was identified in the Post & Courier as an openly transgender police officer. He began to investigate this part of his identity while attending the University of South Carolina, in Columbia, where he again was very active in its Gay-Straight Alliance. Ivery was impressed with Columbia's Harriet Hancock Center, and he discusses the arbitrariness and social constructs of gender, speaks of the "awesome things about... identifying as queer" and expresses delight in not being trapped in the limitations of being a cis-gender male, while also discussing the stud/femme roles prevalent in some lesbian communities. Having majored in criminology, he returned to Charleston in 2012 and immediately began working with the Charleston Police Department, which he lauds for its openness and high standards, and which adapted easily to his transitioning. On the force, he first worked in West Ashley neighborhoods before moving to the tourist districts downtown, while serving as an LGBT liaison to the community, which he describes as cliquish, and stratified along economic, racial and even geographic lines. He has worked with We Are Family, the Alliance for Full Acceptance (helping to administer the Trans Love Fund), Charleston Area Trans Support (CATS), and the Charleston YOUth Count, as well as founding a trans-masculine support and social group. He describes his relationship with his wife, Sam Diamond, the marriage ceremony they created and which their families attended, and how society looks at and presumes it understands the dynamics of their interracial marriage. He contrasts his spirituality compared to his family's rigid religious beliefs, voicing his respect for them and their views and noting the growing acceptance by his parents and siblings. Before concluding he also addresses gentrification in Charleston, specifically in regard to his grandparents' home on Line Street, his attendance at an early Charleston Pride Parade, his social life, and the advancements and progress of the LGBTQ community.

111. Interview with Shelli Quenga, May 21, 2019

Date:

2019-05-21

Description:

Shelli Quenga (pronouns: She/Hers), describes living all over the world, moving to Charleston in her 20s and coming out as a lesbian in her 40s. Her father was in the Air Force, and she discusses her experiences being the daughter of a mixed-race couple with a Guamanian father and a white mother. Educated at Vassar, she married twice. Although she had a gay uncle, “it just never occurred to me that being gay was an option,” she states. Married with one child, she met another woman with four children (two withs special needs) and their relationship began; the coming out process was “tortuous.” During it, she lost a relationship with her daughter, her parents, and her job due to its homophobic work environment. Quenga discusses how her experience differs from that of lesbians who never married men, noting her realization that heterosexuality did give her more power and status. She speaks of her obliviousness to LGBTQ people and issues before coming out and her limited awareness of the Charleston LGBTQ community. That changed once she met Lynn Dugan and began to attend functions organized by the Charleston Social Club, a local lesbian group that Dugan founded. She describes the pressure she feels to keep her personal and business lives separate, including on social media, while also observing how such mundane things as health care forms can be off-putting to LGBTQ people and express subtle discrimination. With the passage of time, she has become more vocal in order to demonstrate to others how misleading or stereotypical their assumptions about her can be, and she has found a shift in those around her, too. She and her wife have been accepted by their extended families, their children now have LGBTQ friends, and Quenga discusses how they keep her up to date with terminology and issues in the community. She mentions the rupture in the congregation of Old St. Andrews Episcopal Church over the ordination of a gay bishop, and ends the interview discussing racism and sexism in South Carolina, and how an inability to be fully free and out causes her to question staying in the state. Her advice for younger people, however, is to leave the state, achieve success not possible here, and then perhaps come back.

112. Interview with Andrew Becknell, March 31, 2019

Date:

2019-03-31

Description:

Andrew Becknell, sometimes known as Andrezia (pronouns: they/them, but also she/her) describes growing up in the Charleston area as a bigender or two-spirit person. They grew up in a conservative Catholic family, moving from West of the Ashley to Mount Pleasant. Becknell's parents divorced when they were young, and they became close to their mother, and has only recently begun to renew ties with their father. Becknell has Tourette's syndrome, misdiagnosed early on as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), leading to bad reactions to drugs and an unhappy year at Blessed Sacrament School. Later attending Wando High School, Becknell, who always sensed they were different, began experimenting with high heels and other forms of feminine attire, eliciting a range of both negative and positive reaction, the former from his family and the latter from a church youth group leader. Attending Trident Technical College, Becknell served as Vice President of Gay/Straight Alliance, which they helped found and later had both positive and negative experiences in a different work environments. Now working as a car-detailer, a job much enjoyed, Becknell discusses being out, "blending in," and also moving into "survival mode." Becknell mentions attending some Charleston Area Transgender Support (CATS) meetings, notes being more attracted to women, describes the impact of certain albums and musicians on them, declares that "The binary must die," and speaks of their attraction to Norse Polytheism. They also muse on the rigidity of the older generation, both straight and gay, in viewing of sex and gender roles, mentioning a lesbian "takeover" of the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), making the organization more accepting. Becknell also discusses work with a number of therapists, and how a gender therapist has been most helpful.

113. Interview with Robert Arrington, August 28, 2019

Date:

2019-08-28

Description:

Robert Arrington (pronouns: He/Him/His), Black reverend of the Unity Fellowship Church, the only affirming church for LGBTQ people of color in the Charleston, SC area, discusses his personal life, his spiritual growth, and troubles and issues with his church and the larger Charleston, SC community. A native of Harlem, NY, Arrington grew up in an abusive household and due to a misdiagnosis, was sent to schools for the mentally handicapped. "My childhood was just about survival," he notes. Being different, he was the subject of contempt by others and sought solace in religion and the church, where he was told he was gifted. After being sent to a rigorous all male Catholic School, and his father's murder in 1974, Arrington and his family moved to a rural area near Durham, NC, where he graduated high school. In college, he married a woman "to make everybody happy," but that did not work out, and, moving to Fayetteville, NC, he became involved in a party scene, contracted HIV and nearly died. Back in Durham, facing family issues, Arrington rejoined the church, started an AIDS ministry, and could not be ordained as a minister in the Missionary Baptist Church as a gay man but only as "a non-practicing homosexual." To preserve his integrity, he joined the Unity Fellowship Church movement, and had a congregation in Charlotte, NC. Arrington then gives a brief history of the denomination, noting how he moved to Rochester, NY before coming to Charleston in 2010 and setting up a Pentecostal type church service here. Arrington describes the growth and decline of his congregation, mentions an ex-husband, and speaks of the prejudice he has felt in Charleston directed against him as an African American, and specifically against him as a reverend in and out LGBTQ church. While loving the area, he comments on the resistance of "gatekeepers" to change, feeling that racism is "in the air." He comments favorably on many working to improve the LGBTQ and African American communities, but concludes that many with power and privilege are halting progress.

114. Interview with Jayson Gulick, September 13, 2019

Date:

2019-09-13

Description:

Jayson Gulick (pronouns: He/They) speaks of the challenges and satisfactions of his growing up, discovering his gender and sexual truths, and embracing both trans masculine and androgynous identities. Born in Wheaton, IL, into a Catholic family that faced prejudice from the Protestant majority, he moved with his family to Charleston when he was in the fifth grade. Having discovered and defined himself as trans by searching out information on the internet, he delayed coming out, feeling that the move to the Lowcountry would provide an appropriate opportunity. Experiences in public school and Catholic school convinced him to delay the announcement, however; he told his family just as a friend in Catholic school was denouncing Gulick for posing as a male on social media. Accepted by his parents and one sister, and rejected by another who had become fundamentalist, Gulick was out and visible at Wando High School, getting support from some staff but not others. He describes an attempt by the school to censor a student interview on the topic, noting how he and others posted it on YouTube instead. Gulick then describes his experiences at the College of Charleston, speaking of his good fortune of having previously legally changed his name, thus not having to experience being called by his dead name, as happened to some of his peers. He describes clandestine meetings of other trans students on campus (called T-Time) and some of their unwillingness and fear to have their identities known. Noting how therapy, top surgery, and association with We Are Family have been extremely beneficial, Gulick describes his connection with androgyny, his dislike of sexual assumptions about him by others, and how affirming participation in Charleston Pride events has been. Torn between being a teacher and a guidance counselor, he has decided on the latter, to help spare others from having to undergo experiences similar to his. Since South Carolina does not offer specific gender and sexual protections, he regrets that he may have to go elsewhere to fulfill that profession. The interview ends on a positive note with Gulick commenting that people just a few years younger than he are accepting on a broad array of gender and sexuality issues.

115. Interview with Cator Sparks, June 12, 2019

Date:

2019-06-12

Description:

Cator Sparks (pronouns: he/him), white board president of LGBTQ youth organization We Are Family, discusses his life as a gay man and his volunteer and professional work. He describes growing up in a liberal family in Atlanta, Georgia, and his difficulties and successes in high school. Sparks attended the College of Charleston in the early 1990s and speaks of coming out in Charleston into an exciting and accepting environment, then detailing his experiences in the rave scene. Along with rave venues, he describes gay bars including Treehouse, A.C.'s, and The Arcade. He discusses his volunteer work with neighborhood associations in the Cannonborough-Elliotborough neighborhood in Charleston and Harlem in New York City. Sparks performed in drag in Atlanta as Spectra Gramm, one of his performances during the Olympics being televised in France, where he soon went to study abroad. Back in Atlanta, he enrolled in American College, finishing his degree in fashion marketing in London. It was there he discovered dandyism, and he speaks of his conversion to it from rave fashion, defining what dandyism means to him, the effect it had on his life, and how it can educate others. He emphasizes how he values working with LGBTQ youth and his experiences volunteering with the Harvey Milk High School in New York City and with We Are Family in Charleston. Sparks describes the impact the 2016 Presidential election had on him, prompting his social action and recaps his professional life, including a description of working in Jeffrey, a high-end New York shoe store started by Jeffrey Kalinksy of Charleston, his freelance writing and his future plans of becoming a life coach. Photograph credited to Carolina Knopf.

116. Interview with Steven Willard, May 31, 2019

Date:

2019-05-31

Description:

Steven Willard (pronouns: He/Him), a white yoga and meditation teacher in Charleston, SC, speaks about his life and changes seen in society and in the LGBTQ community over the years. With a father in Vietnam when he was born, Willard and his family moved to North Charleston, SC when he was six. It was "small town, USA," and Willard attended church and public schools, where, knowing he was different, he found a friend who was also gay. As a teen, he worked in a record store in a mall and found comfort in seeing people he could identify as LGBTQ even as he sought further "validation" in movies, books and on television. He describes how he and his friend, with false IDs, attended bars such as the Garden and Gun Club and the Arcade, and the impact it had on them. While distanced from his father, he had a fairly good relationship with his mother; yet being discovered as gay as he finished high school at eighteen in 1986, led to his removal from his home. He moved to New York City where he felt safe for the first time. Mentored by an older gay man, he worked in a variety of jobs. Growing up in SC, he had had no access to positive information about gay life or AIDS prevention, and throughout the interview, Willard marvels at his luck at surviving the death and devastation around him. He returned to Charleston in 1993, left periodically, but came back. He found it necessary to be closeted working for the Department of Motor Vehicles, and coming out, experienced prejudice and harassment. He stood up to this, however, noting, "I might have been a fag, but I wasn't a punk." An interest in yoga lead him to teaching, and in the 1990s and afterwards, he witnessed a change in the city triggered by the empowerment from surviving AIDS. He noticed more gender fluidity in younger people and in himself in such places as the Treehouse bar. He gives a vivid description of the celebrations that occurred in Charleston when marriage equality was achieved, unfortunately, very close to the time that the massacre at Emanuel AME Church occurred. Throughout, he speaks of the loss of honesty, and face-to-face communication that social dating apps have brought about and then mentions the loss of LGBTQ spaces in the city, specifically describing Dudley's as a gathering spot for bridal parties. He regrets the lack of political involvement on social issues, such as abortion, among younger people, yet also believes that being LGBTQ "just living our lives is a form of activism." In reply to how being LGBTQ has influenced his life, Willard responds that, if not challenged as a minority and faced with prejudice, he could have become complacent. "Like women, people of color, LGBT, we all have to realize that we ?re in those cross hairs of these straight white Christian dudes, and we all have to fight together."

117. Interview with DeLesslin George-Warren, January 14, 2019

Date:

2019-01-14

Description:

DeLesslin George-Warren (pronouns: He/Him/They/Theirs) speaks of his life as a queer member of the Catawba Indian Nation and his work for social justice, through both direct action and performance art. The son of a white father, who worked in health care and later became a private consultant, and a Catawba mother, an attorney working with the tribe for federal recognition, he was called "Roo" from childhood on. Growing up in Rock Hill, SC, he felt a "dual consciousness" attending a conservative Christian school while being part of a very liberal family in which he was expected to find his own truths. He started volunteering at the cultural center on the Reservation in high school, but did not reclaim his Catawba heritage or come out as a gay man until he attended college, eventually realizing that? "liberation as a queer person is tied to the liberation of my community." At Vanderbilt University, he pursued musical studies and also worked to establish gender-neutral bathrooms on campus. From 2014 to 2017, in AmeriCorps, he lived in Washington, DC. In museums there, as a guide and cultural interpreter, he often took patrons by surprise, sometimes making them angry, when he gave more nuanced and truthful version of American history as it involved indigenous people; being pale and blue-eyed, he defies cultural stereotypes. With a grant from Running Strong for American Indian Youth, he returned to the Catawba Reservation in 2017 and became involved in projects reviving the Catawba language and focusing on food sustainability. In the interview, George-Warren speaks of being accepted in the Catawba community as a gay man, despite its affiliation with the? Church of the Latter Day Saints; describes the "briar patch" nature of Catawba family relationships; notes the historical matriarchy of the tribe; sums up the impact of the loss of federal tribal recognition and then regaining it; mentions a "strain of queerness" in Catawba history; and discusses his identity. He recalls a PRIDE march in Washington, DC, wherein he and others protested the sponsorship of corporations, some involved in actions on Indian lands; and expresses gratitude for being born queer, beyond the norm, to free himself from society's expectations. It's "liberating to be Catawba and also be queer," he believes. He perceives a need for solidarity in the LGBTQ community and notes, "I've seen more anti-Native sentiment in LGBT spaces than I have seen explicit anti-LGBT sentiment in my Catawba community."??

118. Interview with Dick Latham, January 16, 2019

Date:

2019-01-16

Description:

Dick (Richard) Latham (pronouns: He/Him) describes his childhood in Raleigh, North Carolina realizing he was gay and growing up in an accepting family. They moved to the more conservative Rock Hill, South Carolina when he was a teen. Latham attended the College of Charleston, where he was fully out, and a member of the Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity, as was a man he dated. He attended gay bars in downtown Charleston including Les Jardins, the Garden & Gun Club, and Streetcar, later Dudley’s, and he describes the class stratification within the gay community, elites attending the Battery Club, and there being a pecking order with drag queens and “redneck” cruisers at the bottom. Enrolling in a graduate program in early childhood education, Latham felt the need to be less open about his sexual orientation, due to working with children; he recalls a closeted gay principal refusing to hire him because he was a male. After graduation, he continued to work in early childhood education at the College of Charleston and later Trident Technical College. Latham describes a long-term relationship that ended in the death of his partner, the impact it had on his professional and personal life when the local press identified him as a teacher at the College of Charleston, and how the hospital staff would not at first communicate with him since he was not considered family. He discusses facing the issue of ageism in the LGBTQ community. He was present at the founding of the Lowcountry Gay & Lesbian Alliance (LGLA), and describes its struggles, its activities and his presidency in the early 2000s, recalling the debate within the group to be “out” or not and how highway signs crediting the LGBTQ group for picking up litter were constantly vandalized. Latham also worked with We Are Family, and compares the mission of LGLA with that of the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA). An Episcopalian, he discusses reconciling his faith with his sexuality, and homophobia at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul, compared to the openness of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. Latham also responds to questions on the AIDS crisis in Charleston, noting the silence around it, prejudice against people with HIV, the work of Joe Hall and AIDS service agencies and programs such as Dining with Friends, which made AIDS work acceptable since it centered on social events. He ends with his thoughts on the current LGBTQ issues, and describes his creation of Safe Space trainings at Trident Technical College. In reply to some critical reaction, he notes how he was treated as a gay college student, showing the need for such programs today.

119. Yulma López-López, Interview by Marina López, 9 August, 2019

Date:

2019-08-09

Description:

Yulma López-López (b. 1997) was born in Oaxaca, Mexico. When she was three years old, her parents decided to seek better luck in the United States and arrived to California where they worked as agricultural workers. Subsequently, the family moved to other states pursuing better employment opportunities until finally establishing themselves in North Charleston, South Carolina. López-López recalls her experiences at Midland Park Elementary and Charleston County School of the Arts and the teachers who helped her. She explains that she began to progressively understand her status as an undocumented immigrant and, therefore, the reasons why she could not access higher education in South Carolina. In 2016, thanks to a grant from The Dream.Us organization, she was accepted as a student at the University of Delaware. Along with other students, she is part of an organization that advocates for the rights of DACA students and seeks to persuade lawmakers in Washington of DACA students' rights. In the interview, López-López tells how she experiences the challenges of university life, including fear for her safety and that of her loved ones. Finally, she reflects on the limited information and support DACA eligible people and recipients have in the Lowcountry as well as the barriers to organizing politically. Yulma López-López (1997) nació en Oaxaca, México. Cuando tenía tres años, sus padres decidieron buscar mejor suerte en los Estados Unidos y llegaron a California donde se desempeñaron como trabajadores agrícolas. Posteriormente fueron mudándose a otros estados persiguiendo mejores oportunidades de empleo hasta que se establecieron definitivamente en North Charleston, Carolina del Sur. López-López recuerda sus vivencias en las escuelas Midland Park Elementary y Charleston County School of the Arts y a los maestros que la ayudaron. Explica cómo progresivamente fue entendiendo su condición de inmigrante indocumentada y las razones por las que no podía acceder a la educación superior en Carolina del Sur. En el año 2016, gracias a una beca de la organización The Dream.Us es aceptada como estudiante en la Universidad de Delaware. Junto con sus compañeros forma parte de una organización que defiende los derechos de los jóvenes DACA y busca persuadir a los legisladores en Washington. En la entrevista Lopez-Lopez cuenta como experimenta los desafíos de la vida universitaria, incluido el temor por su seguridad y la de sus seres queridos. Finalmente, reflexiona acerca de la limitada información y apoyo con que cuentan los jóvenes DACA en el Lowcountry como así también de las barreras que enfrentan para organizarse políticamente.

120. Karla Aguirre, Interview by Marina López, 31 May, 2019

Date:

2019-05-31

Description:

Karla Aguirre (b. 1995) was born in Mexico City, Mexico and lived there until she was six years old when her parents decided to immigrate to the United States. In the interview, Aguirre recalls her childhood in a neighborhood in the capital of Mexico, the journey to the United States and her impressions when she found herself for the first time in an unknown place surrounded by an unknown extended family. She explains that growing up in Johns Island was complex because she was part of two very different cultures: one of her classmates at the private school Charleston Collegiate, mostly middle-class whites, and the other, her working-class Mexican community. After finishing school, she participated in a workshop organized by United We Dream in Washington, DC. Then, she joined the organization as an activist and organizer. Aguirre talks about the barriers that dreamers face, including the high rate of mental health problems and the difficulty in accessing adequate services. She also reflects on the challenges of organizing politically, both in South Carolina and nationally, the positive and negative aspects of being an activist and organizer, and defends the right of undocumented youth to tell their own story and to define themselves. Finally, she points out that her dream is to resume her studies. Aguirre (1995) nació en la Ciudad de México, México y vivió allí hasta los seis años cuando sus padres decidieron emigrar a los Estados Unidos. En la entrevista, Aguirre recuerda su infancia en un barrio de la capital de México, la travesía hacia Estados Unidos y sus impresiones al encontrarse con una tierra y una familia extendida desconocidas. Explica que creció en Johns Island en un mundo muy complejo marcado por dos culturas completamente diferentes: la de sus compañeros en la escuela privada Charleston Collegiate, quienes en su mayoría eran blancos de clase media y la de su comunidad de origen mexicana y de clase trabajadora. Después de terminar la escuela, participó en un taller de la organización United We Dream para jóvenes DACA en Washington, DC y luego se unió a ellos como activista y organizadora. Aguirre habla acerca de algunas barreras que enfrentan los jóvenes soñadores, entre otros el alto índice de problemas de salud mental y la dificultad para acceder a servicios adecuados. También reflexiona acerca de desafíos para organizarse políticamente tanto en Carolina del Sur como nacionalmente, los aspectos positivos y negativos de su trabajo como organizadora y defiende el derecho de los jóvenes indocumentados a contar su propia historia y a definirse a sí mismos. Finalmente, señala que su sueño es retomar sus estudios universitarios.

121. Marcela Ortega, Interview by Marina López, 31 May, 2019

Date:

2019-05-31

Description:

Marcela Ortega was born in a rural area of the state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico. When she was nine years old, her family moved to Tampico, Tamaulipas. In 1989, she decided to immigrate to the United States to build a more prosperous future for the son she was pregnant with. Ortega and her husband arrived to Johns Island, South Carolina to work in a store that sold beverages to migrant workers. Shortly after, Ortega began cooking and selling food to the agricultural workers in Johns Island fields and surrounding areas. In the early nineties, responding to the growing community's needs she established El Mercadito, the first Hispanic store on Johns Island. Later, she opened La Huasteca, a Mexican restaurant. In the interview, Ortega describes Johns Island at the end of the eighties and in the nineties and reflects on the changes she has witnessed. Finally, she remembers participating in numerous cultural events as a dancer and takes pride in the fact that her story has been featured in the local newspaper, the Post and Courier. Marcela Ortega nació y vivió hasta los nueve años en una zona rural del estado de San Luis Potosí, México y luego se mudó junto a su familia a la ciudad de Tampico en el estado de Tamaulipas. En el año 1989 decidió emigrar a los Estados Unidos para construir un futuro más próspero para el hijo que estaba esperando. Junto a su esposo se estableció en Johns Island y comenzó a trabajar en una tienda que vendía bebidas y algunos otros productos a los trabajadores migrantes que llegaban a la isla en la época de la cosecha. Poco después, Ortega comenzó a vender comida en los campos no sólo de la isla, sino de poblaciones aledañas. A principios de los noventa, respondiendo a la necesidad de la comunidad que comenzaba a crecer, estableció El Mercadito, el primer negocio de venta de productos hispanos en Johns Island. Posteriormente también abriría un restaurante llamado La Huasteca. En la entrevista, Ortega recuerda la vida en Johns Island al final de la década de los ochenta y los noventa y reflexiona acerca de los cambios que ella ha observado. Finalmente, cuenta que participó bailando en numerosos eventos culturales y que se enorgullece de que su historia haya sido contada en el periódico local Post and Courier.

122. Interview with Chase Glenn, September 19, 2019

Date:

2019-09-19

Description:

Chase Glenn (pronouns: He/Him/His), white executive director of the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), speaks about himself and his family, his life impacted by a growing awareness of the LGBTQ community and its issues, his transition, and his professional development that took him from church work to his current position. Growing up in Mt. Vernon, IL, an insular, small and rural community into a loving and giving Southern Baptist family, Glenn was "pretty naive to the world growing up." While he "felt like the other," he "didn't have the words or the real understanding" of his identity. In a world where "heterosexual sex was bad, then gay sex was not just not on the table at all," he did not have a frame of reference or knowledge about gay or trans people. Not until attending Belmont University in Nashville, TN did Glenn know gay people and there it was a shock to be told that women could never be ministers in the Southern Baptist denomination, despite Glenn's life-long "call" to the ministry. Never "feeling fully a girl," Glenn began a relationship with another woman, that being the "path of least resistance" and worked in churches. When outed as a lesbian at work in a church in Florida, Glenn was given the option to stop living that way or be fired. That prompted a 2006 move to Charleston, SC, where Glenn maintained a relationship with a lesbian, was married, came out successfully to his family, and worked for the Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church. After seven years he began to work for Blackbaud, and his awareness grew as to his true identity. His relationship ended; he discusses some of the lesbian and other bars in Charleston he attended, as he openly pursued his transition, sharing it online and on his dating profiles. He met a woman whom he married and now the couple has a son through invitro fertilization. Glenn discusses his fears of being an appropriate father and recalls his growing involvement in the LGBTQ community, doing the design and layout for the first Pride programs, serving on its board, that of AFFA, and working for SC Equality and the Trans Action Committee. Having gotten a master's degree in counseling and experiencing again the call to advocate for, and work with, people, Glenn, after discussions with his wife, left the safety of his corporate job to become the director of the non-profit AFFA. He describes the directions in which he took the organization, details the complexities of the community needs assessment survey AFFA and its partners undertook, discusses some of the results, talks about how race and racism affect the community and how society affords him "white male straight privilege" because of his appearance.

123. Interview with TZiPi Radonsky, July 15, 2019

Date:

2019-07-15

Description:

TZiPi Radondsky (pronouns: She/Her) speaks of her life and its many changes, her search for spiritual enlightenment and her work for a better world. Born into an "ortho-conservative" Jewish family in Boston, she grew up committed to Judaism, but cut herself off from it as a young woman. She attended college, got pregnant, married, and had two daughters. Her husband, a Catholic who converted to Judaism, joined her father in the women's sportswear business. When unionization prompted the transfer of the business to South Carolina, the family moved to Aiken, SC. She divorced, and began a friendship with a woman in Aiken, soon realizing it was love. She and her new partner were part of a closeted group of women in the area, and Radonsky felt frustrated that no one aided her in her pursuit to understand her evolving self. She attended a gay bar in Augusta, GA, began taking courses and was bat mitzvahed as an adult in Aiken. She "wasn't butch enough to be considered lesbian" and differed from most of her friends in having had children. Moving to Gainesville, FL, was "just like I walked into heaven," she notes. It was a liberating experience as she received a master's degree in occupational therapy, ran a women's bookstore and center, and lived in a women's only community. She then moved to Charleston, SC to work from 1984 to 1987 at the Medical University of South Carolina, where again, she found the community closeted. In Greensboro, NC, where she went to complete her PhD, she found a much more open community, wrote her dissertation on lesbians coming out, became a counselor, and began to reconnect with Judaism as she explored other spiritual avenues. A retreat in Taos, NM, prompted her to travel the world through the Servas International Program. As an out lesbian, she had positive, negative and neutral experiences. Mentioning Wicca, Gaia, and Native American religious traditions, Radonsky was ordained as a Rabbi in the Renewal Judaism movement by Mordechai Gafni, a charismatic leader who later lost his position due to claims of sexual misconduct. To take care of her aging parents, Radonsky moved to West Palm Beach, FL, despite her recovered memory of sexual abuse by her father. There she became friends with the early lesbian rights activists Connie Kurtz and Ruthie Berman. After her parents' death, Radonsky relocated to Beaufort, SC, to be near one of her daughters. She speaks of the conservative nature of the area, her work with the Unitarian Universalist Church, the lack of acceptance of her rabbinical degree by the Jewish community and her outspoken support of many causes and issues. She mentions marching with a daughter in Columbia, SC (at the first Pride March), and with her other daughter in Greensboro, NC; her two long-term relationships; and events she helped organize, including a Beaufort gathering to mark the shooting at the Pulse Nightclub and the first Pride March held in Bluffton, SC. She closes by noting that the LGBTQ community has much to offer society at large, and she will continue dedicating her life to total inclusivity.????

124. Interview with Samuel Cooper, July 9, 2021

Date:

2019-07-26

Description:

Samuel Cooper (pronouns: He/His) discusses his upbringing, life history and beliefs, focusing often on the topic of being a gay African American man of faith. When his father, minister of Centenary Methodist Church, Charleston, SC, joined the military to become a chaplain, Cooper and his family began a peripatetic life that took them to various bases in this country and in Germany. Knowing early he was gay, seeing his homosexuality as a "gift," Cooper nevertheless suppressed it, eventually coming out to his family who accepted him, partially, he believes, due to his father having had counseled many LGBTQ men and women in the military. He notes both the benefits and liabilities of being Black and of being gay and describes an episode of crisis at Clemson University. A homophobic comment by a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes prompted him to leave that group, come out, join, and become an officer of Clemson's LGBTQ organization, the Lambda Society. He faced near dismissal from Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law for being an advocate of LGBTQ visibility, and later in the interview he discusses the impacts racial prejudice, both Black and white, and homophobia, can have on clients he represents as a personal injury attorney. In his return to South Carolina working briefly in the Fourth Circuit Solicitor's office, he traveled the state; Cooper, throughout the interview, gives many details of various bars in Columbia, Myrtle Beach and Charleston, describing their appearance and layout and the groups attending them. Once relocated permanently to Charleston, SC, he attended the Metropolitan Community Church and its off shoot, Open Door. He discusses his relationship with his husband, Stavely Edgar, recounts some failed homophobic attacks against him, and notes little or no pushback against Edgar and himself as an interracial couple. He speaks of his religious faith, the Black church, his opinion of historically black colleges possibly limiting experiences for their students, and the threats menacing minorities and democracy due to the presidency of Donald J. Trump.

125. Interview with Melissa Moore, February 19, 2019

Date:

2019-02-19

Description:

Melissa Moore (pronouns: They/Them) discusses their personal life and the various roles they played in numerous social causes and organizations, many being LGBTQ related. Born in Mt. Pleasant, SC, they identified as male, and, denied that self-expression, Moore details the impact it had on their school years and the numbing escape made possible by drugs and alcohol. In passing Moore also describes a run-in with religious demands at Vacation Bible School, and being exposed to, and fascinated by, female impersonators at an early age. At the College of Charleston, Moore joined such groups as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance, and the Women’s Forum, engaging intellectually and socially with new people and ideas. Coming to see that societal norms aid in controlling conformity and denying diversity, Moore was strongly affected by a billboard supporting LGBTQ rights put up by the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA). That prompted them to begin volunteering, and eventually working, for AFFA under the direction of Warren Redman-Gress. Moore later went on to work with Linda Ketner and SC Equality to attempt to defeat the movement within the state of South Carolina to define marriage as between a man and a woman. That was unsuccessful. In the process, Moore came into contact with other organizations such as Southerners on New Ground and worked with activists including Mandy Carter and others, creating opportunities to learn grass root organizing skills and to work with groups like Africa House in Orangeburg, SC. Moore notes the reluctance or refusal of national and other LGBTQ organizations to fund work in the South, assuming it “unwinnable” and also speaks to the lack of funding for social service agencies in lieu of political ones. Working with the Abortion Access Project, later called Provide, gave Moore further experience and they eventually became director of We Are Family, an organization in Charleston for LGBTQ youth. Moore details how under their management and planning the organization and its programs grew. They describe the plan to fund the organization through the creation of a thrift store and Moore notes how three LGBTQ organizations in town, Charleston Pride, AFFA and We Are Family recently moved to the same building in North Charleston. After touching on subjects like transphobia, the new management of We Are Family, and naming many people in the field they admire, Moore finishes the interview describing their new position with the city of Mount Pleasant, working on sustainable and equitable city planning.

126. Interview with Jamie Nadeau, May 8, 2019

Date:

2019-05-08

Description:

Jamie Nadeau (pronouns: She/Her/Hers) describes her journey to self-realization as a lesbian trans woman and a successful business owner of a hand-press greeting card printing company in Charleston, South Carolina. Born in Nashville, Tennessee into a religious Church of Christ family, Nadeau attended religious schools. Her father, a member of the Potawatomi Nation, and her mother divorced when she was young, and she speaks of trying to reclaim and learn more about her native American heritage. Born intersex, Nadeau retains early childhood hospital memories and speaks of her conservative upbringing where LGBTQ people were seen as “cultural oddities” and trans people were thought “horrific monsters.” Trying to imagine herself as a lesbian in that conservative environment “broke my brain,” and she had to go through the “impostor syndrome” before claiming and becoming comfortable as her true self. Embracing technology and computers long before they were commonplace, she was a young hacker and researched gender identities in cyberspace when others perhaps were still using libraries. She attended Middle Tennessee State University for a year, where and when she first began to explore her identity; she then studied at, and received her degree from, the Savannah College of Art and Design. After her mother’s death, Nadeau vowed she would never wear men’s clothes again and began seeing a gender therapist. She quickly began sharing her status with friends, family and her wife Allison, meeting wholehearted support from the latter, and a variety of responses from others. Nadeau speaks to the various levels of acceptance from the religious community, and from her biological and chosen families. She speaks at length of her experiences in coming out, noting how “soul crushing” being “misgendered” in public can be, and praises the Charleston trans women’s community for being so accepting and supportive, affirming the importance of support groups and loyal friends. Nadeau also describes how she and her wife, Allison, friends since childhood, followed their fascination with printing and design and left their professions to become proprietors of their greeting card company, Ink Meets Paper. There is a brief discussion focusing on Charleston being a safer space for LGBTQ people than other areas of the Deep South, and in response to the interviewer, Nadeau suggest that LGBTQ people should not necessarily focus on otherness, but see the world as she does, a place of countless, diverse narratives, where people are to be encouraged for finding their own way and lauded for their strength in “occupying space” in a world of proscriptions and possiblities.

127. Interview with Emily Boyter, March 16, 2019

Date:

2019-03-16

Description:

Emily Anne Boyter (pronouns: She/Hers) discusses her life as the daughter of missionaries, her religious upbringing and experiences with religion, coming out as a lesbian, reconciling “Christianity and queerness,” and many positive new experiences opening to her. She describes being born in Greenville, South Carolina, and being raised in Mexico City where her parents worked as Evangelical Christian missionaries, spending brief periods in the states. She left Mexico and attended college at, and graduated from, Liberty University, a private evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia. There, the strongly insular quality she experienced in the missionary world, continued, and many felt a great loyalty to the school and its President, Jerry Falwell, Jr. Identifying as straight during her time there, she nevertheless was aware of a “strong culture of homophobia at Liberty,” where close friendships could lead to questions about one’s sexuality and where being gay could lead to expulsion. In graduate school at Clemson University, Boyter began to meet, and form friendships with LGBTQ people, feeling on “friendly ground” for the first time in her life, among people who were unbothered by another’s sexual orientation or identity. Being in this open and accepting environment, Boyter began to come to terms with being “queer,” a word she embraces for its inclusiveness. Coming out in her religious community at Clemson was not a positive experience, so she eventually left her church. In the interview, she wonders if others would see her as a “Christian” at all, she having now found comfort in a feminine spirituality versus the strong paternalistic nature of many churches and religions. She recalls how many men in her religious milieu would weigh her (and other women’s) characteristics and traits, to determine if they would make good wives of ministers. After coming out to her family and on social media, finding support from some, but dismay and rejection from others, including a man who had been viewing her as a possible wife, Boyter is now in a committed relationship with another woman and they are considering marriage. Despite the difficulties faced by LGBTQ people in the upstate region where they live, Boyter, a resident of Easley, and her girlfriend feel rooted in the area, yet she expresses some misgivings at the possibility of raising children there. Her work at the Tri-County Technical College is rewarding; being “out,” she can serve as a mentor and a role model for LGBTQ students and others.

128. Megan Smith, Interview by Samantha O'Connor and Kolt Robins, 16 April 2019

Date:

2019-04-16

Description:

Megan Smith discusses her experiences as an Irish American in the South. Her paternal grandmother and grandfather immigrated to Holyoke, Massachusetts in the early 1880s. Her maternal grandparents are from Kerry, specifically the Annascaul area. Megan explains that her family in the Boston area owned a blacksmith company and provided services for much of the city. Her other grandparents lived in northern New York and owned a grocery story in Massena, New York. Her father was in the Navy and was responsible for their move to Charleston. Megan is a teacher, and is very involved in the Irish music scene in Charleston.

129. Melanie McMillan DeHaven, Interview by Brad DeHaven, Ashley Brantner, and Connnor Corcora, 17 April 2019

Date:

2019-04-17

Description:

Melanie McMillan DeHaven (b.1966) was born in Newtownards, Northern Ireland, during the time of the Troubles. Melanie lived in Newtonards until she was eight years old and still has family there today. She discusses her experience with emigration at a young age, and what the Northern Irish identity means to her. Violence during the Troubles had a personal impact on her family, and was a driving force in their emigration to America during the 1960's and 1970's, which she discusses in depth.

130. Cormac O'Duffy, Interview by Jacob Fiato and Victoria Moriarty, 22 April 2019

Date:

2019-04-22

Description:

Cormac O?Duffy (b. 1950) shares his experience of being born in America, but being raised in Dublin. Cormac?s father was a well-known singer in Ireland, which provided opportunities for Cormac such as meeting De Valera. Cormac O?Duffy was raised to love music and spends his time writing music. He discusses pursuing higher education degrees in Ireland and coming to America for teaching opportunities. He also discusses key differences in life in America and Ireland.

131. Roseanne Keeley Wray, Interview by Jack Kramer and Sydney Heslin, 16 April 2019

Date:

2019-04-16

Description:

Roseanne Keeley Wray?s parents immigrated to America as a couple in 1926. Prior to her parents moving together to the Bronx. Roseanne shares the experience her mother had with coming to Oklahoma as a single woman. Roseanne offers a wealth of knowledge of both life in Ireland as well as the life of an Irish individual living in America. She shares memories of living in the Bronx as a child and housing young, single Irish immigrants in her family home. She shares stories that her parents would share with her siblings during childhood that told them stories of life in Ireland. To this day, Roseanne?s family still owns a family farm in Ireland, which Roseanne plans on leaving to her children and grandchildren.

132. Brendan Dagg, Interview by Sarah Davis, 8 November 2019

Date:

2019-11-08

Description:

Brendan Dagg (b. 1981) describes his experience as an Irish immigrant living in Charleston. Brendan grew up in Tullamore, County Offlay. His parents owned a local grocery store in the community, and he describes his upbringing as ?typical Irish,? and very positive. He emigrated to the United States in 2011, after marrying his wife, who is American, and immediately settled in Charleston. The transition to living in the U.S. was ?fairly challenging? at first but got easier once the decision was made to make things permanent. Brendan comments that the only thing he really misses about Ireland is the relationships with family and being able to be a part of certain milestones, which is why he and his wife bring their two children over to visit with extended family as often as they can. Brendan is very involved with sports and is a part of the hurling team here in Charleston.

133. Brett Wadford, Interview by Derrick Hall, Ashton Howey, and Erin Donnelly, 15 April 2019

Date:

2019-04-15

Description:

Brett Wadford was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina and has lived in Charleston for the past ten years. Brett?s family immigrated to America around 1787 and came from Antrim, Northern Ireland. Brad?s family has a history of Protestant beliefs and he has ancestors buried in a Presbyterian cemetery in the upstate. He has been involved with the Gaelic Athletic Association in order to connect with his Irish background.

134. Edith, Interview by Marina López, 13 August, 2019

Date:

2019-08-13

Description:

Edith (b. 1967) was born in Mendoza, Argentina and lived there until 2001 when, like thousands of compatriots affected by the economic crisis, she decided to leave the country. She arrived to the United States with the help of good friends who were in South Carolina. She came with only her three children and the hope of a better life. She settled in North Charleston where has resided since then. In the interview, Edith tells about the process of learning to function in a strange community, how she was able to put an end to the abusive relationship she had with her children's father and how she learned to survive and thrive as a single mother. She discusses the different jobs she held and her family's strategies to get ahead. She is grateful and proud of her children. Finally, Edith reflects on the evolution of local organizations in which immigrants congregate and advocate for their rights. Edith (1967) nació en Mendoza, Argentina donde vivió hasta el año 2001 cuando al igual que miles de compatriotas afectados por la crisis económica decidió dejar el país. Llegó a Estados Unidos con la ayuda de unos amigos que estaban en Carolina del Sur. Solo traía a sus tres hijos y la esperanza de una vida mejor. Se estableció en North Charleston donde ha residido desde entonces. En la entrevista Edith cuenta acerca del proceso de aprender a desenvolverse en una comunidad extraña, como pudo terminar la relación abusiva que vivía con el padre de sus hijos y como aprendió a sobrevivir y prosperar como madre sola. Cuenta acerca de los diferentes trabajos que ha realizado y las estrategias de su familia para salir adelante. Se manifiesta agradecida y orgullosa de sus hijos. Finalmente, Edith reflexiona acerca de la evolución de las organizaciones locales en las que los inmigrantes se congregan y abogan por sus derechos.

135. Interview with William (Cubby) Wilder

Date:

14/02/2019

Description:

Bill "Cubby" Wilder was born in Charleston in 1940 and perhaps more than anyone else, has championed the revitalization of Mosquito Beach and has safeguarded its history. As a child, people called the area "The Factory" for the old oyster factory that was located there. His father, mother and aunt all worked at the factory. Mr. Wilder also recounts how Joe "Kingpin" Chavis had a store where he would sell seafood and other items to beach visitors. Wilder also explains some of the connections between various families like the Lafayette's and Wilders and talks of how his uncle Apple Wilder built the Harborview Pavilion in 1953 and how other clubs and businesses followed suit. Hurricane Gracie in 1959 did a great deal of damage and destroyed the first pavilion. Mr. Wilder talks about the popularity of Mosquito Beach in context with other poplar Black entertainment spots and how people were drawn here from a large geographic area. He talks about the long journey to Atlantic Beach. He describes the dating scene as the "bird and the bees" and relates his memories of moonshine and bootlegging in the area. Wilder talks too about how Mosquito Beach was a safe haven during segregation and recounts that the Pine Tree hotel was open from 1962 to 1989 when it was wrecked by Hurricane Hugo. He also discusses the recent past and the future for Mosquito Beach.

136. Interview with Richard Brown

Date:

14/04/2019

Description:

Richard Brown is native to Sol Legare and was born "just off of Mosquito Beach" in 1953. Mr. Brown's family farmed and they sold their produce in the Market in downtown Charleston. He took a three minute walk from his house to Mosquito Beach on the weekends with friends. He described the different experiences for children, teens and adults- saying that elders told kids to "stay with your equals." He recounts starting work in the oyster business with Irving Singleton when he was aged six or seven. He collected and shucked around 16-18 bushels of oyster a day from Kings Flats. He details the harvesting process and how the Sol Legare area historically had an abundance of seafood and fresh produce. He talks too about the hard work and self-sufficiency of the residents and their strict parenting techniques. He also relates stories about Joe Chavis and his wife Middie.

137. Interview with William Saunders

Date:

10/06/2019

Description:

"Bill" Saunders was born in New York City in 1935 but was raised on John's Island by his mother's family. He talks about the inter-connectedness and self-sufficiency of the Sea Islands, particularly John Island, James Inland and Wadmalaw Island. He talks about the importance of Mosquito Beach to the African American community. He recognizes the work of Bill "Cubby" Wilder and Laura and Andrew "Apple" Wilder in particular for the successes of Mosquito Beach. He says of Mosquito Beach, "...that's the place I was free." He reminisces about his lifetime of work in the struggle for human rights, including the Charleston Hospital Strike, and earlier violent racist episodes on Johns Island. Finally, Mr. Saunders recounts some experiences from his days with WPAL radio and he talks a bit about the music scene at Mosquito Beach.

138. Interview with Russell Roper

Date:

14/02/2019

Description:

Russell Roper was born in 1943 in Charleston, SC. and in this interview he describes his memories of Mosquito Beach beginning in the 1950s. He relates that he and friends would enjoy the water, dance in the pavilion, swim, etc. There were boat races on Sundays and various clubs to visit like Uncle Jimmy's Club and Jack Walkers Club. Mr. Roper shares his memories of the segregation at Folly Beach and recounts an experience of being part of a group of young black men who went to Folly Beach one afternoon to cool off by the ocean until they were confronted by an angry group of white men. Andrew "Apple" Wilder was his uncle and Russell talks about his hotel, the Pine Tree Hotel where Russell worked on occasion. Mr. Roper also worked doing parking, operating bumper cars and operating a photo booth on Mosquito Beach. He tells of entertainers Bob Nichols, Honest John, John Ford and Shake-A-Plenty.

139. Interview with Cassandra Roper

Date:

14/02/2019

Description:

Cassandra Roper was born on Sol Legare in 1945, the daughter of Laura Wilder and step-daughter of Apple Wilder. In this interview, Ms. Roper recounts how, as a child, she and her cousins came to Mosquito Beach on Sundays after church and chores. She describes the boardwalk, the pavilion and the hotel, all run by her mother and stepfather. Like many people from the area, Ms. Roper went to live in New York City, returning to the realities of Jim Crow segregation at school and other places when she was about 13 years old. Ms. Roper recounts that Folly Beach was off-limits to African Americans except for work. She remembers the large crowds at Mosquito Beach and how it was an oasis from daily realities and how it functioned as a place for music and as a dating scene.

140. Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral history interview with Lisa Collis Cohen

Date:

2019-06-11

Description:

Lisa Collis Cohen, in the second half of a two-part interview, talks about her nursing career at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where she worked in obstetrics and gynecology, and at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, where she says, "I found my home on the cardiothoracic service." In 1996, she retired to take care of her family, which consisted of her husband, Sherman Cohen of Atlanta, and her young children, Michael and Meredith. Lisa and Sherman are founding members of Congregation Or Hadash in Atlanta. The interviewee describes the Conservative congregation's break from Ahavath Achim Synagogue in 2003; their spiritual leaders, Rabbis Analia Bortz and her husband, Mario Karpuj; and their synagogue, which was created through the "adaptive reuse" of a Chevy dealership's auto repair shop. The Cohen children attended Jewish day school, and, for that reason, Lisa feels, "it's been a lot easier for them to be Jewish" than it was for her. Contrasting her children's constant exposure to other Jewish Atlantans with her own childhood in the small rural town of Kingstree, South Carolina, where there were few Jewish residents, Lisa thinks her children take Judaism for granted more than she did. Lisa's parents kept kosher in their Kingstree home, but not outside the house. About her mother, Jennie Goldberg Collis, Lisa says, keeping a kosher home "was the one thing she did that would still cement her Jewish identity." Lisa believes it's important to give your offspring an identity and hopes Michael and Meredith will incorporate Judaism into their homes in some way. She explains why she is proud to be a Jewish southerner and offers her thoughts on the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments. She honors her family's past, stating, "I'm really proud of the fact that I am keeping the ideals that my grandparents risked their lives for to come over to this country." Lisa has not experienced antisemitism as an adult, nor did she as a child in Kingstree, recalling that she and her Christian friends were respectful of each other's religious traditions. She remembers one headmaster of her private school in Kingstree as a bigot who "espoused a lot of commentary about Hitler and the Nazi party." When her parents brought it to the attention of the board, he was fired. That single instance of intolerance from her childhood contrasts sharply with her current outlook: "I think in the last few years I have personally felt like there is more of a mandate that supports hate in this country across all borders... I think this is the first time in my life, as an American Jewish citizen, that I really feel like we are facing a credible threat to what everybody knows as their... way of life." Other topics covered in this interview include how the Collises celebrated the holidays when Lisa was young and how Lisa and her husband celebrate now; the impact the Holocaust had on her family; Lisa and Sherman's support for Israel; Lisa's observations of the Jews of Atlanta; and Lisa's connection to Marian Birlant Slotin?now deceased?of Charleston. Note: transcript includes comments and corrections made by interviewee during proofing. See Mss 1035-549 for part one of this interview. For a related collection, see the Collis family papers, Special Collections, Addlestone Library, College of Charleston.

141. Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral history interview with Evaline E. Kalisky Delson

Date:

2019--02-07

Description:

Evaline Kalisky Delson relays her mother’s experiences as a Holocaust survivor. Dientje Krant, born in Bussum, Holland, in 1938, spent part of her early childhood in hiding during World War II. After the war, she rejoined her parents, who themselves were hidden by Dutch families. Dientje, anxious to escape her parents’ strict rules, left home right after graduating from high school and was hired to work on an ocean liner docked in Germany. There she met Evaline’s father, Leonard Kalisky, a Kingstree, South Carolina, native, who was stationed at a U.S. military base. They raised their three children in Isle of Palms, South Carolina, and then Holland, before returning to South Carolina. Evaline describes her childhood and the difficulties that arose from Dientje’s struggles with mental illness and memories of wartime traumas. She talks about how she copes with the residual effects of the challenges she faced growing up and expresses concern for the lack of progress made by mankind. “I don’t think we really learned from these tragedies. . . . I did not think in my lifetime that I would have to stand up like we do for gay rights, for women’s rights, for Jews, for Muslims, to have to have a march because a mosque is being bombed. . . . I thought we would grow. So to hear these stories and to see what’s going on right now in the world, it’s hard because a lot of my family died in vain.” Evaline feels that “it is our obligation, as this direct link to this atrocity, to stand up for these atrocities that are occurring now.” This is one of a number of interviews conducted by Ph.D. candidate Lucas Wilson for his dissertation, “The Structures of Postmemory: Portraits of Survivor-Family Homes in Second-Generation Holocaust Literature.” Wilson was awarded two Charleston Research Fellowships (May 2017, February 2019) by the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture at the College of Charleston. Note: Dientje Krant Kalisky Adkins’ oral history, Mss. 1035-145, is online at the Lowcountry Digital Library.

142. Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral history interview with Sandra Brett

Date:

2019-02-04

Description:

Sandra Brett outlines her parents’ experiences during World War II. She responds to questions about her awareness of and reaction to her parents’ wartime stories, and how they have impacted her life. Raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, she describes home life for herself and an older brother and sister, saying they had a “pretty normal upbringing.” She notes that she was never interested in the Holocaust until she visited Theresienstadt, in the Czech Republic, about fifteen years ago, and was captivated by the children’s artwork she saw there. An artist herself, Sandra has worked with the Charleston Jewish Community Center and Jewish Federation of Charleston to teach Holocaust history through art, but not out of a sense of honoring her parents or the need to fulfill a mission of remembrance. She gives no more importance to her parents’ stories than to any other survivor, pointing to the large number of atrocities, past and present, worldwide. “I have trouble dissociating that horror from all the other horrors.” She adds, “I think my parents’ story is more important than any reaction that I have to it.” This is one of a number of interviews conducted by Ph.D. candidate Lucas Wilson for his dissertation, “The Structures of Postmemory: Portraits of Survivor-Family Homes in Second-Generation Holocaust Literature.” Wilson was awarded two Charleston Research Fellowships (May 2017, February 2019) by the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture at the College of Charleston.

143. Oral History Interview with Hal Coste

Date:

2019-01-22

Description:

Louis Coste, Hal's third great-grandfather, arrived as a Huguenot immigrant from Montpelier, France, in the late 18th century and became a naturalized citizen in 1808. He and his wife, Lucinda Mackey, had three sons, among them Napoleon L. Coste, who went on to have a long and adventurous career in the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service. That included expeditions with naturalist James Audubon, and the placement of many of the lighthouses and other aids to navigation along the east coast. His most famous deed was at the outbreak of the Civil War when Coste commandeered the revenue cutter, William Aiken, and turned it over to the state of South Carolina. Hal recounts other significant events in the life of N.L. Coste, as well as his son, Napoleon Edward, who also served the Confederacy and later the Revenue Cutter Service. Hal next recounts his memories of his grandfather, Vincent O. Coste, who served in the U.S. Lifesaving Service, which joined with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 to form the U.S. Coast Guard. Vincent later commanded the Coast Guard station on Sullivan's Island. Hal next speaks of the lives of his mother and father, before detailing his own time on the island. These include his mayonnaise meal in kindergarten, his learning to swim in the creek behind the island, and especially his passion for surfing. Before ending with his general feelings regarding changes that have occurred on Sullivan's Island, Hal explains and displays the two silver life-saving medals from the Coast Guard that hang on his walls, one for Hal's own actions and one for the incredible story of his great-uncle, James Coste, who in 1898 saved a young man who would turn out to be the grandfather of Charleston's long time mayor, Joe Riley.

144. Oral History Interview with Rosamond Lawson

Date:

2019-01-11

Description:

The story of Rosamond Lawson's family connection with Sullivan's Island is the story of houses. Her great-great grandfather, German immigrant Charles Otto Witte, bought the first house at Station 18 in the late 1860's. That house ultimately burned, but a second house at Station 11, built in 1868, was bought in 1910 and remained in the family until 2018. Having moved from Charleston to Virginia when she was six, many of Rosamond's early memories are of summer visits. However, in 1994 she moved back to this area and spent many more years in the house with her own growing family. Summertime memories in the early years included crabbing, fishing, playing kickball, and entertaining Charleston friends. She learned to drive on the dirt road that ran along the back of the island. Rosamond recalls all the front beach homes being summer residences. Few people lived on Sullivan's Island year round, and those were not on front beach. Most houses, including her own, had neither heating nor air conditioning. On the rare visit to the island in the winter, the place was nearly deserted. There was a vegetable man who would come over every few days to deliver fresh produce. Rosamond recounts the few businesses that existed in those days. Playing hide and seek in the old batteries and Fort Moultrie before it became a National Park are all fond memories. Rosamond describes the typical summer thunderstorm and experiencing that in the old house. She also shows the damage done by Hurricane Hugo. Rosamond is also part of the Waring family. That includes Judge Waties Waring whose controversial decision became part of the famous Brown vs. Board of Education case leading to his ostracization and eventual move from Charleston to New York. Finally, Rosamond discusses her favorite memories as well as all the changes she has seen in the area over the past twenty-five years.

145. Oral History Interview with Ruth Schirmer DeHaven

Date:

2019-05-11

Description:

At one time there were so many Schirmers living on Sullivan's Island that the area around Station 19 and the Coast Guard Station earned the nickname, 'Schirmerville.' Ruth DeHaven is a member of that family that can trace its connection with the island back to the marriage of John Elias Schirmer to Helena Sass around 1800. Ruth's father as a young man would canoe to the island with his friends to spend time at a house called the 'Helluvajoint.' As a child, Ruth and her family would pack as many as eight or nine people into their car and as soon as school was out in the spring, drive to Sullivan's Island where they would stay until school started in the fall. Ruth goes on to detail many of the summertime activities she and her family engaged in, including fishing and crabbing on the rocks (jetties), shrimping in the creek, and swimming. After supper the adults usually turned to card games, often joined by 'Vincie' Coste, head of the Coast Guard Station. Other memories revolved around the Coast Guard including the bells that marked the hours, rescues of those in distress, and watching practices with breeches buoys. When the red hurricane flags went up, everyone plus dogs, chickens and goats loaded up the car and headed for Charleston. Ruth also covers relations with Ft. Moultrie, tensions during World War II, internment of German-Americans, disputes over which chickens laid which eggs, and lemon meringue pies. Her family was also close by when a runaway ship hit the Grace Memorial Bridge sending a car with five passengers to their death in 1946. The interview closes with Ruth's impression of the changes that have occurred on the island.

146. Colleen Condon, Interview by Emma Chamberlain and Nate Roberts, 17 April 2018

Date:

4/17/2018

Description:

Colleen Condon (b. 1970) describes her upbringing in an Irish-American family in Charleston. Her family came to the States from County Cork during the time of the Famine, first landing in a northern city before coming to Charleston, which she remarks is most likely due to the similarities between Charleston and County Cork. Her great-great-grandfather started Condon’s department store in Charleston in 1899, which was family owned until closing in 1984. She discusses what it was like growing up in a large but very close-knit family with lots of ties to the community. She feels that issues of prejudice and discrimination against Irish Catholics in particular is something that has decreased through the generations, and that the Irish Catholics have become more integrated with the wider community as the years have passed, that Irish identity has “mesh[e]d really well” with Southern identity in Charleston. As to the difference between Charleston and other southern cities, she feels that the Irish community and sense of Irish identity is more prominent in Charleston than it is in places such as Atlanta or Charlotte. Part of her interview also includes her experience as a lesbian in an Irish-Catholic family, and how she has begun to try to separate her Irish identity from Catholicism because of the difficulties she has faced. Colleen and her wife were the first couple in the state of South Carolina to be granted a marriage license as a same-sex couple, after a long legal battle.

147. Barbara Dugan, Interview by Will O'Connor, 12 April 2018

Date:

4/12/2018

Description:

Barbara Dugan discusses her upbringing as part of an Irish-American family in New York City. Her grandparents emigrated from County Mayo and County Kerry around 1900. Her grandmother, Catherine, took care of janitorial duties in her apartment building while her grandfather, Patrick, became employed in steel works and helped to build several New York City area bridges. As a child, she had difficulty getting her grandmother to speak in detail about Ireland, which she suspects is because of the hardships the family endured before their move to the United States. Barbara grew up going to all-girls Catholic schools and was raised Catholic. She speaks glowingly of her travels in Ireland and discusses the various ways in which she passes a sense of Irish-American identity onto her children and grandchildren. Barbara recently relocated to Charleston to be close to her married son and grandchildren, who live in Mt. Pleasant.

148. Lidia Gabriela Ojeda-Ruiz, Interview by Sophie Kreutz, 10 April, 2018

Date:

2018-04-10

Description:

Lidia Gabriela Ojeda Ruiz (b. 1997) was born in the town of Jerécuaro in Guanajuato, Mexico and came to the United States in 2006, with her two older brothers to live with her mother and her older sister who were already settled in Johns Island, South Carolina. In this interview, Ojeda remembers growing up in Mexico, the difficulty and confusion of leaving family and friends in Guanajuato to start a new life in the United States, and the challenges she faced adjusting to a foreign environment. She shares her story of adjusting to the school system, learning English and becoming acculturated. Moreover, she discusses her status as a Dreamer and the burdens placed upon DACA students to further their education beyond high school. Ojeda tells about her interest in criminal justice, her work with a local immigration lawyer, and her plans to continue her education in the future. In this interview, Ojeda reflects about how growing up in two different places, Guanajuato and South Carolina, have shaped her life and character.

149. Maria, Interview by Marina López, 24 March, 2018

Date:

2018-03-24

Description:

María was born in Caracheo, Guanajuato, Mexico. She is the youngest of eleven siblings in a family dedicated to rural work. She got married when she was twenty years old. Soon after, her husband, following in the footsteps of family and friends, left for the United States to work in agriculture. While her husband worked in the United States, she took care of the family in Caracheo. Each year, her husband went back home. However, after the terrorist attack in New York City, the trip became increasingly more dangerous. Thinking that her children needed to be with their father and have a better future, Maria decided to move to the United States and settled in Johns Island, South Carolina. In the interview, Maria talks about the process of adaptation to life in the United States, the difficulties related to physical and cultural isolation and the support she received from the island's Hispanic community. Maria affirms that, despite the obstacles, she is happy because her family is reunited and her children are well. At the time of the interview, Maria had four children and two grandchildren. / María, nació en Caracheo, Guanajuato, México. Es la menor de once hermanos de una familia dedicada al trabajo rural. A los veinte años se casó. Al poco tiempo su esposo, siguiendo los pasos de familiares y amigos, se marchó a los Estados Unidos para trabajar en la agricultura. Mientras Su esposo trabajaba en Estados Unidos ella cuidaba la familia en Caracheo. Cada año su esposo regresaba al pueblo para estar con la familia. Pero después del ataque terrorista en la ciudad de Nueva York el viaje se volvió cada vez más peligroso. Para que sus hijos pudieran crecer junto a su padre y tener un mejor futuro, María decidió mudarse a Estados Unidos y se estableció en Johns Island, Carolina del Sur. En la entrevista, María habla acerca del proceso de adaptación a la vida en Estados Unidos, las dificultades relacionadas con el aislamiento físico y cultural y el apoyo que recibió de la comunidad hispana de la isla. María afirma que, a pesar de los obstáculos, ella es feliz porque su familia está reunida y sus hijos están bien. Al momento de la entrevista María tenía cuatro hijos y dos nietos.

150. Sean Doherty, Interview by Kevin McKenzie, 12 April 2018

Date:

4/12/2018

Description:

Sean Doherty discusses his experience growing up as part of an Irish-American family in New York City. His parents emigrated from County Donegal in the 1920s. He discusses growing up in a neighborhood of various first-generation immigrants from different backgrounds. He was an officer in the United States Marine Corps, until he became a salesman for Sylvan Pyrometric Systems, eventually retiring and coming to Charleston.

151. Jeremiah Courtney, Interview by Claudia Sceery and Troy Caramanica, 14 April 2018

Date:

4/14/2018

Description:

Jeremiah Courtney discusses his experience as an Irish immigrant in New York City, and then in Charleston. He came to the States full time in 1991, after having lived in London for five years and finding life there difficult for an Irishman. He speaks warmly of growing up in Kilarney, County Kerry, but left largely because he felt that Ireland couldn’t offer him the variety and adventure that he wanted in his life. He felt welcomed and supported upon first arriving in the States, particularly by others in the Irish or Irish-American community. He made his way down to Charleston after feeling he needed a break from New York. Though he was raised in the Catholic church and attended Catholic school, he finds himself turning away from Catholicism, and has not passed that on to his children.

152. Eimer Kernan, Interview by Meg Cathcart and Marisa Dixon, 17 April 2018

Date:

4/17/2018

Description:

Eimer Kernan discusses her experience as an Irish immigrant. She is the youngest of five siblings from Dublin, and first came to the States in the late seventies on a J1 visa, then later came to live here full-time with her American husband. She has worked as a clinician, researcher, teacher, and consultant for thirty years. She comments on the difference in diversity between Ireland and the States, stating that Ireland is very homogenous, especially when compared to the States, and discusses how she “dials” herself back into Irish culture whenever she returns to Ireland. On religion, she remarks that she found the Catholic church restricting from an early age, so she feels that Catholicism, and religion in general, is not a part of her identity, though it did play a role in her upbringing in Ireland. She speaks specifically to her experience as a woman with a career, and of the difficulties that women face in trying to balance work and family. Above all, she maintains her identity as “Irish-Irish,” and considers herself “a bicoastal dual citizen.”

153. Darragh Doran, Interview by Conor Murphy and Mackenzie Green, 18 April 2018

Date:

4/18/2018

Description:

Darragh Doran (b. 1977) discusses his experience as an Irish immigrant in Charleston. He grew up in Chapelizod, a small village in Dublin, and first came to the States in 1997 on a J1 visa. His first experience in the U.S. was in Newport, Rhode Island, and, then in 1999, he made his way to Charleston, wanting to experience what he saw as the charm of the South, and wanting to better experience American culture. His first job in Charleston was with Bosch, who initially offered him a three-month internship, but at that time he didn’t expect to stay in the States. The sense of community, he states, is much stronger in Ireland, and he currently feels conflicted about whether he wants to return to Ireland or stay here as he gets older. He does state that the Irish are very warmly received here in the States, which he appreciates. Darragh is a realtor in town and runs CharlestonIrish.com and its associated Facebook page, dedicated to helping Irish immigrants in Charleston through business and personal networking. The ultimate goal of the Charleston Irish website is to help build up a well-connected community of Irish immigrants and their businesses in Charleston and the surrounding area.

154. Paul Flaherty, Interview by Ryan Little, 16 April 2018

Date:

4/16/2018

Description:

Paul Flaherty, a former Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, discusses his upbringing as part of an Irish-American family in Boston and in Charleston. The paternal side of his family came from Galway in the early 1900’s and settled in Boston. The lore states that his family goes back to the twelfth century in Ireland. His father, Anthony, was in the Navy, while his mother, Mary, was a homemaker. He is the oldest of five children. He shares fond memories of growing up and being immersed in Irish culture at his grandparents’ house in South Boston, surrounded by a houseful of Irish immigrants and constantly hearing stories about Ireland. Most of the immigrants he came into contact with during childhood had emigrated to the States for work. He briefly discusses the importance of identifying as Americans first, specifically in how his grandparents spoke Gaelic but didn’t pass it on to the next generations, and of the importance of ensuring that the next generation of Irish-Americans are as well-educated as they can be. He also discusses the prevalence of Irish gangs in Boston. One of his main assertions is that, from his perspective, the Irish culture and Irish heritage is severely lacking in Charleston, especially when compared to the culture he was surrounded by in childhood in Boston.

155. Michael Duffy, Interview by Hunter House and Darby Molony, 12 April 2018

Date:

4/12/2018

Description:

Michael Duffy (b. 1943) discusses his upbringing as part of an Irish-American family in Charleston. His paternal grandfather, William J. Duffy, emigrated from County Donegal, and the family settled in the coal region of Pennsylvania. His mother’s side of the family came over from Clonmel, County Tipperary, through New Orleans and settled in Charleston. Michael travelled to Annagry, in a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) region on the West coast of Ireland, on a search for more information about the Duffys, and stumbled upon a pub where he was able to get more information about the Duffys from that region. He has pieced together much of his family’s background since but is still searching for more information. He has travelled numerous times to Ireland and has built numerous friendships through his travels. In his discussion of growing up as an Irish-Catholic in Charleston, he recalls some of the anti-Catholic sentiments he encountered in childhood, specifically the vivid memories of his childhood friend’s mothers asking him peculiar questions about the Pope. He acknowledges that the Catholic church, and the various duties and services associated with it, played a central role in his upbringing. He speaks about the current Irish community in Charleston, and how the Hibernian Society is taking steps to promote Irish culture in the city, whether by bringing Irish music in, or through commemorative or educational events such as the building of the Irish Memorial on Charlotte Street. Michael is immensely proud of his Irish-American background, and of the contributions the Irish-American immigrants have made in the States.

156. Niall Cahill, Interview by Jim Naiman and Lexi French, 19 April 2018

Date:

2018-04-19

Description:

Niall Cahill (b. 1952) describes his experience as an Irish immigrant in Charleston. He grew up in the Ballybough and Ballymount areas of Dublin and attended Christian Brothers schools. His father was a postman, and his mother was in charge of the bed and breakfast that was run out of the family home. Despite his family?s economic success in the mid-sixties, they could not afford to send Niall to university, so he joined the Irish Civil Service. His first experience of the U.S. was as a visitor in the late seventies, and he has traveled much of the country, before deciding to come to the States permanently in 2010, a decision driven by the Civil Service cutting positions and offering him an appealing deal for retirement. He continued his work in procurement here, having earned a Master?s in the field, which helped make him an appealing candidate for hiring in the U.S. As to his experiences in both countries, he misses the sense of camaraderie that he feels is more prevalent in Ireland. Despite this, he remarks that the Irish community in Charleston is invaluable in its support of immigrants like himself.

157. Interview with Tony Williams, October 14, 2018

Date:

2018-10-14

Description:

Tony Williams (pronouns: He/Him/His), white director and CEO of Charleston Pride, was born in Charleston, SC, grew up in Goose Creek, and after a childhood of moving to a variety of places on the east coast, he returned to the area in 1999. A College of Charleston graduate, Williams now works in software at Blackbaud. The interview begins with Williams discussing his earliest childhood memories, his relationships with his sister, parents and extended family and how he came out to them after coming to terms with his sexuality as a gay man. He describes the "transition" from identifying as bisexual in high school to fully accepting that he was gay in college, and the importance of LGBTQ gathering places in the greater Charleston area. These gathering places, primarily LGBTQ bars like Patrick's, Dudley's, Pantheon, The Chart, and D?j? Vu, as well as the mentorship of College of Charleston professor Tom_Chorlton helped him to find community in Charleston. Williams discusses his concerns regarding the current popularity and primacy of identity politics and labeling, and he notes a growing "isolation" within society, due possibly to the increasing dependency on apps and technology, and the impact it has had within LGBTQ communities. William then recounts the histories of local groups such as the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA) and We are Family; and discusses the developments of Charleston Pride. He started as a volunteer with the event when it was in North Charleston, founded by Lynn Dugan and describes its move to downtown Charleston where it has greater visibility. He also speaks to the event's growth from just a single day event, "a parade, a festival, and an after-party", into a weeklong series of events celebrating LGBTQ life and culture. He ends his interview mentioning his involvement in the early planning of the development of a LGBTQ center in Charleston, modeled after similar centers in other cities._

158. The Pink Triangle: The History and Memory of the Nazi Persecution of Gay Men lecture, November 11, 2018

Date:

2018-11-11

Description:

David Shneer (pronouns: He/Him) Louis P. Singer Chair in Jewish History at the University of Colorado Boulder, discusses the history and the later memorialization of the persecution of gay men in Germany before and after the Nazis during the 1930s and 1940s. In his lecture, “The Pink Triangle: The History and Memory of the Nazi Persecution of Gay Men”, he outlines the creation, enforcement and abolition of Paragraph 175 criminalizing gay male sexuality and focuses on both the prosecution and persecution of gay men, comparing and contrasting their treatment to the genocide aimed against Jews, while noting that lesbians, though persecuted, were grouped under the “asocial” category. He explains how the term “genocide” is not appropriate to describe the Nazi persecution of gay men, which, he states, does not minimize their experience; he argues against the quantification of suffering by various groups such as Jews, Sini and Roma, instead arguing for tolerance among the varying victim groups to allow all targets of Nazi terror to tell their stories and be included in the narrative and in memorialization. Shneer describes the various monuments to gay persecution that have risen in a variety of places, including concentration camps, near other Holocaust memorials, and in gay neighborhoods and notes that it was gay activists responding to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s who began to use the term “gay holocaust” for political purposes. At the close of his presentation, one audience member objects to the comparison of Jewish and gay victimization, while others comment on the need to learn and teach tolerance for all minimized groups. The lecture was introduced by David Slucki, PhD, Assistant Professor, Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston, was sponsored by the Zucker/Goldberg Center for Holocaust Studies and was held on the College of Charleston campus as part the Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program Sunday brunch series.

159. Wiley Barrow Cooper, Interview by Madeleine Ware, 7 November, 2018

Date:

2018-11-07

Description:

United Methodist Church minister Wiley Barrow Cooper (b. 1942) was born in Greenville, South Carolina. In addition to his pastoral work, he had a long career in human services. In the interview, Cooper discusses his association with South Carolina Clergy Consultation Service for Problem Pregnancies (SCCCS) in Greenville. He explains why he became involved, his role as a volunteer counselor, and the problems women faced during that time in South Carolina. Finally, he reflects on his own spiritual beliefs regarding abortion and his participation in the civil rights movement.

160. Interview with John Martin Taylor, August 17, 2018

Date:

2018-08-17

Description:

John Martin Taylor (pronouns: He/His/Him) born in Baton Rouge, LA in 1949, discusses his youth, university years, his travels, various careers in art and the culinary world, his family, friends, lovers and his husband. His father was a scientist with the Manhattan Project who moved the family to Orangeburg, S.C. Taylor speaks of a happy outdoor childhood, with some African American friends in the segregated South and little awareness of gay life or issues. The family also summered at Hilton Head, S.C. before its development, giving Taylor firsthand experience with the land and its foodways. He attended the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga. at two different times, for undergraduate and graduate degrees. He speaks at length of the artistic circles there, including that of the musical group, The B-52s, whose first concerts he attended and with whom he remained friends, later describing their visit to the Charleston gay bar, Les Jardins. He came to Charleston, S.C. in 1975, left for the Virgin Islands, and lived in Paris, France and in Italy, pursuing a career as a visual artist and a photographer, eventually, becoming American Liaison and Food Editor of the French periodical ICI New York. Returning to Charleston, he had little to do with the local gay scene, feeling an equal attraction to men and women, or mostly to particular individuals who interested him. As his love for cooking grew, influenced by what he calls his strong “maternal instinct,” his childhood experience crabbing and fishing in the Lowcountry, his mother’s culinary skills, and his father’s interest in wines, he began to focus on a career. After learning the business in New York City, Taylor opened Hoppin’ John’s, a cookbook store in Charleston, and quickly became the recognized expert on Lowcountry and regional cooking and foodways, eventually publishing articles on the topic in local, regional and national publications. A serendipitous find of a manuscript cookbook from St. John’s Parish of Berkeley County prompted and nourished further research. After recovering from the damage done to his bookstore by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, Taylor published his first book, Hoppin’ John’s Lowcountry Cooking in 1992. He has published three books since then and mentored many while enjoying the friendship and respect of leading scholars in the field. Taylor notes the changes in the local culinary and restaurant scene, lauding many chefs and proprietors for their contributions. He and Mikel Lane Harrington were married in Washington, D.C. in 2010. Through Harrington’s work with the Peace Corps, the couple, based in Savannah, Ga. and Washington, D.C. have lived in various locations across the world.

161. Interview with Josh Langdon Hooser, August 26, 2018

Date:

8/26/2018

Description:

Josh Langdon Hooser grew up in Pea Ridge, a small town near Huntington, West Virginia, which he describes as “very conservative.” During this interview, he discusses his childhood, with mentions of being bullied in school until he switched from theatre to sports, his experience coming out, what led him to settle in Charleston, some experiences at the College of Charleston, including being excluded from a fraternity, his marriage, and his work as a lawyer focusing on LGBTQ clients and issues. His coming-out experience, in which he called a “family meeting,” began a process of acceptance within his family. He describes the judgements directed his way by Democratic and more liberal members of the LGBTQ community, due to his being a Republican, yet he also explains how he tried to impact the Republican Party and some of its candidates on social LGBTQ issues, noting that he was active in the John McCain Presidential Campaign and served on a statewide board of South Carolina College Republicans. He worked for the Human Rights Campaign in West Virginia, and details the attitudes he encountered from a very religious woman state legislator on LGBTQ issues. He also discusses some discrimination and resistance he and his fiancé encountered while planning their wedding and describes the culmination of factors that led to his decision to plan to relocate his practice from Cincinnati, Ohio to Charleston, South Carolina. He refers to the importance of both biological and chosen families, and how he and his husband plan to start a family, contrasting the issues gay men face in that field versus those faced by lesbians. He describes many of the legal issues confronting LGBTQ people, due to conflicting state and federal laws, and is particularly sympathetic to the difficulties of trans people. In replying to the interviewer’s questions, he sums up difference between his “millennial” generation and the generation that came before and the one that is coming after. He mentions many legal decisions and social shifts that have impacted LGBTQ communities, and sees fragmentation and intersectionality as one of the biggest hurdles facing the LGBTQ community today, particularly in respect to race and gender.

162. Interview with Lynn Dugan, August 14, 2018

Date:

8/14/2018

Description:

Lynn Dugan attended Catholic grammar and high schools in New York City. With a lesbian friend, she visited lesbian bars where rigid “butch” or “fem” roles prevailed. She came of age just after the Stonewall Riots of 1969, later befriending some of the participants, as she became part of a community that looked after and protected each other from attacks, some of which she describes. She notes the comradery of men and women in the early gay rights movement, and the accessibility of many future celebrities entertaining in the gay baths and bars. She was mentored by an older gay man, Jimmy Alan Newcomer and she created a marriage ceremony with a woman opera singer at St. Peter’s MCC Church in 1981. She witnessed the start of the AIDS crisis and the work of many women and activists such as Larry Kramer. Professionally, she held jobs in management and sales, drove a taxi, and had her own greeting card company. In some jobs, she had to hide her sexuality. She visited Colorado often before moving to Boulder ca. 1993, participating in the LGBTQ community there. While attending a Pride parade in Columbia SC, she met political activist Charlie Smith, who invited her to Charleston, SC; she moved there soon after and began her involvement in the community, founding the Charleston Social Club, which offered opportunities to many isolated and closeted women. One of the programs, Lezz Fest, produced on the club’s tenth anniversary closed off part of North Charleston and drew 1,000 participants. Dugan was the prime mover in establishing the first Pride Festival in the lowcountry. She and a cadre of friends staged fundraisers for the event which the City of Charleston wanted to sideline. The city of North Charleston, however, including Mayor R. Keith Summey, who served as grand marshal of the parade, supported it, despite the criticism of many local churches. The Charleston Pride Organization event took place on May 15, 2010, and its impact, and that of the evening event held on the Citadel campus, is described in detail by Dugan. In response to questions, she comments on African American participation in the community and ends the interview with suggestions of other issues that LGBTQ community could address, such as the care of its older citizens, a task in which she is involved.

163. James Ellis Griffeth, Interview by Madeleine Ware, 8 November, 2018

Date:

2018-11-08

Description:

United Methodist Church minister James Ellis Griffeth (b. 1942) grew up in Greenville, S.C. He attended Wofford College and later Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC. He worked as a chaplain with the Greenville Health System for twenty-four years until his retirement in 1998. In the interview, Griffeth discusses his association with South Carolina Clergy Consultation Service for Problem Pregnancies (SCCCS) in Greenville. He explains why he became involved and details the problems women requiring counsel faced during that time in South Carolina. Finally, he reflects on his own spiritual beliefs regarding abortion.

164. Interview with Charles Smith, July 7, 2018

Date:

7/24/2018

Description:

Charles W. Smith discusses growing up, his adult professional life as a city planner and realtor, his personal life and his work as an activist for LGBTQ rights. His family lived in Orangeburg, Beaufort, Florence and Charleston and he was educated at the College of Charleston and Clemson University, moving to Miami in 1984. His early family life was overshadowed by the illness and death of an older brother. Realizing he was gay, he avoided being bullied in school by staying closeted. In 1987 in Miami Beach, FL, he met Carlos Guillermo Rodriguez. Soon after, Smith told his family he was gay and Rodriguez tested HIV positive. He wanted Smith to leave him, but Smith refused; their families in South Carolina and Colombia, South America accepted them. Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Miami, with which Smith was affiliated as a senior warden, was also accepting and affirming. After his lover’s death in 1995, Smith, who had run for political office, but lost, moved to Charleston, SC in 1996, finding a changed city, which he attributes to Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. We Are Family, a youth-oriented LGBTQ organization had been founded by Thomas Myers and Smith stayed, founding a real estate firm catering to LGBTQ clients. There were a number of bars in town he remembers frequenting; he affiliated with St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, a historically African American congregation opened up to white congregants, many of whom were LGBTQ. Smith and others, mostly non natives, such as Linda Ketner, Jim and Warren Redman-Gress, Carolyn Kirk, Lynne Moldenhauer and Linda G. William, helped found Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA). They publicly confronted a newspaper ad attacking LGBTQ people. This, Smith believes, began the process of removing shame and empowering the LGBTQ community. Smith also describes the “thousand year rainfall event” of 2015 and his marriage to Rob Suli that year, in a Columbia, SC hospital to ensure their rights were respected in the arena of health care. He notes the importance of the internet to LGBTQ people in finding community. He mentions Lowcountry Gay and Lesbian Alliance (LGLA), the lives of Jay Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson in Miami, and two gay men, who wintered in Charleston, SC. They, according to Smith, participated in the gay purges of US State Department employees in the 1940s and ‘50s. He also mentions the ownership of gay bars in Charleston, SC and the conflict over LGBTQ rights that has split the local Episcopal Diocese.

165. Interview with Regina Duggins, August 3, 2018

Date:

7/31/2018

Description:

Regina Duggins tells the story of her childhood in metropolitan New York, growing up in a tightknit family with her strong connections to religion and the surrounding community. She describes her traumatic experiences with men at a young age, and how this relates to her more positive connections and relationships with women throughout her life, including several long-term romantic relationships. She also recounts her early activism, in which she formed a dance team in her apartment building to prevent other young girls from experiencing the sexual abuse she had. In discussing two of her siblings who died, she notes that both were LGBTQ and lived closeted lives; her brother died of AIDS. She raised five children, sons and daughters of her siblings, and was the first of all of her family to openly declare her identity as a proud black lesbian. Family connections prompted her to move to Charleston, SC in 2010 with her children, and her mother; here she has continued her activism, motivated by the closeted communities and pervasive racism of the area. Her education, experience and persistence led the leaders of Charleston Pride to offer her a spot on the board. Despite the challenges she has witnessed in Charleston regarding racial discrimination and discrimination against the LGBTQ community, she believes change is coming and has faith that she will live to see a day when a new generation succeeds in creating a world in which love wins.

166. Interview with Taylor DeBartola, August 3, 2018

Date:

8/3/2018

Description:

Taylor DeBartola tells the story of his upbringing in Peachtree City, Georgia, a town he describes as “very conservative.” He discusses the competitive relationship he had with his younger brother who is close in age, as well as the role that religion played in their early life. DeBartola reflects on the way that he revealed his sexuality to his family, and the period of time where things between them were rocky, discussing the ways in which he had to be patient and allow his parents to “take their time” to accept him. Taylor then talks about his “chosen family,” and the way they all met at Dudley’s, a popular gay bar in downtown Charleston. He details the ways he sees gatherings with gay men changing in recent years, moving from public spaces to more private locations such as personal residences. Taylor also discusses gay married life in the South, later noting that he and his now-husband were “engaged when it was not going to be legal,” and stressing that young people should educate themselves on gay history, especially the HIV/AIDS crisis, which he stresses is far from over. He also talks about the ways that particular books shaped him and his desire to learn more about gay history, mentioning Harlan Greene’s Why We Never Danced the Charleston. DeBartola then describes the impact that artist and activist David Wojnarowicz has had on his life, and the ways that he has tried to trace Wojnarowicz’s and his partner’s time spent on a trip to Charleston. Finally, Taylor talks about his experiences being an openly gay College of Charleston student.

167. Unity in the Community program

Date:

8/9/2018

Description:

At a “Unity in the Community” Forum sponsored by the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), Reverend Robert Arrington answers questions posed to him by female impersonator/performer Symone N. O’Bishop and members of the audience. After introductions by emcee Regina Duggins (aka Gina Mocha), Arrington speaks of his personal life, conditions in the lowcountry, and the development and evolution of his open and affirming Charleston Unity Fellowship Church. He describes growing up in Durham, NC, and living in Rochester, NY, before moving to Charleston, a place he finds not as progressive or easy to live as elsewhere. He mentions a dysfunctional childhood, being misdiagnosed with learning disabilities, and recalls various phases of his life, including being married to woman, being a female impersonator, being HIV positive for thirty years, and the love he now shares with his husband, stating that they were the first “out” African American gay male couple in the area to have a house built for them by Habitat for Humanity. Most of the interview, however, focuses on the growth of his church, his plans for it, and the need to be completely transparent in all aspects of one’s life, including one’s spiritual life. He and O’Bishop discuss the behavior of some closeted LGBTQ church goers, who hide their sexual and emotional lives to worship under ministers who preach against homosexuality. The only “out” African American minister in the area, Arrington describes his church as Pentecostal-related and its policy of accepting every one of every sexual orientation, identification and race. He responds to an HIV-positive transgender woman of color asking how to find a loving relationship; he and the interviewer also discuss sexually irresponsible behavior and strategies for finding a life partner. Prompted by other queries from the audience, Reverend Arrington agrees that there is a need for more coordination with his church and the community it represents with other agencies in the area. An audience member comments further that there must be a new attitude regarding such participation: instead of asking to be included, one must demand that inclusion. The interview ends with Chase Glenn of AFFA and others describing programs and initiatives of related interest in the area. A call for action results with applause at the comment that this forum may mark a new direction for one of Charleston’s marginalized communities.

168. Interview with Linda Ketner, August 13, 2018

Date:

8/13/2018

Description:

Linda Ketner is a strategic planning consultant for mostly nonprofit organizations; she and her partner Beth have been together for almost twenty years. She grew up in the small town of Faith, NC, eventually moving to Raleigh and finally, Salisbury, NC. Ketner recalls realizing her sexual identity at about age twelve and asking her mother about girls marrying girls. Her mother’s strong negative response prompted Ketner to learn more; she looked up “homosexual” in her local library and found literature that was even more discouraging. A series of events led her to live a double life: one “supposedly straight” and the other, her hidden true self. In college, Ketner began her first relationship with a woman while simultaneously dating men in the hopes of finding one with whom she was compatible. This eventually led to a number of broken engagements and a marriage that ended when Ketner could not deny that she was a lesbian. After years of living in secret, she and her partner occupying two separate nearby houses to allay suspicion, Ketner decided to come out. Some others, however, advised her to remain closeted to prevent “damaging” many of the progressive causes with which was involved. Ketner describes the process of telling friends and describes the family ceremony that included her partner Ginny, Ginny’s children, and a host of other invited guests, who ended up fully supporting them. Her mother, whom Ketner took care of for years, eventually was won over, as well. In 2008, Ketner ran as a totally “out” candidate for US Congress; she describes that and how she and others founded Alliance For Full Acceptance (AFFA) in Charleston, SC and SC Equality, in Columbia, SC. She mentions Tom Meyers and his organization We Are Family and discusses the work of AFFA and SC Equality on such LGBTQ issues such as HIV/AIDS awareness and on other public, religious, and law enforcement topics. Ketner discusses her curiosity as to what might survive death; and the interview concludes with her assessment of challenges facing the LGBTQ community today. She particularly notes the troubling policies and attitudes of President Donald J. Trump, and the lack of strategic planning necessary for progressive movements to sustain themselves and survive.

169. Interview with Lee Anne Leland, July 25, 2018

Date:

2018-07-25

Description:

Lee Anne Leland (pronouns: She/Hers) now living in McClellanville, SC, tells her story of coming to terms with and exploring her identity as a self-identified gender-nonconforming, lesbian, transgender woman. Being raised as a boy in a family of five siblings, she grew up in a prominent, socially and religiously conservative Mount Pleasant family where she struggled to understand and come to terms with her identity facing the disapproval of many. She describes a continuing and confusing search for self-expression and the impact such words as “cross-dresser” and “transsexual” had on her and her search for community, until, with the help of friends, she found her transgender identity. She recounts how she dealt with coming out, her experience with depression, thoughts of suicide, dysphoria over her appearance, various work experiences, and self-acceptance as an adult. Through all of this, Leland discusses the love and support she has received from her wife, Cindy, and the role she has had as an activist. Leland continues as coordinator of the Charleston Area Transgender Support (CATS), a board member of We Are Family, and a speaker at public events such as Transgender Day of Remembrance. She discusses how she perceives that claiming and living her authentic existence, even walking down the street, can be an act of political activism. Leland stresses the need for conversations and political activism especially in the political climate of 2018. Additionally, Leland recounts experiences and histories of Charleston’s gay bars, specifically the Lion’s Head, and the King Street Garden and Gun Club. She also mentions White Point Garden as a cruising spot, the Spoleto Festival, and the impact that the transsexual Dawn Langley Hall Simmons had on the Charleston community.

170. Interview with Mikayla Drost, July 21, 2018

Date:

7/21/2018

Description:

Mikayla Drost begins by describing her childhood in Lugoff, South Carolina. She did not grow up in a religious household but, through a friend, began attending Mormon (Church of the Latter Day Saints) services and events. She found contentment and many positive experiences within this community, but details the shunning visited upon a friend of hers within the group who came out as lesbian. In her town, there was not a very visible gay presence, and the one woman neighbor suspected of being gay was the object of derision and disrespect. Drost, who describes herself as bisexual, but prefers the term “queer” due to negative associations with “bisexual”, always was aware of her sexual orientation. Upon leaving home to attend the Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics, she found a larger more accepting community and it was easier to come to terms with herself and others. Her breakup with another woman sparked her coming-out to her parents. In college she enjoyed being a bit different in her sorority and she speaks of there being little pressure on her of how to act once she came out. She remarks that she often deliberately presented in stereotypically lesbian manner, allowing her to assert her identity without having to verbalize it. She replies to questions regarding how her generation’s views on gender, sexuality and reproduction differ from those of her of her parents and she states what she sees the challenges facing the LGBTQ community. She specifically mentions many trans issues and comments on her politically active life, in which she regularly contacts her elected representatives on a variety of environmental and other issues.

171. Interview with Elizabeth Lanneau Cox

Date:

2018-12-27

Description:

Interview by Katherine Pemberton of Elizabeth Lanneau Cox, who was born in Charleston in 1943 and was raised and lived in Summerville, SC for most of her life. Her parents were also Summervillians but her family had connections to downtown Charleston through family ties and various family businesses on King Street (like Siegling's Music House). Mrs. Cox talks about her childhood in Summerville, various houses, families and business. Summerville landmarks that she touches on include: Town (Hutchinson) Square and the train station, Timrod Library, Bethany Church, Summerville Presbyterian Church, Guerin's Pharmacy, Summerville Theatre (Playhouse), Summerville Elementary, Rollings (Old High School), Azalea Park. Old Town Hall and the Pine Forest Hotel. She also discusses various aspects of town life, like the gradual paving of sand roads, the construction of the historic houses in town, going to the movies, etc., and talks about going with her father and step mother to Indian Fields church campground in the summers. In high school, Mrs. Cox worked as a school bus driver and was the drum majorette for the Summerville High School Marching Band. She married Edmund Knight and they restored a Victorian House at 620 Richardson Avenue. She goes on to talk about the house, the surrounding neighborhood and neighbors like the Cox Family who lived in the old Prettyman House on Oak Street. (Ironically, in 2018 Elizabeth married Dr. Joel Cox her old neighbor.)

172. Interview of Daisy Prince Walsh

Date:

2018-12-18

Description:

Interview by Katherine Pemberton of Daisy Prince Walsh, long time resident of West Ashley. Mrs. Walsh reminisces about her childhood and also about life in Charleston before, during, and after World II. She was one of nine children. Her mother's family owned Cameron & Barkley and a metal factory. The family lived on St. Philip, Coming, and Pinckney Streets, and later in Garden Hill, an extension off of Rutledge Avenue. Mrs. Walsh recalls her day-to-day life when the family lived downtown: going to school, going shopping, going to Folly Beach, etc. She talks about shopping on King Street and recalls various shops, department and grocery stores, movie theaters, etc., recalling how King Street seemed to be racially based on being above or below Calhoun Street. She also mentions driving on the Old Cooper River Bridge and the origins of the Knights of Columbus Thanksgiving Day Race (now known as the Turkey Day Race). She also recalls life during World War II including rationing, "blackouts," and being afraid. She talks about meeting her husband. After they got married, she and her husband, who was in the Navy, lived in Buffalo for a time but then moved back to Charleston. In 1957, moved to a house on Yeamans Road in Byrnes Down in West Ashley, a neighborhood that had been developed in the 1940s as housing for Charleston Navy Yard workers during World War II. As her family grew, they moved to a second house on Yeamans Road. (She and her husband had eight children.) Then in 1965, they moved to a fairly new neighborhood in West Ashley where she still lives. She recalls life in West Ashley and the changes she has seen there, from the 1950s when it was mostly farmland and how it developed over the years as more and more people moved to the suburbs, including Harrison Acres, Lenevar, North Bridge, and Byrnes Down. She has witnessed many changes in Charleston during her lifetime: how it began as a "small town" and now after so many people from Charleston have left and after so many newcomers have arrived, commenting especially on the traffic. Grants from both the South Carolina Humanities Commission and the Employees Community Fund of Boeing allowed HCF to proceed with this initiative and several oral history interviews have been conducted that focus on specific neighborhoods and the changes these residents have experienced over time.

173. Interview with Leonard ("Lenny") Krawcheck

Date:

2018-11-1

Description:

Interview by April Wood of Leonard ("Lenny") Krawcheck who grew up on Colonial Street and still lives in the same house he grew up in that his parents purchased in 1927. Mr. Krawcheck describes his family life; his neighborhood and schooling; what he did for recreation and entertainment; his father's business, Jack Krawcheck's menswear [313 King Street]; the places his family shopped for groceries and goods; and about life in Charleston in general. He also talks about the Jewish community in Charleston; his perception of race relations; and the changes in the practice of law since he began his career until the present. He also discusses his experience as Chairman of the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) over several decades, the various threats to the city, and the importance of zoning laws. Grants from both the South Carolina Humanities Commission and the Employees Community Fund of Boeing allowed HCF to proceed with this initiative and several oral history interviews have been conducted that focus on specific neighborhoods and the changes these residents have experienced over time.

174. Interview with Yvonne Evans

Date:

2018-10-22

Description:

Interview by Katherine Pemberton of Yvonne Evans who was born in New York but her family quickly moved back to her father's hometown of Charleston when she was a baby. Mrs. Evans has lived her entire life in the Harleston Village neighborhood of the city, growing up on Queen Street, attending the Cathedral School, Bishop England High School and then the College of Charleston. She talks about her childhood, shopping on King Street, and biking everywhere. After marrying and starting a family, Mrs. Evans returned to the College of Charleston for a degree in Business Administration. She became active in a local "Town and Gown" committee designed to improve relations between the campus and the adjoining neighborhood of Harleston Village. This spurred her to run for Charleston City Council where she represented District 8 for 20 years, serving from 1999-2009. During her time on city council, she worked on issues related to tourism, the arts, and city planning initiatives. Grants from both the South Carolina Humanities Commission and the Employees Community Fund of Boeing allowed HCF to proceed with this initiative and several oral history interviews have been conducted that focus on specific neighborhoods and the changes these residents have experienced over time.

175. Interview with Suzanne Groff, July 31, 2018

Date:

7/31/2018

Description:

Suzanne Groff is an attorney who moved to Charleston in 1995. She begins her interview by contextualizing her growing up in a small conservative community of Lancaster, PA, where she had close family relationships that continue to this day, even though she and her brother and have grown up and now live far apart. The conversation then turns to her coming to terms with her identity and how, initially, she kept her relationships with women secret. As time went on, however, she came out as a lesbian to friends, work, and family. Groff practiced as an attorney in New Hampshire from 1980 to 1995; what prompted her to leave the state was her desire to adopt a child, which was illegal for gay men and women under New Hampshire law. Since South Carolina did allow such adoptions, she and her partner moved here. She found differences between the North and the South arresting, specifically at how unreserved Southerners are in comparison and the personal questions they will ask. While she did have a troubling medical appointment at the Medical University of South Carolina, she found many progressive people in the area, and, despite her fears, her daughter was warmly accepted in public schools despite her difference in having two mothers. Groff describes difficulties she experienced with joining a law firm and the subsequent creation of her own firm and mentions how being a lesbian was once used against her. She was active in the development and growth of Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA) and discusses her legal work here on LGBTQ related issues, such as helping with name changes for transgender clients and her past work in AIDS-related activism in New England. Groff attended the march celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York and reflects on issues such as “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and Marriage Equality. The conversation closes on her thoughts on current challenges facing the LGBTQ community.

176. Stephen J. White, Interview by Matthew Wilkinson and Timmy Walten, 20 April 2018

Date:

4/20/2018

Description:

Historian Stephen J. White, Sr. discusses his experience as an Irish-American in Charleston, and his work in dispelling myths about the Irish in the South. His family emigrated from various areas in Ireland, with family from County Kilkenny, County Mayo, County Clare, and County Antrim in Northern Ireland. Most of them came over in the mid-1800’s. He is one of ten children from a very religious Irish-Catholic family. He has been tracing the history of the Irish in Charleston, beginning with Captain Florence O’Sullivan’s landing in 1670, and has taught courses and written on the contributions of the Irish to Charleston’s rich history. The focus of his research and writing is that the experience of the Irish in northern cities is a rather stereotypical one, and that there is a significant Irish presence in the American South, with experiences that are often vastly different from those who emigrated to northern cities. Stephen is a member of numerous Irish organizations in Charleston, including the Irish Historical Society of South Carolina and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and is dedicated to educating others about the important role that the Irish have played in Charleston’s history.

177. Ron Plunkett, Interview by John Mahoney, 19 April 2018

Date:

4/19/2018

Description:

Ron Plunkett discusses his experience as an Irish-American in the South. His Irish family background is largely derived from County Meath, County Louth, and County Dublin, and the first ancestor of his to come to the States was Captain Peter Plunkett, who arrived in Virginia around 1690. Ron was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. His background is Welsh, German, and French Huguenot, as well as Irish. Ron was raised in the Episcopal Church. Of anti-Irish or anti-Catholic sentiment, he states that he feels such discrimination or prejudice wasn’t a part of his experience in Atlanta, and that religious or ethnic background didn’t seem to be as big of a deal as it might have been in other places. He also discusses his time in the service during the Korean War. He first visited Ireland in the seventies on business and returned several times through his job with Sealand/Maersk Line, speaking of his experience as a visitor in the best of terms. He is a member of the Hibernian Society of Charleston and the St. David’s Society, a Welsh organization. To him, being of Irish descent in America is about celebrating one’s heritage and knowing one’s history, to share pride in the contributions of one’s ancestors.

178. Gianni Leonardi, Daniel "Danny" McCann, and Adam Tracey, Interview by Nick Wood and Hannah Thompson, 16 April 2018

Date:

4/18/2018

Description:

"Gianni Leonardi, Daniel ""Danny"" McCann, and Adam Tracey speak about their experiences as Irish immigrants in the United States. Gianni and Danny are the owners of two Irish pubs in the Charleston area while Adam works at a pub on Johns Island. Gianni hails from the rural, Irish-speaking parish of Gweedore, in County Donegal. He first came to the United States in 2009 as part of a sponsorship by a pub in Michigan through his university in Ireland. He wanted to come to the U.S. for the opportunity to make a living in the hospitality industry and relocated to Charleston from Ann Arbor to open an Irish pub. He speaks of the vast difference between his rural upbringing and his life in a more suburban/urban environment. He makes a point to discuss the authenticity of Irish hospitality, and how, in owning and operating a pub, he tries to further that sense of genuine Irish warmth. Danny is from Lurgan, County Armagh. He came to the U.S. in 1998, to Detroit, to work in the same pub that later sponsored Gianni. Having grown up in Northern Ireland, he has the most firsthand experience of the Irish Troubles. He speaks briefly about Irish politics and witnessing some of the violence in the North in the 1990s. Adam comes from County Offlay, outside of Tullamore. Before working in hospitality, he had worked in construction in Yonkers, New York. Though he has little firsthand experience with the Troubles, he tells the story of a grand-uncle who was killed young by a bombing in the North. All three speak to their experience within the small community of Irish immigrants in Charleston, and how the community works to bring newly-arrived Irish immigrants together with those who are already established in Charleston. They agree that without the support of the Irish community, their experience in Charleston would have been very different."

179. "Dennis 'Denny' O'Brien, Interview by Sam Reynolds and Feild Russell, 21 April 2018"

Date:

4/21/2018

Description:

Dennis "Denny" O’Brien discusses his upbringing as part of an Irish-American family. His maternal grandfather came over during the Famine and settled in Tennessee. His paternal grandfather came over from a small town outside of Cork in 1912, to Omaha, Nebraska, where he practiced law. His father was an Army officer, so he spent much of his childhood overseas, including Japan, where he attended high school. He eventually settled in Charleston after marrying a woman who’s family has been here for generation. He’s been a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernia and belongs to a number of Catholic organizations. He discusses stories passed on to him by his father, particularly about political events in Ireland, and how the events framed a lot of the anti-British sentiment among the Irish, including members of his family. His family identified primarily as American Irish, rather than Irish-American, and that their Catholic identity was prioritized above their Irish background. The Catholic Church played an important role in his upbringing, and Catholicism is something he has tried to pass on to his children as much as possible. For him, his family is, first and foremost, American with Irish heritage. While he states that the Irish presence is stronger and “more militant” in northern cities such as Boston, he argues that there is a significant Irish culture and community in Charleston.

180. Tommy Snee, Interview by Kelly Haffner and Kevin Lowry, 16 April 2018

Date:

4/16/2018

Description:

Bar owner Tommy Snee discusses his experiences as an Irish immigrant in Charleston. He is the youngest of ten children and describes his upbringing in a poor family as a happy one despite the hardships of poverty. He first came to the United States at the age of seventeen in 1980, to stay with an aunt and uncle in St. Augustine, Florida for a holiday. He returned home for a period of time before returning to the States in 1986 and gaining his green card. He gained U.S. citizenship in 2017. He attended a Christian Brothers School in Ireland, and left school at the age of fourteen to work in construction. Feeling that there was “nowhere to go in Ireland,” he came to the States, where he found the opportunity to work hard and make a life immensely appealing. The weather, the diversity, and the local culture drew him to Charleston from New York. He finds that the response to him as an immigrant has been nothing but positive. While he loves his life in the States, he states that, first and foremost, “I’ll always be an Irishman.” On Irish stereotypes, he disagrees with many of the simplistic stereotypes, but argues that the best way for Irish immigrants to dispel these kinds of false notions is through education. He also discusses the importance of honoring diverse backgrounds and experiences, and the importance of listening to and learning from those with different perspectives, which he feels is critical for America, or for any country, to becoming as great as it can be.

181. State of the Community Symposium, September 20, 2018

Date:

2018-09-20

Description:

As part of the 2018 Charleston Pride festival, “The State of the Community Symposium” was presented to the public during Pride Week. In this recording, panelists representing various LGBTQ organizations and businesses are introduced by emcee and local radio host Mike Edwards and they speak of their activities, their plans for the future, and challenges and obstacles facing the community. Brandon Reid and Dr. Nic Butler speak of the Dorothy and Gaylord Donnelley Grant-funded LGBTQ in the Lowcountry documentation project; Tony Williams, the Chair of Charleston Pride, speaks of past accomplishments and plans for this year and the future; Chase Glenn, Director of Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA) follows with similar information about his organization. Jason Kirk and Adam Weaver represent the AIDS service agency Palmetto Community Care. Melissa Moore speaks about We Are Family, a direct services organization focused on LGBTQ youth. Jonatan Ramirez, noting his gay Hispanic identity, and Maria Rivers detail the activities and plans of Beau Magazine. In the course of the presentations and in the Q and A session following, issues important to the community are raised and discussed. Topics include plans for an LGBTQ Community Center, the need for more cooperation and information sharing among the various local institutions, different legislative and social action agendas, the competitive funding objectives of direct services to the population versus those for organizing and political action, AIDS, mental health, sex education and gender identity in public schools, identifying LGBTQ friendly businesses, and other subjects. A recurrent theme voiced by many focuses on the need to reach all members of the community, crossing geographic, racial, economic and identity lines. The problems faced by trans people and people of color are brought up repeatedly.

182. Interview with Karl Beckwith Smith, August 26 and 28, 2018

Date:

2018-08-26 and 2018-08-28

Description:

Karl Beckwith Smith (pronouns: He/Him) born in Saranac Lake, N.Y. in 1950, describes his early childhood in New York state and in Darien, Conn. as well as his relationship with his family, particularly his engineer father, whom he describes as a “man’s man,” and notable athlete, despite his father’s life-long struggle with diabetes. (At his death at age ninety, his father was reputed to be one of the world’s longest survivors and users of insulin.) Smith also discusses the eventual death of his mother and his time in St. Paul’s, a prestigious prep school in Concord, N.H., and his difficulties with classmates, whom he says knew he was gay before he himself knew. He speaks of how art provided an “escape” from many of the obstacles in his early life. He then delves into his time at Princeton University, where he studied art history and was one of the first students to paint for his thesis. While there, he lived for a few years in a commune-like setting with many others, including Lisa Halabey, eventually Queen Noor of Jordan. He makes mention of his mentor, the artist Esteban Vicente, and his exposure to other notable artists including Helen Frankenthaler. Smith recalls the date of April 1, 1972, when he met Hal Truesdale as one of the turning points of his life. He details the early years of their partnership, their travels in Europe and their “pioneering” loft living and entertaining extravagantly in lower Manhattan, where after giving up acting, Hal had his private hairdressing salon with prominent clients. Also discussed is the time they lived in Cold Springs, N.Y., their summer cottage at Loon Lake, Vt., and Smith’s very successful competitive sailing seasons in Newport, R.I. In 1984, Smith gave up other jobs to become an artist full-time, mostly painting furniture, interiors and mural. Returning to Truesdale’s birthplace of Columbia, S.C., to take care of his mother, the couple then moved to Charleston in 1992, where Beckwith painted murals for Charleston Place Hotel and a mural on André Michaux at the Charleston International Airport. After brief mentions of the AIDS crisis in NY and the Stonewall riot, Smith describes their settle life in Charleston. He and Truesdale were united in a civil union in 2000 in Vermont and married in 2013 in New York.

183. Interview with Hal Truesdale, August 26, 2018

Date:

2018-08-26

Description:

Harold (Hal) Hilton Truesdale (pronouns: He/Him/His) was born in Columbia, S.C., in 1949, discusses his early years there, his life as an actor and dancer in New York City, and his lifelong partnership with his husband Karl Beckwith Smith, III. The youngest of three children, with two older sisters, Truesdale had a privileged upbringing in Columbia, with very accepting parents and family who encouraged his love of dance. He did face some discrimination from others, but gave up praying not to be gay at age fifteen, accepting himself completely, and scorning friends who pretended not to remember the gay behavior they had shared. After graduating from Dreher High School in 1967, where some teachers were gay and the subject of rumors, he attended the University of South Carolina briefly. With help from his father, he moved to New York City, rented an apartment, enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Joffrey Ballet School. Young and good looking, he had had boyfriends and often attended elite clubs such as Studio 54 and Max’s Kansas City. He was at the Stonewall Inn bar in June of 1969 when the police arrived and the riots broke out; his boyfriend, a Vietnam veteran, warned him to leave, which he did, after witnessing some of the attacks, eventually seeing his boyfriend’s bruises the next day. On April 1, 1972, he met Princeton University student Karl Beckwith Smith, and they bonded instantly, eventually sharing a civil union in Vermont in 2000 and being married near their summer home at Loon Lake, New York in 2013. Truesdale discusses bartending, acting in repertory theatre, auditioning for the film Dog Day Afternoon, acting in an unreleased film, and his great satisfaction in being a hairdresser with a salon of his own and a very loyal clientele. He speaks of his sexuality of being a part of his life, but something that does not sum him up, notes marching in the first gay pride parade in New York City and subsequent ones there in and in Charleston, S.C. where he and Smith moved in 1992, after the death of Truesdale’s mother in Columbia, S.C. In passing, he mentions being recently verbally harassed in Charleston and his membership in the open and affirming Circular Congregational Church, where, he says, most of the hate mail directed at the church focuses on its support of LGBTQ issues.

184. Interview with Christopher Holman, August 8, 2018

Date:

2018-08-08

Description:

Christopher Holman (pronouns: He/Him) was born in Summerville, South Carolina, and besides a few years in Georgia and North Carolina, lived in South Carolina all his life. Holman describes the specific work he does in radio advertisement production and continuity and his passion for radio imaging. Growing up in Summerville, he met very little prejudice regarding his sexual identity which he now describes as being bisexual. His mother was accepting, and his brother stopped telling gay jokes and became Holman’s defender once he came out. Only in church did he encounter any sort of negativity about being gay; he could see the contradictions inherent in Scripture and interpret some of the proscriptions as being dated from a different time. While young he did lack self-esteem and had image problems which he has worked to overcome. He discusses his current relationship with a woman, which does not interfere with his attraction to other men, noting that his current relationship has the possibility of being an open one. He describes life as a gay man before and after he became HIV positive, and the way that his status impacted and ultimately ended, to his regret, a long-term relationship with a younger male partner, who spurned him and from whose family came death threats. He speaks about the ethics of withholding one’s HIV status, describes how ill he was in the past and his current good health. In passing he describes a local radio station “war” that absorbed him as a youth, refers to drag queens Brooke Collins and Missy E. Holiday, and describes the physical spaces and clientele of the bars the Arcade and the Treehouse, briefing mentioning the Battery as a cruising ground. He compares the gay interactions of the past with those in the present, noting the alienating and abbreviated ways of communication and of finding sexual partners via apps instead of direct human interaction. He speaks of his eagerness to participate in HIV/AIDS related programs and projects, his enthusiasm in marching in the Pride parade and, despite the social progress he has seen over the years, the enduring lack of kindness between people, straight or gay.

185. Interview with Topher Larkin, October 23, 2018

Date:

2018-10-23

Description:

Topher (Christopher) Larkin (pronouns: He/Him) describes growing up in a variety of places including Panama and Germany, but mostly in Tampa, Florida where his father retired. He was adopted, as was as his older brother, born in Colombia, but growing up, he felt an integral part of the white Catholic family milieu in which he was raised. He began to acknowledge his gay identity in school and in Catholic youth groups. Being in an arts high school, his sexual identity was not an issue. His being identified by others as Asian because of his appearance and having assumptions made about him later raised concerns when he lived in Los Angeles. At first being apprehensive about moving to Charleston, with a boyfriend, he began investigating the community, glad to find it more progressive than he imagined. He attended gay-themed events and joined organizations such as the Alliance for Full Acceptance upon whose board he served. He also worked with the Pride Festival and helped plan a World AIDS Day observance which led to his work in the health-care field; he now serves as outreach coordinator for the Ryan White Wellness Center in Charleston. He reflects on the impacts larger cultural events such as Matthew Shepard’s murder, the coming out of Ellen DeGeneres, and marriage equality act failures and successes had on him. He also addresses the issue of identity politics. Larkin describes being judged as gay by his appearance and mannerisms, and now uses that as a tool to empower the LGBTQ community that needs representation. He further notes that, ironically, he is often targeted by those seeking to fill certain diversity slots; while others perceive him as Asian because of his appearance, he does not self-identify that way. Many people in the LGBTQ and other communities, he feels, spend too much time on their unique identities instead of coming together to solve common problems. He also expresses his frustration with the current Trump administration and its attitudes on a variety of issues, and chastises those who may have voted for third party candidates which helped bring about that Presidential victory for a candidate whose policies those voters now criticize and deride.

186. Interview with Kristen Lowe, October 10, 2018

Date:

2018-10-10

Description:

Kristen Lowe (pronouns: She/Her/Hers) was born in Florence, South Carolina, and currently resides in Charleston with her partner, and works professionally as a hand therapist in a sports medicine practice. She discusses growing up in the small-town atmosphere of Florence, and the impacts of her largely conservative and Southern Baptist religious upbringing. She recalls happy childhood memories with her parents and two younger brothers, including spending summers on the lake. Attending a private Baptist high school, she was unaware of her identity and saw no LGBTQ role models anywhere, having her first experience at age twenty. A graduate of the College of Charleston and later the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), she hid her sexual identity at the former institution, afraid of being labelled if she attended Gay Straight Alliance meetings, but at MUSC, she eventually served as Vice President of the Alliance for Equality. Lowe describes the difficulty of arriving at self-acceptance, feeling solitary, and at first being fearful of going to church and educational figures, or even close friends for advice. Becoming more and more open, she searched for a place within the LGBTQ community, finding fulfillment and social acceptance in becoming a board member of Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA). She details the advocacy work AFFA does, achieving, just at the time of the interview, a victory in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina in its passing a non-discrimination ordinance. Being out has given her a freedom to do as she wants, dress as she wants and she also has a variety of reproductive options available to her and her partner, as well. Any harassments received for being perceived as a lesbian were minor, she notes. In answer to queries about the issues facing the LGBTQ community today, she reflects on the number of different identities within it, and although there is much more visibility currently, she reiterates the difficulty of coming out, recalling how she at first had to do it via letters to her parents. If it takes an individual years to come to terms with her identity, she reasons, family members should be given time to adapt as well. She also explains how naturally children will take to the idea of LGBTQ relations among adults since children come into the world unprejudiced and will remain so if their society will allow it.

187. Interview with Richard Little, August 16, 2018

Date:

2018-08-16

Description:

Richard Little (pronouns: He/Him/His) describes his youth and education, his founding and running a gay bar in Charleston, South Carolina, attending medical school, and his professional work as a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institute of Health. Born in Union, South Carolina, he attended Christ School, a private boarding school in Asheville, North Carolina, where he impacted student programming and where a research project of his prompted the state to take action on water pollution in Pisgah National Forest. After some experimentation in high school, Little came out as gay while attending Tulane University in New Orleans. After a brief stint in graduate school, Little moved to Charleston, where in 1979 he opened a gay bar, Les Jardins, more commonly called LJ’s, in the then-desolate Market area. Little describes some of the other gay bars in town and notes that his private club offered a place for both out and closeted LGBTQ patrons. State liquor laws mandated the necessity of incorporating as an eleemosynary institution, and LJ’s became a major supporter of the Spoleto Festival, gaining praise for the club and the gay community from Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. and others. He describes the evolution and growth of the club, its parties, programs and members, speaks of the Alcohol Beverage Commission’s anti-gay harassment, describes a court case regarding that, and mentions speaking to the Charleston Police Department about its harassment of gay men at the Battery, a cruising spot in Charleston. In 1984, opting not to franchise, but to close, the club, Little decided to attend medical school. He faced anti-gay bias at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston but found a welcome at the University of South Carolina Medical School in Columbia. Little was elected President of the American Medical Student Association and in a public venue confronted South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster for his homophobic comments, instead of addressing the topic of infant mortality. He speaks of early poor care of HIV patients in Columbia, a situation he tried to remedy and how “the good old girls’ network” brought him to the National Cancer Institute where he became head of the AIDS oncology center. In his work of almost thirty years, he has had patients he knew from LJ’s and from his hometown, and he mentions how difficult it has been to deal with so many losses over the years. But changes in HIV care, and changes at MUSC in Charleston, are signs of progress and the interview ends on a hopeful note.

188. Interview with Diane Hamilton

Date:

2018-10-30

Description:

Interview of Diane Hamilton by April Wood in which she focuses on her years living in Maryville, West Ashley, as a child and now as a retired adult. She lives in the house she grew up in. Ms. Hamilton discusses her childhood, her parents and where they worked, the character of Maryville, transportation, attending school, college, and early jobs. Ms. Hamilton was a teacher for many years, first at Gresham Meggett and then at James Island High School, where she started working shortly after the school was integrated. Ms. Hamilton shares some memories of that transition. Grants from both the South Carolina Humanities Commission and the Employees Community Fund of Boeing allowed HCF to proceed with this initiative and several oral history interviews have been conducted that focus on specific neighborhoods and the changes these residents have experienced over time.

189. Oral Interview with Peggy Schachte

Date:

6/12/2018

Description:

The Pringle family started coming to Sullivan’s Island for summers as far back as 1911. Peggy’s earliest memories stem from when she was three and a half years old and her youngest sister was born while the family was on the island. Peggy details all the enjoyable summer activities common to those summertime visits. She recalls the group of nuns who spent summer R&R in the Loretto Cottage. Other activities included time on the neighbor’s trampoline, skating at the old Army recreation center, and taking in movies at the old post theater. Peggy recalls enjoying horses when they were on the island. There was one episode when Peggy’s sister helped save a victim from drowning. The new lighthouse was turned on in 1962. Peggy relates the impact that never ending bright light had on islanders. Peggy then moved on to the second phase of life on the island, married to Topper Schachte and raising a family at 2501 Ion Avenue. The third phase of life was when she married Hal Currey and moved to “Bunker Hill”, one of the many structures left on the island by the Army. She recounts in detail the effects of Hurricane Hugo, her attempts to get back on the island, and an encounter with the National Guard. She also has memories of LaBrasca’s, both the restaurant and the fire that engulfed their house. Peggy ends by noting the changes in the island as well as the traffic that has always been part of living on Sullivan’s Island.

190. Oral Interview with Jeanie Truesdale Heath and Jerry Truesdale

Date:

5/1/2018

Description:

The Truesdale family association with Sullivan’s Island goes back to the early 1800’s when David Truesdell immigrated from New York and started what became the island’s major oyster growing industry. Jeanie and Jerry recount the history of that extensive business until it was lost due to taxes. Their grandfather, Wyatt Aiken Truesdell, owned a sawmill and was killed when a saw blade flew off. Prior to that Wyatt Aiken had also been the ancestor who officially had the family name changed from Truesdell to Truesdale. Jeanie and Jerry describe their father, Cecil Wyatt Truesdale, as an extremely talented man, a jack of all trades, who could do just about anything including dance. However, his life was jolted when he developed a tumor that required extensive treatment and rehabilitation. Even though he never recovered fully, their father went on to be the bridge keeper of the new Ben Sawyer Bridge, built to connect Sullivan’s Island to Mt. Pleasant in 1945. Other family trials included a brother who developed polio and Jerry’s near drowning. The pair describe their Mother, Vernie Cooper Truesdale, and her many talents. She was the lunchroom manager at Sullivan’s Island Elementary School and was known widely as being an outstanding cook. Growing up on the Island is described as fun and relaxed. Jerry, one of a set of twins, describes his and his brother’s career. The family was intimately involved in the founding of Sullivan’s Island Baptist Church and relate much of its history. According to this brother and sister, the smell of the marsh, the roar of the sea, the friendly, easy going lifestyle are why “Fiddlers”, a name for Sullivan’s Island natives, will always remember this as the best place in the world to grow up.

191. Oral History Interview with Carl Smith

Date:

2018-11-06

Description:

Carl Smith and his wife, Stephanie, moved to Sullivan's Island in 1972 and immediately fell in love with it. Though an architect by profession, Carl soon became involved in island politics. His first involvement was on the Board of Adjustment, now known as the Board of Zoning Appeals. In those days there were basically no ordinances protecting historic structures on the island. However, there was the long established requirement for a minimum half acre lot size, something that Carl considers one of the most important aspects in protecting the island's character. In 1987 Carl was elected to Sullivan's Island Town Council. He was a council member during the destruction of Hurricane Hugo. He describes the devastation of the storm and the residents' return to the island. Hugo led to many changes, including the establishment of the island's first disaster plan. In the mid 90's Carl made his first run for mayor, but was defeated then and in 2001. His first successful bid for mayor came in 2005, and he ran unopposed in 2009. Carl feels that there were three issues that defined his time as Mayor of Sullivan's Island, in addition to his strong advocacy for preservation of the island's character. The first was that of the fate of the Ben Sawyer Bridge and the island's connection to the mainland. The second was the way in which water and sewer were handled on the island rather than being shipped to Mt. Pleasant. The third was the new Sullivan's Island Elementary School, a facility that Carl felt was ill-conceived and over-built. A referendum on the school was never allowed by Town Council, but the write-in vote on Carl's behalf in the mayoral election of 2013 was considered by many a referendum on the school. There are other accomplishments that Carl remembers with pride during his time as mayor including initiating an architectural survey of the island, designing the town sign at the entrance to the island, recovering and rehabilitating the old bandstand from Ft. Moultrie, erecting the monument in the historic town cemetery, and preserving the historic character of the Devereaux mansion gatehouse. Finally, Smith details his reasons for leaving the island.

192. Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral History Interview with Selden K. Smith

Date:

9/6/2017

Description:

Selden K. Smith, a South Carolina native who taught history for nearly four decades at Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina, talks about his role in the development of Holocaust education courses. He describes meeting local survivors and says of interviewer Lilly Stern Filler’s mother, “The most compelling person of all—it was all compelling—was Jadzia [Stern].” What started as an experimental course featuring presentations by survivors grew into a standard offering at Columbia College. Dr. Smith notes he was not involved in or even aware of the effort to create legislation that established the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust (SCCH) in 1989. However, he was appointed to SCCH in 1990. He credits Margaret Walden, who then worked for the South Carolina Department of Education, for much of the progress made with Holocaust education in the state. Among SCCH’s projects was a joint effort with South Carolina Educational Television to interview survivors and liberators, resulting in the publication of the teaching guide South Carolina Voices. The interviewee discusses the status of Holocaust education in South Carolina and suggests that the challenge is how to make it “relevant to one’s day and time.”

193. Jason McFarland, Interview by Riley K. Franks, Anthony J. Kniffin, Hunter J. Patrick and Jackson G. Taylor, 20 April 2017

Date:

2017-04-20

Description:

Sound engineer, drummer, and songwriter Jason Mcfarland was born in New York City in 1973. He has lived in the Lowcountry since the 80s. His earliest music memories are related to Joyce Kilmer Park in South Bronx where every Saturday bands like Chic or Talking Heads used to play. Additionally, he saw legendary musicians as The Jackson 5 and James Brown at the Apollo Theater where his cousin worked as a sound engineer. These early experiences were enriched by the Gospel and Funk sounds of Awendaw. Later, he attended Wando High School and was a member of the Marching Band. In the interview, McFarland tells about the origin of his first band, Funny Looking Kids, and explains how young musicians worked to find opportunities to play before the internet era. He reflects about punk culture and states that Black Flag, Bad Brains and the Descendents were his most influential artists. He affirms that touring with Fishbone was one of the most memorable and remarkable experiences of his career. He recalls the Charleston music scene in the 80s and 90s naming the music venues, record stores, and bars that congregated musicians and students in the city. McFarland is proud of his multifaceted career as a sound engineer and as a musician, which gives him multiple opportunities to enjoy great music. At the time of the interview, McFarland was playing with two bands, Funny Looking Kids and Hybrid Mutants.

194. Delia Chariker, Interview by Laura R. Brown, Dennis R. Joyner and Cody C. Mahen, 18 April 2017

Date:

2017-04-18

Description:

Delia Chariker was born in born in Kingsville, Texas and when she was two moved to Clover, South Carolina where she grew up. Her earliest musical memories relate to her mother's big playful and musical family. She learned to play guitar when she was in High school. She attended college in North Carolina and after that she moved around the country playing in Nashville and California. However, making a living as a musician proved to be a struggle and she returned to school to obtain a Masters in Music therapy. She reflects about being a working musician and states this is one of the most rewarding times of her career: She is able to make a living creating music with her veteran clients and plays around town with her musician friends. Animas, her solo album reflects Chariker's deep connection with her Native American spirituality roots. At the time of the interview, Chariker was employed at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affair Medical Center and was the Music Director at Unitarian Church in Mount Pleasant.

195. Eddie White, Interview by Brody R. McGrath and Holly L. Rickett, 20 April,2017

Date:

2017-04-20

Description:

Music entrepreneur and philanthropist Eddie White was born in 1960 in Charleston, South Carolina. He attended Wando High School and later Furman University where he obtained a degree in dentistry, a profession he has practiced for more than thirty years. Music acquired an important place in White's life when he met his wife and her musical family. This interest deepened raising his three children because White became involved with his children music activities and by doing that, he had the opportunity to meet and share time with interesting and creative people. In 2007, after a series of collaborations with local musicians and small concerts, he opened Awendaw Green with the purpose of offering a listening environment for new bands and local talent. In the interview, White remembers the beginning of the project, the challenges they faced and reflects about the impact of Awendaw Green on the Lowcountry music scene and beyond.

196. Clelia Reardon, Interview by Jeremy K. Gibbons, Jonathan J. Taylor, and William S. Vaughn, 18 April, 2017

Date:

2017-04-18

Description:

Guitarist and entrepreneur Clelia Hand Reardon was born in Huntsville, Alabama. She recalls her beginnings: taking piano lessons when she was in first grade and knowing when she was only thirteen that she wanted to be a classical guitarist. Reardon talks about her mentor and friend, Mr. Fred Sabback, and states he was the biggest influence in her career. In the interview, Reardon reflects about her prolific career as a performer and as a teacher. She remembers her experiences playing in many shows in Charleston; included Man of the Mancha, Porgy and Bess, and Jesus Christ Superstar; touring Europe twice with a jazz band, and participating in the organization of the Guitar Foundation of America international conventions and competitions. Finally, she reflects about the rewards of her teaching career.

197. Consuelo Campos, Interview by Marina López, 27 Julio, 2017

Date:

2017-07-27

Description:

Consuelo Campos was born in Aquila, Michoacán, Mexico. Because her family was very poor and she was the oldest of thirteen siblings, she started working at an early age in the production of bricks and selling food that her mother prepared. She attended school only for two years after the village priest convinced her father that education was necessary and important. Poverty and the news of prosperity that came from the north fueled her desire to emigrate and help her family. At the age of nineteen, she married a young man from her town who worked as an agricultural worker in the United States. Soon after, in 1989 they settled in the state of Washington. In 1992, they moved to Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina but continued to travel as a migrant working family. Finally, after almost ten years working in the fields and concerned about her children’s wellbeing, she decided to settle down and began to clean houses in Johns Island. She learned English and opened several small businesses, including a cleaning company and a restaurant. At the time of the interview, Campos was working full-time with the company Mary Kay. She reflects on the reasons for emigrating, remembers life on Johns Island and Wadmalaw Island in the 90s, and takes pride in accomplishing her goal of helping her family. / Consuelo Campos nació en Aquila, Michoacán México. Su familia era muy pobre y como era la mayor de trece hermanos tuvo que comenzar a trabajar desde muy pequeña en la producción de ladrillos y vendiendo comida que su madre preparaba. Asistió a la escuela solamente por dos años después de que el sacerdote del pueblo convenciera a su padre de la que la educación era necesaria e importante. La pobreza y las noticias de prosperidad que llegaban desde el norte alimentaron su deseo de emigrar y ayudar a su familia. A los 19 años se casó con un joven de su pueblo, que se desempeñaba como trabajador agrícola en los Estados Unidos y con él, en el año 1989 se radicó en el estado de Washington. En 1992 se mudaron a Wadmalaw Island, Carolina del Sur, pero siguieron viajando en familia como trabajadores migrantes. Finalmente, después de casi diez años trabajando en el campo y pensando en el bienestar de sus hijos, decidió establecerse y para ganar su sustento empezó a limpiar casas en Johns Island. Aprendió inglés y abrió varios pequeños negocios, entre ellos una compañía de limpieza y un restaurante. Al tiempo de la entrevista Campos estaba abocada a tiempo completo a trabajar con la compañía Mary Kay. Campos reflexiona sobre las razones para emigrar, recuerda la vida en Johns Island and Wadmanlaw Island en la década de los noventa y se enorgullece de haber logrado su objetivo de ayudar a su familia.

198. Enrique Martinez, Interview by Marina López 23 Febrero, 2017

Date:

2017-02-23

Description:

Enrique Martinez is the owner of La Casa Mexicana, one of the first Hispanic stores in the city of Goose Creek. He was born in Tampico Tamaulipas, Mexico and studied Agricultural Administration at the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas. At the end of the 80s, he emigrated with his then-wife Marcela Ortega to the United States and after a brief stay in Texas, they settled in Johns Island, South Carolina. Martinez started working in agriculture, but the devastation caused by hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the subsequent real estate development in the area demanded more workers and created new job opportunities. Martinez found work in the construction of the Kiawah golf courses. He and his wife opened El Mercadito, the first Hispanic store in Johns Island. After their separation, Martinez left the island and moved to North Charleston. He became familiar with the growing Hispanic community of Goose Creek and decided to establish the store he still owns. In the interview, Martínez reflects on his experiences as an immigrant and the evolution of the Hispanic community in the area. He also speaks proudly of his children and of what he has been able to achieve in his life. / Enrique Martínez es el propietario de ”La Casa Mexicana” uno de las tiendas de productos hispanos con más trayectoria en la ciudad de Goose Creek. Nació en Tampico Tamaulipas, México y estudió administración agropecuaria en la Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas. A fines de la década de los ochenta emigró con su entonces esposa, Marcela Ortega, a los Estados Unidos y después de una breve temporada en Texas la pareja se asentó en Johns Island, Carolina del Sur. Martínez encontró empleo en la agricultura, pero la devastación producida por el huracán Hugo en 1989 y el posterior desarrollo inmobiliario de la zona demandaron más trabajadores y originaron nuevas oportunidades por lo cual Martínez comenzó a trabajar en la construcción de los campos de golf de Kiawah. Junto a su esposa abrió la primera tienda de productos hispanos en Johns Island ”El Mercadito”. Después de su separación, Martínez dejó la isla y se mudó a North Charleston. Se familiarizó con la vibrante comunidad hispana de Goose Creek y decidió establecer allí el negocio que todavía conserva. En la entrevista, Martínez reflexiona acerca de la evolución de la comunidad hispana en el área y sus experiencias personales como inmigrante. También habla con orgullo de sus dos hijos y de lo que ha podido construir en su vida.

199. Gino Castillo, Interview by Kieran Walsh Taylor, 2 February, 2017

Date:

2017-02-02

Description:

Gino Castillo was born in Quito, Ecuador in 1974. His maternal grandparents raised him and introduced him to classical and Cuban music. He started playing drums when he was thirteen years old. As a drummer, he toured with rock bands in his country, Latin America, and Europe. In 1998, studying in Cuba, he decided to focus completely on hand percussion. Castillo moved to New York with his family in 2010 and was there for about a year. Then, he relocated in the Lowcountry lured by the promise of a great opportunity to play music. After realizing the deal was not real, he tried different jobs to support his family. He was frustrated and depressed but determined to play music. He connected with local musicians such as Charlton Singleton and Quentin Baxter and through them with the Charleston Latin Jazz Collective. Castillo reflects about the changes in the Charleston music scene since he arrived in town in 2010. He talks about the challenges of carving a niche for Latin Jazz and funk music. He discusses his participation in the Charleston Jazz Collective, his collaboration with other musicians and the success of the Salsa Nights in Voodoo. Castillo recorded his first solo album Ya llegué in 2008 and in 2014 released SoulFunKubanized.

200. Ann Cadwell, Interview by Kieran Walsh Taylor, 27 January, 2017

Date:

2017-01-27

Description:

Singer and storyteller Ann Caldwell was born in Denmark, South Carolina in 1952. Her family moved to Charleston when she was three years old. Her early musical memories relate to the church music and the long hours she spent listening to gospel and R&B on the radio. However, her interest in pursuing a professional musical career would develop much later. She was an adult when she had her first solo concert at St. Paul AME Church in the City of North Charleston in 1982. In the interview, Caldwell recalls the challenges of being a working mother and a party band singer as well as her experiences singing with the David Archer Band. She also talks about the Magnolia Singers, a Charleston-based vocal group she founded and gained national recognition. Caldwell reflects about what means for her to perform Gullah Spirituals, the music of her ancestors to different audiences. She discusses her participation in programs and events with musicians of different styles and traditions such as the Women & Series at the Music Hall and talks about what it takes to be a working musician in Charleston. Finally, she reflects about the Charleston music community response to Mother Emanuel tragedy and affirms, "I don't believe the music has changed. It's the medicine we lean on."