Musician, educator, and community leader Lonnie Hamilton III was born in Charleston in 1927. He is a graduate of South Carolina State College and VanderCook College of Music in Chicago. In the interview, Hamilton reflects about growing up and developing his career in the segregated South since his beginnings at Burke High and the Jenkins Orphanage Band. He speaks about his long and gratifying career as an educator teaching music at Sims High School in Union, South Carolina and at Bonds-Wilson High School at North Charleston, South Carolina, and the many relationships he forged with his students over the years. He talks about the highlights of his performing career, playing daily on Channel 2, attaining the dream to have his own club, Lonnie's, his successful years playing at Henry's on North Market Street, and having the opportunity to compose an original song, "Ugly Way Blues" that he performed on the movie Rich in Love. Hamilton recalls the excitement he felt when he listened to jazz music for the first time in a show called Silas Green Minstrel in downtown Charleston and describes playing at Mosquito Beach as a unique and wonderful experience. Hamilton takes pride in his accomplishments, as an educator, as a musician, as a businessperson, and as a City Council member. He affirms he was able to break Charleston's racial and economic barriers thanks to his saxophone.
Lara DeVille LeRoy talks about her grandparents Rosa and Felix Dziewienski, who “survived the Holocaust by sheer luck.” From the Warsaw ghetto in Poland, where a soldier killed their infant son, they were sent to Plaszow concentration camp. Near the end of the war, they escaped to the forest where they were separated. Felix joined the resistance and Rosa was forced to work for a Russian colonel keeping house and caring for children. After the war Rosa and Felix were reunited in a German DP camp. With two of Felix’s brothers and their wives, they settled in Wurmannsquick, Germany. One brother and his wife, Herman and Maria, immigrated to Atlanta, Georgia, as soon as possible. Felix and Rosa and Felix’s remaining brother and his wife, Carl and Sasha, stayed and made a life. Lara’s father, Roman, was born in 1946. The antisemitism in the German schools was hard on Roman and his cousin, so they were sent to boarding schools in England and Australia, respectively. When Roman was about fifteen years old, he and his parents visited Herman and Maria in Atlanta. Roman announced he would not leave, so they enrolled him in Georgia Military Academy. His parents immigrated to Atlanta about a year later, followed by Carl and Sasha. Lara describes Rosa’s attitudes about food—it was a “cure-all”—plus “there was a lot of focus on the ability to use the bathroom.” In her habits Rosa was very neat and clean, but also a hoarder. “She, for sure, communicated that you had to be strong and put your best face and foot forward. And so, if an emotion could be satiated by a macaroon or salami stick, a larger emotion was not to be displayed in public.” Rosa also demonstrated a strong work ethic, believing you should always do your best. While this concept was conveyed to Lara, it was not imparted to Lara’s father. Lara notes that her grandparents weren’t “equipped to be parents” due to the trauma they endured and the lack of family support. Rosa, in particular, overindulged Roman, setting no boundaries. “I think that I would directly attribute my dad’s drug addiction and his insecurities and his need to self-medicate and his lack of discipline and his, sort of, largess to the Holocaust. I think the way he relates to people is, to some extent, largely influenced by the Holocaust.” Lara found herself driven to learn about the Holocaust; “it drove me professionally because I founded an organization that did Holocaust and diversity education.” She discusses her group visits to Poland, one with her father, one with local Holocaust survivors Pincus Kolender and Joe Engel, and one that she organized while working for Charleston Jewish Federation. “Mankind has not, as a whole, changed because these atrocities still continue. So that’s why I went.” [Note: Roman changed the family name from Dziewienski to DeVille when Lara was three years old.] 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.
Michelle Mapp was born on September 4, 1969 in Bad Kreuznach, Germany where her father, a U.S. Army drill sergeant was stationed. The family moved back to the United States when she was four years old and to the Charleston area when she was thirteen. Mapp attended Brentwood Middle School and Garret High School in North Charleston. She earned a bachelor's degree in Engineering from Clemson University and a Master of Engineering Management at George Washington University. She lived with her husband in Atlanta for several years and then relocated to Charleston in 2000. While teaching math at Stall High in North Charleston she observed the complexity of community factors that affected her students and became more interested in working on public policies. Following this interest, she enrolled in the master's degree program in public administration at the College of Charleston and started working right away with a newly formed organization, the Charleston Housing Trust. In the interview, Mapp discusses in length the need for affordable housing in Charleston and North Charleston and states that regional conversations and plans are needed and still lacking. She explains that affordable housing requires both finding resources but also modifying government building and development regulations. At the end of the interview, Mapp reflects about the Mother Emanuel AME Chuch massacre, the killing of Walter Scott, and systemic racism in Charleston and South Carolina.
Feidin del Rosario Santana was born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic in 1991. He moved with his family to New Jersey, NY when he was twelve years old. After high school graduation at the age of nineteen, he returned to his country to train at a baseball academy in rural San Pedro. He explains that for him this was a "life-changing experience" but after a physical injury, he had to quit and return to the USA where he struggled to adjust. Later, he went back to Punta Cana to work in the tourist industry. There he met the mother of his child and trained as a barber. A job opportunity in a barbershop brought him to North Charleston in 2013. On his way to work on the morning of Saturday, April 4th, 2015 Santana recorded the killing Walter Scott by North Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager. Realizing the magnitude of the event he had witnessed, he feared for his safety but decided to hand over the video to the Scott family prompting the arrest of Slager. Santana reflects about the following months, including dealing with the press and media outlets, being a witness in the trial, and becoming the target of hateful messages.
Interview with Thomas Pinckney Rutledge Rivers, long time Charleston resident living on the lower peninsula in the South of Broad neighborhood. Rivers recalls they joy of growing up South of Broad at 28 Gibbes St and 7 Orange Street and the change that took place over the past 80 years. His parents were both from established, long time Charleston families. Rivers grew up hunting in McClellanville and was an avid hunter his whole life. He went away to boarding school, attended Davidson College, went to medical school, joined the army, then came back to Charleston and started practicing as an OBGYN at Roper Hospital. Rivers has a lot of commentary on what the hospital was like years ago and how it has evolved since the 1960s. A particularly funny story he tells is that he delivered a baby with a dying quail in his back pocket after being called in to the hospital while hunting. He believes he has delivered 7,000 babies in Charleston over his lifetime. Rivers has fond memories of the Charleston he knew as a boy and fears what has become of the city today with new development and an influx of tourists and new residents. Interviewed by Anne Blessing in Mrs. Blessing's home on August 9, 2017. Recorded as part of HCF's "Changing Neighborhoods" series, made possible by a grant from the SC Humanities Commission.
Radio host and producer Osei Terry Chandler was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946. His father was a musician and his mother loved listening to music. Growing up in his multicultural city, he was exposed to all kinds of music. As a teenager, he joined his high school radio and mixed music at parties. He moved to Jacksonville, Illinois to attend MacMurray College and there continued DJing and working for the college radio. After graduation, he returned to New York to support his younger brothers and there he met and fell in love with Sadeeka Joyner, a young woman from Ridgeville SC, who would become his wife and the mother of his three children. In 1977, Chandler relocated to Charleston. Soon after, he found an opportunity to work on a jazz radio program replacing the host Tony Robertson. Later he focused mostly on reggae and Caribbean music. His program Roots Musik Karamu has been on the air in SC Public Radio since 1979. In the interview, Chandler recalls some of the most memorable moments of his career and reflects about the evolution of the music scene in Charleston. Finally, he states he has had a joyful life sharing his work with musicians and friends and explains that all the aspects of his life, family, his work as an educator and the music, are tied together. Mostly he always has wanted to share music that brings positive feelings and thoughts that are uplifting for the community.
Galen Hudson, owner of Monster Music and Movies Store, was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1967 and he grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. His earliest musical memories relate to his love for bagpipes and drums and the music of his Catholic grade school. He remembers the first record he bought- Steve Miller Band, Fly Like an Eagle when he was just a nine-year-old kid. He got his first job in a books and records store when he was a teenager. After graduating from college with a Bachelor in Psychology, he went to work for a retail music and entertainment store chain, Record Bar, in Chapel Hill. Later, he moved with his girlfriend to Charleston where he continued working with record stores, first at Manifest Discs and Tapes and later at Cats Music. In the interview, Hudson talks about the negative impact that the big boxes commercial model and the early file-sharing services had on the records business. However, he argues small local stores are resilient and have learned to adjust. He talks about Record Store Day, an initiative started by of a coalition of independent record stores fifteen years ago. He states his store and the Record Store Day are successful thanks to the Charleston community's cultural vibrancy and support.
Musician and art entrepreneur Leah Suárez was born on August 12, 1981, in Greenwood South Carolina. She grew up in Charleston with her parents and three brothers and her childhood activities revolved around soccer and music. As early musical experiences, she remembers singing with her mother the mixed tapes her brother created for her. Suárez formal musical training started in middle school when she joined the school band and learned to play the euphonium. She received a scholarship to study the instrument at George Mason University College but she dropped out due to health problems. She returned to South Carolina and enrolled at the College of Charleston where she focused on vocals. At the age of twenty-four, she participated in the Copenhagen Jazz Festival and lived in Europe for six months. Back in Charleston, with the support of her mentor and friend, Jack McCray co-founded Jazz Artists of Charleston (JAC) becoming the organization Executive Director and the co-producer the Charleston Jazz Orchestra. In the interview, Suárez explains that her life experiences and the issues affecting her community shaped her voice and art. She reflects about the challenges and rewards of being a musician entrepreneur in Charleston, her work with other Charleston musicians, and the importance of re-connecting with her Latino roots.
Songwriter, singer, and guitarist Eddie Bush was born in Princeton, a small rural town in Indiana, in 1965 and he has lived in the Lowcountry since the early 70s. When he was four years old, his father taught him basic guitar chords and since then he never stopped learning and perfecting his craft. In the interview, Bush talks about the musicians that influenced him, remembers his teen years playing in Charleston and reflects about the evolution of Charleston music scene. Bush recalls some of the most memorable moments of his career such as touring with Eric Johnson, becoming a member of the harmony group One Flew South, standing on a stage by John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson, designing his own guitar and the overwhelming public response he received for his songs "Spirit of America" and "The Thin Blue Line." Finally, he discusses the challenges of making a living as a musician in the time of the internet and takes pride in his work as a guitar teacher. Teaching gives him the opportunity to nurture young talents and share his values as a musician.
Vocalist Aisha Kenyetta (a.k.a Aisha Frazier) was born in 1980, in Monetta, South Carolina. Before going to college, her life revolved around family and church activities. Kenyetta describes herself as a freelance vocalist with a powerful voice: "I'm a power singer... but when I sing, my diction is rhythmic. My voice is an extension of the percussion instruments. It's not—I'm not the violin. I'm the bass." She performs with her own band AmpSquared and several other such as Super Deluxe, Plane Jane, and the musician collective Emerald Empire. Additionally, she is the North Charleston Seacoast Church's Worship Leader. In the interview, Kenyetta discusses balancing family, day work, and music career and states she is grateful for the many opportunities to perform. At the time of the interview, Kenyetta was writing her own material.
Saxophonist Abe White was born in downtown Charleston in 1935. He attended Burke High and there he realized he could be a musician. Soon, with almost no training, he started playing at the local bars in Reynolds Avenue in North Charleston and in downtown Charleston. The job allowed him to make money and support his mother financially but also exposed him to the nightlife dangers. After graduating from high school, White joined the Air Force in administrative positions. He was stationed in Texas, Colorado, California, Florida, Germany, and Thailand. On each place, after his office hours, he pursued opportunities to play. When he returned to the civil life, he started his own business, "The Abe White Affair". In the interview, White reflects about his music and career and the long journey that took him from playing at armors and bars to his performances in local concerts and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival.
Interview by April Wood of Gladys G. Harvey, a woman who grew up in the North Central neighborhood. Her father was carpenter and also a pastor of Gethsemane Church and her son is the current pastor of the church. Ms. Harvey describes her experience growing up as a pastor's daughter and how her father was very protective of her and her siblings. She recalls shopping for clothes and also the neighborhood grocery stores. She also discusses the Charleston Hospital Workers strike and how she felt when Martin Luther King was killed, and about her having gotten pregnant at 16 and had to leave Burke High School for a private school in Denmark, SC. She reminisces about lunches after church on Sundays and how this was the biggest event of the week. There was a lot of cross over between Gethsemane Baptist Church and New Israel Reformed Episcopal Church as neighbors, especially after Sunday services. Ms. Harvey has had the opportunity to travel a lot in more recent years and has enjoyed this opportunity. 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.
Musician and educator Mervin Antonio Jenkins, also known as Spec the Spectacular for his talent at rhyming and freestyle, was born in Eutawville, South Carolina in 1972. He is the first child of Mary, a schoolteacher and Melvin Jenkins, an auto mechanic worker. It was on his father's garage that Jenkins listened to Run DMC, "Sucker MC's" for the first time. Then, he would learn more about rap music and culture with his cousin from New York. In the interview, Jenkins reflects on his career as a musician and as an educator that uses rap to engage young people. He shares the challenges and rewards of his career, stating that recording with Big Daddy Cane was one of his proudest moments. He discusses the evolution of rap music and its styles and names his favorite artists. When asked about a particular Charleston/Carolinas sound, he argues that the Carolinas never developed their own rap sound and style because it was not functional for the music industry. At the end of the interview, he performs "War of the Worlds" and freestyles responding to the audience prompts.
Interview by Katherine Pemberton with Martha Sass, a woman who was raised in the East Side of Charleston. When she was a child, the family moved to Charleston from Cross, SC after the family house burned down there. They first lived on Line Street, then moved to the projects. While living on Line Street, she started attending Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church where she remains very active and involved. Mrs. Sass discusses living in the East Side; her sometimes difficult family life and her social life; going to school (Sanders Clyde, then C.A. Brown) and college (South Carolina State University); various grocery and department stores in the neighborhood and downtown; recreational activities including ice skating at County Hall, going to The Battery, and going to Folly and Mosquito Beach; moving to New York after high school then moving back to Charleston; meeting her husband; her involvement with the Church; Hurricane Hugo; etc. She reminisces about Cross, SC, where she visited throughout her early childhood. She also discusses the changes she has seen in the neighborhood both positive and negative, and her concerns about the future of the East Side. While she feels that she didn't experience racism directly, she was aware of racism and other racial divides in Charleston, and shares a story about her brother's marriage to a Vietnamese woman. 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.
Interview of Joe Louis Jefferson by April Wood, a man who grew up in the North Central neighborhood and long-time attendee of New Israel Reformed Episcopal Church. Mr. Jefferson recounts his experiences growing up in the neighborhood and describes businesses that he would frequent as a young man. He used to walk through Hampton Park on the way to school and walked by the former zoo in the park. He recalls that the lions could be heard roaring at night from his house. He also describes his experiences working at local drug store and race relations through the Civil Rights era. 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.
Lebanese-American musician Peter Kfoury was born in Manchester, New Hampshire. His father was Lebanese and his mother Syrian. At thirteen, he learned to play guitar and soon after, he became fascinated with the oud, an old Mid-Eastern traditional instrument. He moved to Connecticut to attend college and for a few months, he took lessons with the Armenian musician George Mgrdichian. By that time, Kfoury started blending Middle Eastern music with jazz, rock, and funk. After a year, he decided to leave college and went to play music in New York. Later he returned to school and graduated as Dr. Chiropractor, the profession he has practiced for almost forty years. In the interview, Kfoury talks about the lack of diversity in the music offerings in Charleston as well as the lack of listening rooms. Responding to these voids, in 2016 he launched the World Music Cafe. John Holenko and Hazel Ketchum from Hungry Monk Music supported his efforts. Since then, World Music Cafe produces a monthly show that features three musicians of different musical traditions and styles. Finally, Kfoury talks about creating, recording and presenting his album At the Heart of Two Worlds.
Mark Gray (pronouns: He/His), white chocolatier and AIDS activist, in this third of three interviews (with transcripts of earlier ones available in the repository), discusses the changes in his life as he moved from West Virginia to Charleston, SC, where, in a "turning point," he worked on the "front line" of AIDS activism. Having grown up in Virginia, attending gay bars in Roanoke in an era when there were still raids, he became a renown chocolatier at the Greenbrier Hotel. He trained from 1977-1979 and then worked there for five years. He led a "charmed life" at this prestigious hotel where US Presidents came and the Iranian hostages were housed after their 1981 release. His friends included a gay speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, and the White House Executive Chef Walter Scheib. He speaks of the parties he threw, the relationships he had, and the start of the AIDS crisis. Moving to Charleston in 1984, Gray eventually established Cacao, a chocolate shop on King Street. He lived a completely out life in Charleston where he found people open, friendly and non-judgmental, recalls eccentric friends like Witsell Neyle and Mary Alston Ruff, mentions how African Americans attended the women's bar D?j? Vu, and contrasts the small town atmosphere and the beginning of the food and restaurant scene to later changes. Being an openly gay merchant started rumors and brought many to his shop including two gay youths seeking positive role models ? Joel Derfner, who later wrote books on LGBTQ topics and "Baby" Thomas Myers whose father founded We Are Family, an organization for LGBTQ youth. Distressed by the death of so many "boys" from AIDS, Gray helped found Helping Hands, a grass roots organization of volunteers who banded together to help people with AIDS, a disease that provoked such fear that he had to paper his store windows to shield those attending a fund-raiser there. He traces the creation of Palmetto AIDS Life Support Services (PALSS), and his growing involvement, noting how he learned to become an advocate "and that I do have a voice." He became trained in HIV testing and counseling, became the head of the volunteer program of PALSS, later Lowcountry AIDS Services, creating the nutritional program and a food bank. As he closed his retail store and concentrated on baking, and his business partner started St. John's Caf?, a gay friendly restaurant on John's Island (later The Fat Hen), Gray realized his work with HIV and advocacy "had become everything I was." This took a toll on his life and his relationships, which therapy helped resolve. Speaking on the current state of affairs, he says he is happy that HIV has become a manageable disease but is alarmed that people are still becoming infected, and regrets the fact that many younger than he are ignorant of this and other parts of LGBTQ history. He finds the community much more fragmented, assimilated and divided by class than what he experienced, yet ends on a positive note of his personal philosophy to "celebrate life."
Interview with Emily Whaley Whipple, long time Charleston resident living on the lower peninsula in the South of Broad neighborhood. Whipple recalls growing up South of Broad at 58 Church and the change that took place over the past 75 years. She discusses her parents and their involvement in Charleston, both in city issues and the social scene. Her father, Ben Scott Whaley, was an attorney for the County Council, President of the South Carolina Bar Association, served in the South Carolina legislature, and was a charter member of Historic Charleston Foundation and its President for 13 years. Her mother was the chairwoman of a large annual church event and she started a dancing school with a family friend that met in Hibernian Hall and eventually the school was turned over to Whipple. She paints a beautiful picture of what it was like to play in the neighborhood, go to Charleston Day School, be one of three sisters, come home for 2 p.m. dinner, summer on Isle of Palms, vacation in Flat Rock, and spend weekends out on family plantations. Whipple provides commentary on Historic Charleston Foundation's home and garden tours. She mentions all of the people who were employed by her family and where they lived. Whipple also talks about various natural disasters that hit Charleston and how the city has changed to become much nicer looking but says that does mean that the city has not always been beautiful. She remarks, "Charleston is like a well-tended and cherished garden. That is what the city of Charleston is like. Certainly there are some plants that need to be pulled up or changed or rooted. But we love it. I'm so proud of the next generation and what they are doing to keep it this way. My mother always said that Charleston's adornment were its children, because we were all over the street." Interview conducted by Anne Blessing in Mrs. Blessing's home, on July 18, 2017. Recorded as part of HCF's "Changing Neighborhoods" series, made possible by a grant from the SC Humanities Commission.
Interview with Joseph Watson, owner of the corner store located at 62 America Street. Watson recalls growing up on the East Side and the changes that have taken place over his 67 years of living there. He discusses his mother at length and her strength and resilience to do whatever it took to raise her children as a single mom working several jobs. His mother, Mary Watson, opened up a restaurant in the same location where Watson's corner store is currently located, and called it Watson's Grill. Watson's ancestors were enslaved in Eutawville before the Civil War and were moved to this area to work on a local plantation. After freedom, two of the brothers were able to buy 72 acres in Parker's Ferry. Mr. Watson notes the changes in the boundaries of the east side, state of the schools in the area, involvement in the BAR, and addition of a community council. He worries that the cultural character of the neighborhood may get lost and the kind community and integrity that they have will be gone due to gentrification. Watson recalls several stores and landmarks that used to be in the area and different ethnicities of people living in the Eastside. Joseph Watson is committed to his community and wants to see his neighbors thrive. He finishes his interview saying, "Our Constitution says we. It didn't leave no one out, and we must make an effort to make sure everyone can have a job. And that's why I wanted and still want to start with our training program now." He intends to help everyone he can and empower the members of the East Side to want the best for themselves. Interviewed by April Wood on June 6, 2017 at Mr. Watson's shop at 62 America Street. Recorded as part of HCF's "Changing Neighborhoods" series, made possible by a grant from the SC Humanities Commission.
Interview by April Wood of Joyce Howard, a woman who grew up in the North Central neighborhood of Charleston. The interview focuses on Ms. Howard's experiences growing up in the neighborhood, what her childhood house and neighborhood were like (and how it has changed), where she was allowed to shop and go to as a young woman. She talks about having been recruited for college, her experiences during the Civil Rights era in Charleston and in Alabama where she went to college, and also voting and registering to vote, including how people had to pass a literacy test. She recalls times when Black entertainers who come to perform in Charleston and where they'd be able to stay, and going to Atlantic Beach (near Myrtle Beach) because Charleston area beaches were segregated. (She mentions Mosquito Beach but not as a "water beach" but one with clubs and houses.) She also reflects on the shootings at Emanuel A.M.E. Church and the impact the City on the nation impressed by the local response and as an impetus for many people to move here. Ms. Howard is a long-term member and leader of New Israel Reformed Episcopal Church. 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.
In this interview, Father Lawrence McInerny relates his family tree, starting with Michael McInerny from County Clare, Ireland, the first family member to come to Sullivan’s Island in 1840. Married to Julia Lillis, Michael McInerny bought property but had trouble retaining it. He owned a bakery that was destroyed by arson. In 1884, he died in a horse and buggy accident. His son, John Francis McInerny, was born on the island in 1842. John Francis became a brick mason and later operated a lumber business. John Francis briefly served as marshal of Moultrieville. His brother, James, died in Confederate service during the American Civil War. The hard times of Reconstruction forced John Francis to move to Brooklyn, New York, where he married. He moved back to the island in about 1875. In 1876, during the last great yellow fever epidemic, two of his children died. In 1889, he bought Centennial Hall which he renovated but sold soon after renovations were completed. John Francis died in 1914. His son, Joseph P. McInerny, was a merchant on the island and was instrumental in starting the local elementary school. Joseph’s son, Edward Reynolds McInerny, was born in 1910 and ran a successful laundry business. Reynolds, as he was called, was the Father Lawrence McInerny’s father. Father McInerny reflects on his and his family’s recollections of many aspects of island life including the presence of many more children, a significantly larger African American population, an easy-going lifestyle focused on boats and bicycles, the storms that have hit the island, prohibition, the ferries once needed to bring people to the area, and the businesses that used to dot the island. Closing on a personal note, Father McInerny talks about his summer work with the National Park Service and his call into the priesthood.
Doris Dayhoff was born in a house on Sullivan’s Island on March 5th, 1928. During this interview, she recounts her early childhood growing up on the island. Her father worked as a tugboat captain and an oysterman. Her mother was postmistress at the Atlanticville Post Office. The family home was at Station 26 ½ and Myrtle Avenue on the marsh side of the island, locally referred to as “the back beach.” Property research indicates the land was originally part of a “King’s grant” in the Colonial era. Dayhoff helped her father with his oyster business, selling pints of fresh oysters for only 25 or 50 cents each. Dayhoff attended elementary school on Sullivan’s island. For high school, Dayhoff first attended Memminger on the Charleston peninsula, though she attended and graduated from the newly opened Moultrie School. Much of her time was spent on the beach with friends, and in this interview Dayhoff recounts an instance when one of her friends nearly drowned. Dayhoff also recalled how, despite there being only a few stores on the island, one store operated a delivery service for the residents of the island, including going to the house of customers to take their order. Dayhoff was in high school when World War II started. She described the island’s initial reaction to Pearl Harbor. Like most all the other girls on the island, Dayhoff was recruited during the war to go to the local USO clubs as a volunteer to dance with the servicemen. Dayhoff recounted how some of the airmen would later fly over the beach and dip their wings to say good-bye to the girls as they flew off to war. Dayhoff described the stresses of living on the island during World War II, including blackouts, rationing, and evidence of U-Boat activity. A GI from Ft. Moultrie eventually asked Dayhoff to marry him, which she did. Doris describes in detail the origins of Sullivan’s Island Baptist Church, which she has attended for 68 years. Dayhoff discusses the changes the island has undergone in her lifetime, including the island demographics shift, the accretion of land and increased traffic on the island.
In this interview, Rovena Owens relates the story of her family on Sullivan’s Island beginning with Vincent Peter, whose father was a slave trader. According to Owen’s family tradition, one of the captured African women became both Vincent’s slave and his wife. They arrived on Sullivan’s Island around 1812-13. Owens then traces her family history through succeeding generations, many of whom were free people of color, including Louis Peters, her second great-grandfather, her great-grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Pezant, and grandmother, Margaret Etta Pezant, who married Alan Perry Jones. Their daughter, Rovena Agnes Jones, married Walter Hazel, a member of the prominent Manigault family of Charleston. Walter was “kicked out” of his family for marrying a woman of color. Rovena Agnes Jones and Walter Hazel were then the parents of Rovena Owens. While discussing her roots on Sullivan’s Island, Owens discusses the topic of racially mixed families and their general acceptance on the island. Owens contrasted this sentiment with the attitudes of those who came from other parts of the country, such as the Fort Moultrie soldiers. Owens recalls island life as “paradise” where black and white children enjoyed playing, boating, and crabbing. Sundays were always popular times for the family on the island. Her grandmother had a pot of okra soup ready for whoever appeared. Some of Owens’ fondest memories were those Sundays with the ladies in the kitchen and the men out working on some kind of “project.” Owens also discusses the efforts made on the island to preserve its historic cemeteries. She also relates her family’s struggles with major storms such Hurricane Hugo. Through all of the storms, the Owens family homestead at Station 23 and Myrtle Avenue on the marsh side of the island, locally known as the “back beach”, remains intact. To Owens, Sullivan’s Island is “home,” where she’s comfortable.
Born in Horry County, South Carolina, Bryan Rowell came to Sullivan’s Island after World War II. He reminisces about life on the island in the late 1950’s. Rowell soon became active in the political life of the island, serving on the Township Commission for 12 years from 1963 to 1975. While on the Commission he served as Civil Defense Chairman and helped prepare the island for a potential nuclear attack during the Cuban missile crisis. He also recounts the reenactment of the Battle of Sullivan’s Island that was staged in 1966, including a mishap with gunpowder that led to the death of a local teenager. Despite his best efforts to create reasonable ways to keep horses as part of the island ambiance, horses were banned during Rowell’s tenure on the Commission. Bryan Rowell is remembered by many as the member of the Exchange Club who was in charge of the skating rink at the old recreation hall that no longer exists. Rowell also operated a “Variety Store” on the island that sold everything from food to clothing. His other passion has been as a member of the local Baptist Church. Rowell recounts other memories, including conflict with the DOT over access to the Isle of Palms, the local theater productions, and the accretion of land with development of the maritime forest.
Lilly Stern Filler was born in Munich, Germany, in 1947 to Holocaust survivors Jadzia Szklarz and Ben Stern. The Sterns immigrated two years later to Columbia, South Carolina, where Gabriel Stern, Ben’s uncle and immigration sponsor, lived. This interview opens with Lilly describing a Stern (Szterenzys) family photo taken, presumably, in Poland when Ben was a little boy. Ben met Jadzia after the war through Jadzia’s brother Ben Szklarz, who was his bunkmate in the concentration camps. Lilly recounts how her parents were reunited with their siblings after the war and talks about her aunts, uncle, and cousins. The oldest of four, she shares memories of and thoughts about growing up as a daughter of survivors. After encountering antisemitism when trying to join a high school social club, Lilly’s involvement with Jewish youth groups intensified. She elaborates on what Judaism means to her, and what it means to have a Jewish home. The interviewee recalls meeting her husband, Bruce Filler, a Rhode Island native, at Rusk Institute in New York City, where both were working as physical therapists. They married in 1972, moved to Massachusetts, earned graduate degrees, and in 1975 welcomed daughter Rachel before deciding to relocate to Columbia, where they opened their own practice, Columbia Rehabilitation Clinic. Sons Alex and Michael were born in 1978 and 1980. Four years later, Lilly, pursuing a long-held dream, started medical school at the University of South Carolina. She relates some of the issues she faced going to medical school and starting a new career as a woman in her thirties and forties, and as the mother of young children. She describes partnering with Richland Memorial Hospital to open Women Physicians Associates, an all-female OB-GYN practice. In 2000 Lilly followed up on an initiative her parents had started years before to erect a Holocaust Memorial in Columbia. She discusses how the project grew to include various members of the Columbia community, Jewish and non-Jewish. The monument, located in Memorial Park, was dedicated in 2001. The Columbia Holocaust Education Commission was established with surplus from the memorial fund and shared the same goals: “remember the six million . . . honor the survivors and the liberators . . . and educate South Carolinians about the Holocaust.”
Faye Goldberg Miller, born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1938, talks about growing up on St. Philip Street, one of three children of Polish immigrants Jeanette Altman and George Goldberg. She explains why her father changed his name to Goldberg from Geldbart after arriving in the United States. George followed his brother Israel to Charleston and opened a men’s clothing shop on King Street. The family observed the Sabbath and the Jewish holidays and Jeanette kept a kosher kitchen. Despite encountering antisemitism from a few neighborhood children, Faye says she “had a wonderful childhood in Charleston.” Faye married Ivan Miller and they raised three children, Shira, Robert, and Bruce, in Columbia, South Carolina. She discusses the family business, Groucho’s Delicatessen, purchased in the early 1940s from the Rivkins by Ivan’s father, Harold Miller, with the help of Harold’s brother-in-law John Gottlieb.
Ira Rosenberg was born in New York City in 1937, eight years after his brother, Monte, to Bessie Lipschutz and Alan Rosenberg. The family moved to Richmond, Virginia, in the early 1940s, where Ira grew up in the midst of a sizable Jewish community. The Rosenbergs were Orthodox but Ira says his parents “were not very active” in the local synagogue. However, Alan insisted Ira go to shul every Saturday morning and attend Hebrew school in preparation for his bar mitzvah. Ira is joined in this interview by his wife, Anita Moise Rosefield Rosenberg, originally of Sumter, South Carolina. They married in 1963 while Ira was serving in the United States Air Force. Ultimately, they moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where they raised their children, David, Virginia, and Mindelle. Ira describes his career as a pharmacist after he was discharged from the military in 1966. In the 1980s he changed professions and opened his own business as a realtor and real estate appraiser, Rosenberg & Associates. Ira and Anita discuss changes in Reform Judaism and in their synagogue, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. They talk about Rabbi Stephanie Alexander, KKBE’s first female rabbi, and the degree of acceptance extended to lesbian and gay members by the rabbi and the congregation. Anita recalls being on the national commission of a program begun in the 1970s by Rabbi Alexander Schindler, a former president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. The program, called Outreach, was designed to encourage acceptance and inclusion of intermarried couples and their families. See also a follow-up interview (Mss. 1035-461) with the Rosenbergs, conducted on November 4, 2016.
When Pierre Manigault was a child, his grandfather Edward owned Rochelle Plantation. When his father Peter took over Rochelle’s management in Pierre’s high school years, Manigault was put to work cultivating a ten-acre rice field, giving him insight into the difficulties of this job. He recalled Herman “Duff” Holbrook, who went to work for his father as president of White Oak Forestry and manager of Rochelle. Holbrook was like another grandfather for Manigault, and a mentor with a vast fund of knowledge about wildlife and the Santee Delta. He worked with Holbrook for a number of summers and spring breaks. Manigault’s great-grandfather, Arthur, after discontinuing rice cultivation, purchased controlling interest in Charleston’s newspaper. His father Peter, when manager of the newspaper, invested in pine lands in the Delta for the raw materials necessary for newspaper, and set up White Oak Forestry, a subsidiary of Evening Post Industries. Conservation for wildlife habitat was a priority, and Peter Manigault’s conservation efforts including his leadership in establishing the first conservation easement in the Santee Delta by a private landowner. Manigault discussed the impact of the October 2015 floods on the Delta. He talked about his father’s good friend, Ted Turner, who purchased Kinloch Plantation next to Rochelle. They shared interests in media and yacht racing. Manigault reflected on the early Huguenot Manigaults who immigrated to America and the Santee Delta; he also imagined the transformation of the Delta from forest to rice fields. He considered the labor required for that massive undertaking, and the incredible craftsmanship of enslaved workers seen in such buildings as St. James Santee Church, and various Delta plantation houses. He described the significance of the Santee Delta as an internationally recognized conservation area. Manigault has followed in his father’s footsteps in working to conserve the Delta.
Shirley Gergel Ness talks about her father, Joseph Gergel, who served for three years in the Russian army before immigrating in 1914 to Columbia, South Carolina, where two of his brothers resided. Joseph volunteered for duty in the United States Army during World War I and worked as a supply sergeant in New York. He met his wife, Jean Fingerhut, when he was invited by a fellow soldier to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, for Passover. Shirley, who was born in 1928, talks about growing up in Columbia, attending public school, and working in her father's store. The interviewee intended to go to law school after graduating from the University of South Carolina in 1948; she describes how Coleman Karesh, law professor and son of Rabbi David Karesh, blocked her admission that year based on her age and gender. Shirley recalls how her husband, Everett Ness of Sumter, South Carolina, courted her; they married and moved to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1949. They ran the Nursery Nook, a children's toy and furniture store on King Street for fourteen years before going bankrupt. Their children attended Addlestone Hebrew Academy. In 1966 the Nesses moved to Columbia, the Midlands being a more convenient location for Everett, whose job as a manufacturing representative required travel to other southeastern states. Shirley contrasts the Jewish communities of Charleston and Columbia and tells the story of how a member of the Gergel family in Russia tracked down her American cousins in South Carolina, uniting the descendants of Joseph and his siblings who stayed in the Old Country.
Joseph J. Lipton discusses growing up in Beaufort, South Carolina, the eldest of three sons of Helen Stern and Samuel Lipton (Lipsitz). Samuel emigrated from Lithuania as a teen in the early 1900s, arriving first in New York. He followed a relative to Dale, South Carolina, not far from Beaufort, and worked in his store for a time before opening his own business in a small crossroads nearby called Grays Hill. He met Helen while on a visit to Charleston, South Carolina, where she lived with her brother, Gabe Stern, and worked in Kerrison's Department Store. They married in 1922 and moved to Beaufort. After graduating from Clemson College, the interviewee earned his law degree from Mercer University, a Baptist-affiliated institution in Macon, Georgia, where he was the only Jewish student. He describes how, fresh out of law school, he assisted a lawyer whose case regarding asbestos and interstate commerce advanced to the United States Supreme Court. He took a job with the South Carolina Legislative Council, where he was employed for thirty years. Lipton remembers visiting his cousins, the Sterns, in Columbia as a teen, and participating in AZA (Aleph Zadik Aleph) activities. He comments on Congregation Beth Israel in Beaufort and recalls singing Kol Nidre in the synagogue during the High Holidays.
John Baker, born in 1955 in Columbia, South Carolina, recounts the history of Baker & Baker, the law practice turned real estate development firm established by his father, David Baker, and his father's first cousin, Lee Baker, after World War II. David married JoAnn Schreiber of Brunswick, Georgia, and they raised five children in Columbia. Growing up Jewish, John remarks that although the Bakers were not very observant, they were intensely proud of their heritage. He and his twin brother, Frank, became bar mitzvahs in a double ceremony at Tree of Life Synagogue, attended by prominent South Carolina politicians, including Strom Thurmond, who knew David Baker through his civic engagement. John notes his admiration for his paternal grandmother, Clara Kligman (Kligerman) Baker, a Polish immigrant who ran a grocery store in Columbia. After earning his business degree from the University of South Carolina, the interviewee worked for real estate developer Walter Keenan. In 1979 John joined his father and Lee Baker in their firm as a property manager. Twelve years later he married Marcie Stern of Columbia; they have a daughter, Gabrielle. In the mid-1990s John and Lee Baker's son-in-law, Steven Anastasion, took over daily operations at Baker & Baker. John discusses his support of Israel and describes his involvement in the local community. The transcript contains corrections made by the interviewee during proofing.
Bill Mace grew up in Johnsonville, SC, and fished on the Lynches and Pee Dee Rivers. He learned to fish from his father, and to hunt from his grandfathers. On a fourteen-foot boat he and his brother continued to venture further on fishing, hunting, and camping trips down river to Sandy Island and Georgetown. During high school Mace worked at a wool mill, but wanted to find a job in the outdoors. After high school he went to school in Anderson for a year, considered transferring to Clemson for parks and recreation, but instead came back to Georgetown and went to work at a textile plant. Mace went to a meeting with the director of the South Carolina Game and Fish Division who encouraged him to get an associate degree in wildlife management. He attended Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Georgia, and was offered a job at Santee Coastal Reserve (SCR) by Tommy Strange in 1976. Among other tasks, Mace managed former rice fields. He took over as manager when Strange retired, and worked there for 21 years. Mace discussed brackish water management in the 24,000-acre SCR, and the constant work to repair and replace water-control structures. Mace imagined the Santee Delta before it was cleared for rice fields, and the enormous labor involved in building the rice field dikes, constructed by enslaved workers. Mace also discussed the hunts of the Santee Gun Club members, including many attempts to navigate in thick fog. Some of his work included law enforcement, and he talked about several episodes where people tried to steal old bricks from historic structures in SCR. In his 21 years at SCR there was only one episode of an accidental shooting on a hunt, and through a heroic effort by one of the guides the victim survived. SCR had significant damage from Hurricane Hugo (1989), and of many issues it took half a year to rebuild the dikes. Mace reviewed many of the conservation protections in place on the Delta’s public and private lands. He retired from the state in 2010, and went back to work as manager of Annandale Plantation, a tract of private lands (around 3500 acres) owned by Dan Ray on the north side of the Santee Rivers. He is doing similar work to what he did at SCR in managing rice fields for waterfowl. Mace lives nearby, and though he once thought of retiring to the North Carolina coast, he now can’t imagine living anywhere else. He also touched on the seasonal challenges of mosquitoes in the Delta.
Phil Wilkinson was born in Denver, Colorado, and his family moved around due to his father’s occupation as an army engineer. He moved to the Lowcountry early in his childhood, and at age 12 his family purchased Hopsewee Plantation on the North Santee River. Most of his childhood activities were in the woods or on the river. His father gave him a dory, and he and his older brother explored all around the Santee Delta including to Cedar Island for overnight stays. He learned to hunt and fish from an older black man, Daddy Ben, who lived in a cabin at Hopsewee. In his high school years he had a summer job building the new bridge over the North Santee River. Wilkinson went to USC for undergraduate studies, starting in engineering and shifting to business administration. After college he worked at Cat Island doing construction work, and the owner of the property, an ornithologist, suggested he consider a biological career. After a meeting with Jim Webb, director of the state wildlife department, he went on to get a masters degree from Auburn. Webb offered him a job at a newly acquired state property, Dirleton Plantation. During his time at Dirleton Wilkinson met Tom Yawkey, owner of South Island plantation. He recruited Wilkinson to work for him on his properties doing wildlife management, with a primary focus on waterfowl by managing impoundments and their plant ecology. He hunted quail often with Yawkey. Wilkinson imagined the Santee Delta when the virgin forest still existed, and considered the changes after the damming of the Santee River. Wilkinson gave his own perspective on dealing with biting insects. He told two stories of personal adventures in the Delta: the “Pine Top” story, and another about discovering alligator poachers. After his employment with Tom Yawkey ended, he worked for the state on endangered species, and began a long period of study of alligators, primarily on South Island. Wilkinson reflected on potential threats to the Santee Delta, and the significant conservation efforts. He compared the labor of transforming the Delta into rice fields to the building of several pyramids. He finished up by reading a poem he authored entitled “Daddy Ben”.
The former Charleston mayor discusses family storytelling. He considers himself and his mother's side of the family to be introverted. His father's side are talkative, "Irish" storytellers. Riley shares family lore he received as a child. These include impressions of his father and his political associates, including Senators James F. Byrnes and Fritz Hollings. He also shares family stories and impressions of memorable relatives, including his grandfather J. Edwin Schachte's involvement with the Knights of Columbus, his uncle Lawrence G. Riley's life in the merchant marine, and pranks with his uncle John E. Riley. Riley lore also ties the family to the Civil War through his great grandfather Henry Oliver, a Confederate veteran. After the Civil War, Oliver walked home from Richmond, Virginia. The interview concludes with Rileys childhood memories of World War Two.
Riley discusses his years in the South Carolina House of Representatives (1968-1974). During those years, Riley was part of a small group of young legislators known as the Young Turks, which attempted to pass progressive reforms but faced the opposition of conservative legislators lead by the long-time serving Speaker of the House, Solomon Blatt Sr. Riley discusses his 1968 campaign and the unsuccessful runs of James Clyburn and Herbert Fielding. The interview concludes with Riley reflecting on his wife Charlotte's role and presence in his political career.
María Asunción Córdova was born and grew up in Punta Arenas, Chile. She is the daughter of Miguel Córdova and the writer María Asunción Requena. When she was eleven years old, her parents divorced and she moved with her mother and her two brothers to Santiago de Chile. Cordova attended the University of Chile, where she graduated with the title of Doctor in Dental Surgery. There, she met her husband, Dr. Carlos Salinas. In 1972, Córdova and Salinas relocated to Baltimore, Maryland to work at the Johns Hopkins University. In this interview, Córdova remembers her life in Chile and reflects about her experiences as a young professional, mother, and activist. / María Asunción Córdova nació y vivió su infancia en Punta Arenas, Chile. Es hija de Miguel Córdova y de la escritora María Asunción Requena. Cuando tenía once años sus padres se divorciaron y tuvo que mudarse junto a su madre y sus dos hermanos a Santiago de Chile. Córdova estudió en la Universidad de Chile, donde se graduó con el título de Doctor en Cirugía Dental. Allí conoció a su esposo, el Dr. Carlos Salinas. En 1972, Córdova y Salinas se radicaron en Baltimore, Maryland para trabajar en la Universidad Johns Hopkins. En esta entrevista, Córdova recuerda su vida en Chile y reflexiona sobre sus experiencias como joven profesional, madre y activista.
Charleston?s longest-serving mayor discusses his experiences as an undergraduate at The Citadel (1960-1964). Prompted by a yearbook photo, Riley shares memories of his classmates, including a company commander with a proclivity for pranks involving wildlife. Riley also reflects on Charleston's Civil War Centennial events, which were part of a year-long national commemoration. Cadets re-enacted the December 1861 firing on the federal supply ship, the Star of the West, which preceded by four months the attack on Fort Sumter that marked the start of the Civil War. Riley recalls his cousin Steve Schachte firing a model cannon at a Star of the West replica from the roof of the family home on Charleston's Battery. Riley also describes his relationship to Thomas Nugent ("The Boo") Courvoisie, a beloved Citadel administrator. A trip to New Orleans as a member of the Summerall Guard during Riley's senior year was especially memorable. He additionally reflects on his early work experiences, including assisting his father in his insurance business and an internship in Congressman Mendel Rivers's office in Washington, DC. Riley concludes with some reflections on the influence of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. on his values.
Rosemary Smith and Keller Barron share their memories of South Carolina Democratic Senator Hyman Rubin (1913–2005), who was elected in 1966 and served for eighteen years. Rosemary, who grew up in Nazi Germany, was the administrative assistant to the Senate Medical Affairs Committee that Rubin chaired. Keller was the research director for the Joint Legislative Committee on Aging, also headed by Rubin. Both women describe Rubin’s attributes and tell stories about his contributions to the city of Columbia and the state. He was a founding member of the Columbia Luncheon Club and the Greater Columbia Community Relations Council, both organized in the early 1960s to facilitate racial integration. The interviewees note that although the senator did not “wear” his Jewishness “on his sleeve,” he did decline invitations to attend functions at Forest Lake Club in Columbia, where Jews were not accepted as members. For related materials, see Hyman Rubin’s May 24, 1995, interview, Mss 1035-024, and Rose Rudnick Rubin’s May 5, 1996, interview, Mss. 1035-072.
Stephanie Waldron grew up in Kenya on a farm in a house built by her father with no electricity. Later, her mother married Dr. Richard Dominick, who periodically visited Kenya. He was an avid hunter, hunting ducks on Long Island and big game in Kenya. During his visits to Africa they went on safaris, to photograph rather than to hunt. During his youth, Dominick traveled with his family to Coosawhatchie, SC, and developed a love for South Carolina. When he retired from his career as an ophthalmologist, he purchased the Wedge Plantation on the Santee Delta to pursue his lifelong passion of collecting moths. Waldron moved with her mother and siblings during her adolescence to the Wedge. Dominick supervised the renovation of the main house, and built a laboratory for his moth studies called the Bug House. This building also contained a darkroom for color photography development. A steady stream of visitors, scientists and collectors, came to the Wedge. The family had horses, and her stepbrother and stepsister rode often. The family bred thoroughbred racehorses, and Waldron worked with the horses. She reflected on times of the year when deerflies and mosquitoes were rampant. Dr. Dominick died in 1976, and her mother stayed at Wedge another ten years. She described the Wedge property, and recalled trips out to Cedar and Islands. The University of South Carolina purchased Wedge, and it became an institute for the study of mosquito-borne diseases. Waldron stayed on for a while before pursuing her career in film and landscaping. Students came to Wedge, and Waldron ran the kitchen and cooked on her assigned days. Waldron recalled childhood activities from Wedge with her step-siblings. Dr. Dominick had decided at age 40 to no longer hunt, and just observe wildlife. Waldron laughed about locals having trouble understanding her dialect (British). Waldron imagined the amount of labor, and the engineering required, to build all the rice fields in the Santee Delta. She recalled her first time catching shrimp with a seine net at Santee Coastal Reserve with Bill Mace. She expressed her good fortune to have lived for many years in the Santee Delta.
In this follow-up to their June 23, 2016, interview (Mss. 1035-452), Ira and Anita Rosenberg talk about their children and grandchildren and how they observed Judaism as a family when the children were growing up. Ira notes that he was a co-founder of Dragon Boat Charleston, served on the boards of Charleston Jewish Community Center and Charleston Jewish Federation, and is a past president of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. He discusses the benefits of Jewish community centers, his thoughts on the recent transition of the local center to one without walls, and his feelings about the presence of Chabad in the area.
Mike Prevost grew up in Georgetown, SC, and his interest in the outdoors developed in his summers spent at Pawley’s Island. He became an avid duck hunter, and his experiences in rice fields inspired his career in coastal habitat ecology. Prevost received his BS from the University of Georgia (UGA) in 1973, and afterward was employed for three years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the Georgia coast. He returned to UGA for a Masters, studying under Dr. Sydney Johnson, and did his thesis fieldwork at Kinloch Plantation in the Santee Delta on brackish marsh waterfowl foods. Prevost received mentoring from Kinloch’s manager, Kenny Williams, as well as from Phil Wilkinson. After completing his degree, he was employed by SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) working on mosquito control, particularly on understanding the ecology of the mosquito and source reduction. Prevost moved on to employment with SC Wildlife Marine Resources Department (SCMRD) with a focus on waterfowl habitat. The range of his work was from Savannah to Georgetown, and he spent much of his time in the Santee Delta. The work in the outdoors provided a number of challenges: biting insects, equipment issues, and the need to often improvise. Part of his time with SCMRD included working at Bear Island in Colleton County, and during that time the concept of the ACE Basin Project evolved. Prevost became a coordinator for the ACE Basin Task Force. After the ACE Basin Project he went to work full time for The Nature Conservancy as the project director for the Sewee To Santee landscape. In 2010, Prevost had the opportunity to go to work for White Oak Forestry Corporation, a subsidiary of Evening Post Industries. White Oak Forestry consists of 17,000 acres in the lower Santee Delta, and was established by Peter Manigault, a visionary conservationist who was the first landowner to place a conservation easement on private land in the Santee Delta. Prevost followed Duff Holbrook as president and manager of White Oak Forestry, and he told two stories about experiences with Holbrook out in the Delta at Six Mile Island. He reflected on the Delta from hundreds of years ago, the changes created by the development of rice culture, and by the Santee Cooper project that reduced the Santee River flow by 90 percent. Prevost recalled some notable people from the Delta, including William Garrett and Ben Willy Richardson. Of threats to the Delta he identified changing climate and sea level rise. Prevost discussed the high significance of the Santee Delta on a number of levels.
William Garrett grew up on Blake Plantation, part of the Santee Gun Club. His parents were George and Celia Garrett; his father was a trunk minder. During his youth Garrett helped his family grow rice. He had four sisters and four brothers. The family did not have electricity so he cut wood for heating and cooking, and pumped water. Garrett told a story about swimming with his brother Moses toward a log in the South Santee River that turned out to be a large alligator. When he was a young guide for the Gun Club the manager allowed his brother and him to go over to Murphy Island to hunt cattle. He started working for the Santee Gun Club at age 18 or 19 for a salary of $2.50 per week. His main responsibility was to take care of the Santee Gun Club members he was guiding, and get them back safely after the day’s hunt. These hunts took place in blinds on the mainland (the Cape) and on Murphy and Cedar Islands. He recalled a young overconfident guide on his first day stating he could find his way back. When the young guide and his member were long overdue, the manager sent Garrett to find them. Garrett recalled going with his uncle to Murphy Island to get turtle eggs during his childhood. He recalled cattle lined up along the beach at night to get away from the mosquitoes. Garrett said he got used to the mosquitoes. He mentioned the names of some of the Gun Club members, and recalled taking Peter Matthiessen, the son of one of the members, goose hunting on Murphy one evening. Garrett was very worried about potential changes when the Gun Club was transferred to the state of South Carolina. He remembered walking four miles from his home on Blake Plantation to court his wife in South Santee. They were married in 1946. Part of his work for the Gun Club and the state was to build trunks, water control structures, and place them in the dikes. Garrett related his experience in South Santee during Hurricane Hugo. He shared three stories of accidental shootings at the Gun Club. Garrett mentioned changes in fishing after the Santee River was dammed and some of his fishing experiences. He also commented on race relations in the area.
Kenny Williams was born December 20, 1942. He grew up in Georgetown, SC in a lower middle class family. He learned fishing, hunting, and wildlife ethics from his father and uncles. He received an undergraduate degree from Wofford College, and a masters degree in wildlife biology from Auburn. While at Auburn, he applied for employment at Kinloch Plantation, owned by the Dupont family, and began work there after graduation. He learned about plantation management from the manager, Richard Stanland, and replaced him as manager when Stanland retired. The work at Kinloch included farming, use of water control structures, and managing rice fields for migratory waterfowl. The labor, working with a few employess, was often hard and challenging. Kinloch had a clubhouse where the family entertained friends and guests during the winter season, and his related responsibilities were directing the daily duck hunts and other wildlife hunts. While manager he was married and had two sons who grew up there. Williams had a "great" cook, Irene Rivens, who worked and cooked for him. The Duponts decided to sell Kinloch, which was purchased by Ted Turner; Williams discussed this transition. The biting insects of the Santee Delta were seasonally a most difficult challenge, and he recounted dealing with the worst times. Williams imagined what the Santee Delta was like when it was a virgin gum and cypress forest, and the effort required to build the rice fields. He commented on changes for the Santee Delta’s black population. Speaking about the conservation of the Santee Delta, he discussed his work as a consultant in land management for wildlife, and a regional biologist for Ducks Unlimited. He recalled a summer job while still at Auburn as a biological technician in Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, and a close encounter with a cottonmouth on Bulls Island. Williams also reflected on changes in the Santee Delta as a result of the damming of the Santee River, and decreasing waterfowl populations. Williams discussed the significance of the Santee Delta.
Jane Wineglass was born in 1927, and grew up in the South Santee community at Collins Creek. She was the youngest of fifteen children, and a self-described tomboy. Her mother, Eve (maiden name Manigault) Green, was born on Murphy Island; her father was Sambo Green. Her mother worked as a cook at the Wedge Plantation, and walked to and from work. When her mother became disabled, Wineglass took over as cook and eventually worked for a new owner, Dr. Richard Dominick. He hosted an annual event in the South Santee community. Wineglass also played at the Wedge during her childhood: beside her mother working there she had a number of family members living there. The Dominicks had a home in London, and took Wineglass there for six weeks. She went along as cook, but for her it was a "glorious" vacation. After Dominick died and the Wedge was purchased by the University of South Carolina, she went to work for a while at the Santee Gun Club. Wineglass recalled her father and his work as a carpenter: repairing homes, building homes, building trunks for controlling water, and generally doing "neat" work. In dealing with mosquitoes, she would break off branches from a shrub to beat them off. Though Wineglass was raised in a large family, she had only one child, a son, who died from being "heartbroken". She still has grandchildren in NC who occasionally visit. Wineglass recalled her parents growing rice in a low spot on their property. Her father used a wagon to go to work, pulled by an oxen named Pete. The animal was given to the family by the government to use for plowing their garden. Since her childhood, Wineglass has attended the same church, Greater Mount Zion AME Church. She became one of their local ministers. She reflects on the tragedy at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston. She regularly attends Sunday school, Sunday service, an evening service at another church in Awendaw, and a Tuesday evening prayer meeting. Of her fourteen siblings, only one, William Green, is still alive. The most important aspect of the Santee Delta for Wineglass: it is home, and the best place for her to be.
Henrietta Smalls was born in Germantown SC on October 24, 1925 to Mary and Isaiah Robinson. She moved to Shulerville and Mauss Swamp before returning to Germantown. According to Smalls, life was rough: there was no electricity or running water, and there was little opportunity for employment. Her mother planted a garden and cooked on wood fires; the family also had cows, hogs, and chickens. Smalls helped out by gathering firewood, pumping water from a well, and washing clothes. Walking was a necessity without a car. She married Peter Smalls; he served in the Army in the Pacific in World War II, and afterward worked for many years at the Naval Shipyard. Before she married, Smalls worked at Hampton Plantation a couple days a week in the flower gardens. She had four children, and after they were all in school she went to work in Charleston at National Linen. Smalls’ godmother was Sue Alston, known as the Angel of Hampton Plantation. She spent much time with Alston at her home in Germantown, and described her as the mother of the community. Smalls went to her church – Howard AME – and attended prayer meetings at her home. She has continued to plant a garden, and greens are her favorite. Smalls talked about Hurricane Hugo, and the recent flooding. After the family got a car, Smalls helped out members of the Germantown community, taking people shopping, to the doctor, and on other business. She reflected on changes in her community.
Iris was born in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico. Her grandmother served as her main caregiver because her mother worked full time and studied on the weekends. She suffered the absence of her mother, but from her she learned to strive for her goals. As a teenager, she was sent to Mexico City to study cosmetology. When she returned to her town, she fell in love and had her first child at seventeen. She had her own hairdressing and beauty business, but she aspired to a better quality of life for herself and her child. Excited by the stories of prosperity coming from the north, she decided to emigrate. She left her nine-year-old son with her sister and embarked on the difficult journey to cross the border. The crossing was plagued by situations of danger and abuse. Life in the United States was more difficult than she had anticipated, and her plans to reunite with her child took six years to complete. The reunion was fraught with difficulties and the family needed a lot of time and determination to heal their wounds. Iris’s son was at risk of deportation but, fortunately, he was able to apply for DACA and receive approval. Iris worked as a promoter in the PASOs program and currently continues to volunteer in the community and her parish.Nació en la ciudad de Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, México en el año de 1972. Siendo niña estuvo al cuidado de su abuelita porque su madre trabajaba a tiempo completo y estudiaba los fines de semana. Sufrió la ausencia de su madre, pero de ella aprendió a luchar por superarse y lograr sus metas. Siendo adolescente se fue a vivir a la Ciudad de México para estudiar cosmetología. Cuando a volvió a su pueblo se enamoró y a los diecisiete años tuvo a su primer hijo. Tenía su propio negocio de peluquería y belleza, pero aspiraba a una mejor calidad de vida para ella y su niño. Entusiasmada con las historias de prosperidad que le llegaban del norte decidió emigrar. Dejó a su hijo de nueve años con su hermana y emprendió el difícil viaje para cruzar la frontera. El cruce estuvo plagado de situaciones de peligro y abuso. En Estados Unidos las cosas fueron más difíciles de lo que había anticipado y sus planes de reunirse con su niño demoraron seis años en cumplirse. El reencuentro estuvo plagado de dificultades y la familia necesitó mucho tiempo y trabajo para reparar las heridas. El joven estuvo a punto de ser deportado, pero afortunadamente pudo acogerse a los beneficios de DACA. Lopez trabajó como promotora en el programa PASOs, y actualmente sigue ofreciendo su trabajo voluntario en la comunidad y su parroquia.
López was born in Mexico City in 1978, but grew up with her grandparents in a very small town called Huaycali in the state of Guerrero. Recalling her childhood, López reminisces about the responsibilities she had as a peasant girl and describes the customs and celebrations of her land. As a teenager, she crossed the border with her family and, after a difficult and dangerous journey, arrived in Johns Island, South Carolina, where one of her aunts lived. Almost immediately, López started working in the fields to pay for the expenses of her trip. A short time later, a young friend from Mexico came looking for her. They were married soon after, and have been together ever since. They have two children and consider Johns Island their place in the world. In her interview, López explains that education is very important to her and her husband, which is why they have made an effort to learn, better themselves, and train as community leaders. In this learning process, she explains, the sisters of Our Lady of Mercy played a crucial role. López also reflects on her work with various community organizations such as PASOs, Family Corps, and Holy Spirit Parish.López nació en la Ciudad de México en 1978 pero creció junto a sus abuelitos, en un pueblo muy pequeño llamado Huaycali en el estado de Guerrero. Recordando su infancia, López cuenta acerca de las responsabilidades que tenía como niña campesina y describe las costumbres y celebraciones de su tierra. Siendo adolescente, cruzó la frontera con su familia y después de un viaje azaroso y difícil llegó a Johns Island, South Carolina donde residía una de sus tías. Apenas llegada, Alma comenzó a trabajar en la agricultura para poder pagar los gastos de su viaje. Al poco tiempo, un joven amigo de México llegó a buscarla y enseguida se casaron. Desde entonces López y su esposo han estado juntos. Tienen dos hijos y consideran a Johns Island su lugar en el mundo. López explica que la educación es muy importante para ella y su marido y que por esa razón se han esforzado en aprender y formarse como líderes comunitarios. En ese proceso de aprendizaje, su relación con las hermanas de Our Lady of Mercy tuvo un rol fundamental. López, también reflexiona acerca de su trabajo con distintas organizaciones comunitarias como PASOs, Family Corps y la Parroquia Holy Spirit.
In the second part of her interview, Margarita recalls the different places she’s worked since her family settled in the Lowcountry. Her first job was in North Charleston in a food processing facility, where she spent most of her working hour processing vegetables in a walk-in cooler. She withdrew from that position because she was pregnant and the long hours of work in the intense cold were affecting her health. After the birth of her baby, she got a job at Carolina Nurseries in Moncks Corner and was surprised by how many Mexican workers the company employed. Currently, she works with her husband in a landscape company. Upon arriving in the Lowcountry, Margarita and her family settled in a neighborhood located behind Midland Park Elementary. Margarita remembers with great affection the Midland Park teachers who, from the first school day, supported and encouraged her daughter and continued providing help, support, and encouragement throughout her time at school. Her daughter, a young DACA, is studying at the University of Delaware. Margarita reflects on the limitations she had as a mother to support her daughter in the process of applying for college and expresses the immense pride she feels for her daughter’s achievements.En la segunda parte de la entrevista, Margarita recuerda los distintos lugares en los que trabajó desde que se establecieron en el Lowcountry. El primero, fue en North Charleston en una cámara frigorífica procesando verdura. Se retiró de ese lugar porque estaba embarazada y las largas horas de trabajo en el frio intenso le estaban afectando su salud. Después del nacimiento de su bebe consiguió trabajo en Carolina Nurseries en Moncks Corner y se sorprendió de la cantidad de trabajadores mexicanos que la compañía empleaba. Actualmente trabaja con su marido en una compañía de jardinería. Al llegar al Lowcountry, Margarita y su familia se establecieron en un vecindario ubicado atrás de la escuela Midland Park. Margarita recuerda con mucho afecto a los maestros de esa escuela que desde el primer día apoyaron y alentaron a su hija y que a lo largo de su vida escolar la acompañaron y la ayudaron a encontrar recursos para progresar. Su hija, una joven DACA, estudia en la Universidad de Delaware. Margarita reflexiona acerca de las limitaciones que tuvo como madre para apoyar a su hija en el proceso de ingresar a la universidad y expresa el orgullo inmenso que siente por los logros de la joven.
Carmela was born in a rural community called Ojo de Agua, Santa Cruz, Nundaco, Tlaxiaco, in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. She grew up speaking Mixtec, learned to speak Spanish in school, and from an early age helped her family with the house and small farm chores. At the age of fourteen, after finishing middle school, she moved to Mexico City. In the interview, Carmela tells about her life in the capital, first under the care of her mother's godmother and then employed with two other families. She tells about the things she learned living in a big city, but also about the situations of injustice and abuse to which she was subjected. Back in her village, Carmela married a childhood friend. Unfortunately, the couple's first baby was stillborn. The loss of her child left her in such deep pain that her family feared for her mental health. Relatives and friends advised them to travel to the United States to distract themselves and recover. Though she was initially unwilling to leave her homeland and terrified to cross the border, she joined her husband anyway and set off along the road to the north. Carmela remembers how they prepared for the trip and the problems they faced in the desert. She also tells of her first impressions upon arriving in South Carolina and how she learned to live in the United States, where her three children were born. Finally, Carmela reflects on work, access to education and health services, her concerns about immigration raids, and her dreams for her family.Carmela nació en una comunidad rural llamada Ojo de Agua, Santa Cruz, Nundaco, Tlaxiaco, en el estado de Oaxaca, México. Creció hablando mixteco, aprendió a hablar español en la escuela y desde temprana edad trabajó junto a su familia en las tareas de la casa y el campo. A los catorce años, después de terminar la escuela media se mudó a la Ciudad de México. En la entrevista, Barrios relata cómo fue su vida en la capital, primero bajo el cuidado de la madrina de su madre y luego empleada con otras dos familias. Cuenta las cosas que aprendió viviendo en una gran ciudad, pero también las situaciones de injusticia y abuso a las que fue sometida. De vuelta en su pueblo, Barrios se casó con un amigo de la infancia. Desafortunadamente el primer bebe de la pareja nació muerto. La pérdida de su niño la dejó sumida en un dolor tan profundo que su familia temió por su salud mental. Familiares y amigos le aconsejaron que viajara a los Estados Unidos para distraerse y recuperarse. Sin deseos de dejar su tierra y aterrorizada de cruzar la frontera, emprendió junto a su esposo, el camino al norte. Barrios recuerda cómo se prepararon para el viaje y los problemas que enfrentaron en el desierto. También cuenta sus primeras impresiones al llegar a Carolina del Sur y cómo fue su proceso de aprender a vivir en los Estados Unidos donde nacieron sus tres hijos. Por último, Barrios reflexiona sobre el trabajo, el acceso a la educación y los servicios de salud, sus preocupaciones sobre las redadas de inmigración y sobre sus sueños para su familia.
Felipa was born in a small town in the state of Oaxaca called Capulín and grew up there with her parents and six siblings. She never went to school and contributed to the family economy by participating in the house and field chores from a very young age. Her father was a seasonal agricultural worker in northern Mexico, and Felipa began traveling and working with him when she was nine years old. At the age of fourteen, she moved in with the father of her first daughter, who later emigrated to the United States and never returned. She met and married a farmworker from Guerrero, and together they decided to try their luck in the United States. They traveled the country, working in the fields and in poultry processing plants. Her marital life was very difficult, and fearing for her life, Felipa returned to Mexico. Determined to turn her life around, she left her children with her mother and returned to work in the United States with the illusion of saving enough money to be able to have the whole family together. "My reason is to bring all my children here in the United States so that I can work and give what they want and they can study, " Felipa said. She is now grateful to have achieved her dream: "When I reunited with all my children I told them, ‘Now I'm happy,’ and even now I'm still happy for it, because a daughter died, but I know she died, I know where she is, I know where she went. But they're all with me, I know what they do, I know what they are going to do. There is one who obeys, one does not obey, but I am with them.” Felipa proudly reveals that one of her sons, Antonio, graduated with honors from Strafford High School and is currently a student at the College of Charleston. Felipa nació en un pequeño pueblo del estado de Oaxaca llamado Capulín y allí creció junto a sus padres y seis hermanos. Nunca fue a la escuela y desde pequeña tuvo que dedicarse a las labores del hogar y el campo. Su padre trabajaba como campesino migrante en el norte de México y a los nueve años, Felipa López empezó a viajar a la cosecha junto con él. A los catorce años se fue a vivir con el padre de su primera hija, quien luego emigró a Estados Unidos y nunca más regresó con ellas. Más tarde se unió a otro jornalero originario de Guerrero, y juntos decidieron probar suerte en Estados Unidos. Recorrieron el país trabajando en la agricultura y en plantas procesadoras de pollo, pero a causa de los problemas matrimoniales y temiendo por su vida Felipa regresó a México. Decidida a dar un vuelco en su vida, dejó a sus hijos a cargo de su madre y regresó a trabajar a Estados Unidos con la ilusión de ahorrar para poder tener a toda la familia junta. “No perdí tiempo”” Mi razón es traer todos mis hijos aquí en Estados Unidos, para que yo pueda trabajar y dar lo que ello quiere y estudiar ellos.” Felipa se siente agradecida de haber logrado su sueño: “cuando yo encontré todos mis hijos les dije, ahora sí estoy feliz y hasta horita sigo siendo feliz por ello, porque una mi hija se murió, pero sé que se murió, sé dónde está, sé dónde se fue, pero todos ellos están conmigo, sé lo que hacen, sé lo que piensan hacer, hay uno obedece, uno no obedece, pero estoy con ellos.” Felipa cuenta con orgullo que uno de sus hijos, Antonio, se graduó con honores en la escuela Strafford y actualmente es alumno del College of Charleston.
The former mayor of Charleston reflects on the first seven months of his retirement and indicates that he is satisfied with the decision not to seek re-election. He also comments on recent protests in cities across the country regarding the use of excessive force by police departments. The bulk of the interview focuses on the events related to Hurricane Hugo in September 1989 and his leadership of the recovery efforts. He discusses the challenge of alerting residents to the coming danger and the need to evacuate without triggering panic. He remembers the evening of the storm, hunkered down in City Hall with key staff. Riley stressed to Police Chief Reuben Greenberg that there should be no looting in the aftermath of the storm. He also discusses key events during the recovery. He concludes with memories of his only Oval Office meeting with President Ronald Reagan, who showed little interest in the discussion of low income housing.
Riley discusses his efforts at revitalizing downtown through the development of the Charleston Place hotel and Waterfront Park. He faced strong opposition to Charleston Place (originally Charleston Center) from preservationists and local merchants, including Maier Hyman. One opponent nearly landed a blow at the conclusion of a city council meeting. Riley also describes the negotiations that took place to acquire properties between Meeting and King Streets and to relocate tenants, including the Washington Light Infantry. The city received critical financial support for King St. revitalization from the US Economic Development Association and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The former mayor of Charleston discusses the troubled origins of the Spoleto Festival - Charleston's performing arts festival that began in 1977. The Charleston events are the US counterpart to the "Festival of Two Worlds" in Spoleto, Italy. Riley recounts the early financial and leadership struggles that led to the departure of festival chairman, Hugh Lane. He also discusses his working relationship with Spoleto's founder, the Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti. During an especially lean year, Riley provided personal funds to keep the festival afloat. Riley also recalls taking some pride in his nickname "Little Black Joe" or "LBJ." Detractors dubbed him LBJ to suggest that he was pandering to the African American community for votes. He concludes with some reflections on police reform early in his tenure. Police Chief John Conroy worked to rid the police force of "thumpers," or those officers prone to violence.
Charleston's long-time mayor discusses policing, comparing chiefs Reuben Greenberg (1982-2005) and his successor, Gregory G. Mullen (2006-present). Riley reflects on the physical and mental health issues that led to Greenberg's retirement. He also recounts the racially charged fights that marred the Sertoma Classic football games in 1977. Riley offers remembrances of civil rights leader Septima P. Clark.
Riley discusses his close ties to Hillary and Bill Clinton. Riley discusses meeting and supporting Bill Clinton during his presidential campaign. Clinton returned the favor and assisted Riley to keep the federal courthouse downtown. Riley also discusses his discovery and enthusiasm for Barack Obama. Riley explains his support for Obama over Hillary Clinton in 2008. He asserts that he has maintained a positive relationship to the Clintons despite opposing the administration's decision to close the Charleston Navy Base. He acknowledges that the campaign to keep the base open distracted him from his campaign for governor in 1994.
The former Charleston mayor discusses the impact of Hurricane Hugo (1989) on the region. He spotlights the emotional toll that it took on area residents and rejects suggestions that the storm benefited Charleston. Hugo elevated Riley's public profile, but he declined to run in the 1990 governor's race. The recovery led to tensions with Federal Emergency Management Authority and Republican officials. Riley expressed gratitude for Senator Ernest Hollings' outspoken criticisms of FEMA. Riley observes that FEMA is more proactive and professional as a result of their failures in 1989.
Riley describes his close relationship with the Carter administration. He discusses receiving a surprise Sunday evening phone call from President Carter and the president's visit to Charleston. Riley also explains how his close ties to the administration aided in the annexation of the Citadel mall into the city of Charleston in 1980.
Alan Kahn was born in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1940, the first of two children of Katie Bogen and Irwin Kahn. Alan talks about his paternal grandfather, Myron B. Kahn, who emigrated from Russia to New York in 1904, and then moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked as a carpenter and builder. Ethel Kaufman Kahn, his first wife and Irwin's mother, died when Irwin was about two years old. Myron moved to St. Augustine, Florida, and finally to Columbia in the late 1920s, where he established a construction company, first partnering with another builder; later they separated and Kahn formed M. B. Kahn Construction Company. A second marriage didn't work out, and Myron married a third time, to widow Bessie Peskin Rubin of Columbia. Irwin, who joined the family business after graduating college in the mid-1930s, was responsible for broadening the company's scope to include construction management. Alan describes the construction management process and compares it to development practices. Irwin married Katie Bogen, a native of Denmark, South Carolina. Alan shares memories of his mother, her siblings, and their parents, Joseph and Bella Bogen. He discusses his involvement with Aleph Zadik Aleph, how he met his wife, Charlotte Segelbaum, and Charlotte's experiences as a Jewish French National living in Egypt after Gamal Abdel Nasser became president. She was a teenager when her family left Egypt in 1957 and started a new life in Washington, D.C. Alan and Charlotte married in 1965, settled in Columbia, and Alan joined Kahn Construction. The couple raised three children, Kevin, Charles, and Monique. Referring to how older members of Columbia's Beth Shalom reacted to the Civil Rights Movement, Alan notes, "We had a Jewish community that was afraid to speak out when I was growing up." They feared a backlash targeting the Jewish community, and it affected who they hired as their rabbi. Alan attended Duke University and describes the school's integration and quota policies during the late 1950s, early '60s. Alan shares his vision of the Kahn family legacy and his personal philosophy on life.
Helen Kronrad Coplan, one of four children of Fannie Levine and Oskar Kronrad, discusses growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, in the 1920s and 1930s. Oskar, an Austrian immigrant, ran an auto parts store in the capital city. Helen recalls her mother’s baking skills and shopping with Fannie for kosher chickens butchered by Rev. David Karesh. She describes her memories of racial segregation practices in Columbia, and of the Big Apple, an African American nightclub, housed in the former House of Peace Synagogue on Park Street, and known as the birthplace of the Big Apple dance that became popular in 1937. In 1940 Helen married Louis Coplan, also a Columbia native, and they raised five children in their hometown. After serving on the aircraft carrier USS Lexington in the South Pacific during World War II, Louis joined his father, Max Coplan, in his grocery business in Columbia. Helen was a saleswoman for World Book encyclopedias.
Margarita was born in Santiago Juxtlahuaca in a very small town in the Sierra de Oaxaca, Mexico. Much of her childhood was spent in a shelter for children, where she suffered from the lack of family affection and from economic shortcomings. At sixteen, she went to live with her uncles in Mexico City and began working. "I was rebellious. I wanted to learn, to get out of poverty, to wear beautiful clothes," she recalls. When she returned to Oaxaca, she worked as a bilingual employee at a small local bank. She met a boy who was a seasonal worker in the United States, and they got married and had two children. Facing the scarcity of resources in Mexico, her husband decided to migrate again, and this time she joined him. They left their children with their mother-in-law and went to California to work in agriculture. They missed their children terribly and considered returning to Mexico, but in the end, they decided that it was better for the children to join them in the United States. Together they traveled and worked in different parts of the country until they finally settled in South Carolina.Margarita nació en Santiago Juxtlahuaca en un pueblo muy pequeño de la Sierra de Oaxaca, México. Gran parte de su infancia transcurrió en un albergue para niños donde sufrió la falta de afecto familiar y las carencias económicas. A los dieciséis años se fue a vivir con unos tíos a la Ciudad de México y allí comenzó a trabajar. “Era rebelde, quería aprender, salir de la pobreza, usar ropa bonita”. Cuando volvió a Oaxaca, trabajó como empleada bilingüe en un pequeño banco local. Conoció a un muchacho que trabajaba por temporadas en Estados Unidos, se casaron y tuvieron dos niños. Cuando la necesidad económica los apremió, el decidió volver a emigrar y ella se le unió. Dejaron los niños con su suegra y fueron a California a trabajar en la agricultura. Dado que extrañaban mucho a los pequeños pensaron en volverse, pero al final decidieron que era mejor que los niños se les unieran en Estados Unidos. Todos juntos viajaron y trabajaron en distintas partes del país hasta que finalmente se establecieron en Carolina del Sur.
Prentiss Avery Walton (b. 1995). His parents met when his father, a USA citizen, was visiting relatives stationed in a military base in Panama. Walton was born in Williamsburg, Virginia but spent most of his childhood in Rock Hill, South Carolina. His mother homeschooled him and his siblings. In 2006, affected by the declining USA economy, the family relocated to Panama. Walton lived there until he was 16 years old and returned to the USA to finish high school and attend college. In the interview, Walton reflects about growing up in a Black-Latino-Muslim family in two different countries. He talks about being a Citadel cadet, his involvement with campus life as a member of National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI), the Gay-Straight Alliance, and Student Association for Latin and Spanish Awareness (SALSA), and his dreams and plans for the future. Finally, he tells about his fears related to the effects of Trump's racist rhetoric on his communities.
Deborah Blalock was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1959. When she was two years old, her family moved to James Island. She was a student at Nativity School and Bishop England High School and graduated from the College of Charleston majoring in English. Also, she trained as a hand engraver, working at Litaker's and in her father's business, Shogry's Gold Showcase. Years later, she decided to pursue a new career and attended The Citadel earning a master's degree in counseling. She completed her practicum at New Directions, a program of the Charleston Dorchester Mental Health Center (CDMHC) and was offered employment immediately after. In 2004, she became the center director. In the interview, Blalock describes CDMHC's daily operations, the partnership with other community organizations, and how services have evolved over the years. She provides a detailed account of the response to the Sofa Super Store fire and the creation of the First Responders Support Team. Finally, she remembers the aftermath of the Mother Emanuel's tragic shooting and tells about the efforts to provide support to the families of the victims since then. At the time of the interview, the families were preparing for the trial of the killer, Dylann Roof.
Richard Gergel, born in 1954 in Columbia, South Carolina, is joined in this interview by his wife, Belinda Friedman Gergel. He is the youngest of three children of Meri Friedman and Melvin Gergel, who owned a number of stores in the capital city. Richard provides background on his immigrant grandparents and how they came to the United States. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Gergel, was from Ukraine; he married Jean Fingerhut of Toronto, Canada. Before running Gergel?s Men?s Shop on Main Street in Columbia, Joseph peddled and operated a store on Assembly Street. The interviewee explains how his maternal grandparents, Rebecca Dreiziak/Dreiszek and Sam Friedman, ended up in his hometown after raising Meri and her sisters in Kingstree, South Carolina. Richard describes growing up in Columbia and talks about the merchants who lined Main Street, most of them Jewish and many related to the Friedmans. He attended Keenan High School and served as the student body president in 1970?71, the year the school transitioned from a junior high to a high school and became fully integrated. ?I was very committed to this issue of making school desegregation work.? Regarding antisemitism in Columbia, Richard remembers ?isolated episodes in my childhood, but they were so unusual that they actually stood out because that was not the norm. Jews were generally very accepted.? However, he does cite instances of antisemitism in earlier decades reported to him by his father. Richard notes ?there was no institution more important to my family than the Tree of Life Congregation,? and recalls studying with Rabbi Gruber in preparation for his bar mitzvah at the Reform synagogue. He discusses his family?s involvement on the boards of the congregation and the Columbia Hebrew Benevolent Society. After earning his law degree at Duke University, Richard returned to Columbia to work in private practice; in 2009 he was nominated to the United States District Court for South Carolina by the Obama administration. The interviewee recounts how, about a decade ago, he learned of Gergel relatives living in Russia. When his grandfather Joseph and Joseph?s three brothers, Isidore, Max, and Gustave, came to Columbia, they left behind four brothers and a sister in Ukraine. The separated branches of the family confirmed their connection when both were able to produce the same family photo, taken on the occasion of Isidore Gergel?s visit home after immigrating to America. Note: see also interviews with Melvin Gergel?s sister, Shirley Gergel Ness, January 21, 2016, Mss. 1035-449 and Meri Friedman Gergel and her sister Rae Friedman Berry, July 17, 1997, Mss. 1035-154.
Larraine Lourie Moses, born in in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1949, the middle child of Toby Baker and Solomon "Sol" Lourie, talks about her extended family, particularly her grandparents, Clara Kligerman and Frank Baker, and Ann "Annie" Friedman and Louis Lourie. The Bakers were Reform Jews who did not keep kosher, nor celebrate Passover. The Louries were Orthodox and Annie kept a strictly kosher home in St George, South Carolina. After Louis Lourie died, Annie married Hyman Simon in 1950 and moved to Columbia where they opened Mitchell's Men's Shop on Main Street. Just two years earlier, Annie's eldest son, Sol Lourie had established Lourie's Department Store, also on Main Street. Larraine recounts stories about her brothers, Frank and Barry; her grandmother Clara Baker and Clara's grocery store in Columbia; and her aunt Freda Baker Kornblut, who married Moses Kornblut of Latta, South Carolina. Larraine's parents raised Larraine and her brothers in Columbia's Beth Shalom during the time the congregation changed its affiliation from Orthodox to Conservative. The interviewee discusses her father's love of the game of bridge; he was a life master and traveled to tournaments in other U.S. cities, accompanied by her mother. While they were out of town, Margie Robinson, an African-American woman who worked for the family, would stay with the Lourie children. Growing up, Larraine was unaware of discrimination against African Americans. Looking back, however, she notes that her father was the first merchant on Main Street to hire a black man, Walter Jones, for a job that was not janitorial. He ran the receiving room and had the keys to the store. Larraine describes how she met her husband, Jeff Moses, who is related to one of the Berry (Sam and Lou) families of Columbia. She and Jeff have two children, Sam and Heidi, whom they raised in Columbia's Reform synagogue, Tree of Life. In the decades that the Moses family have been members, Larraine has noticed a decline in attendance at services. She explains how "being a good Jew is not necessarily going to the services," and offers her thoughts on what constitutes being religious.
Mary Ann Sullivan (b. 1944) was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. She attended the College of Charleston and then the University of Georgia where she graduated with an M.A in Classics. Sullivan worked as a teacher for a few years and in 1976 joined the Mayor’s Office of the City of Charleston as a grant writer. She became Mayor Joseph P. Riley executive assistant and continued working with him until his retirement in 2016. In the interview, Sullivan remembers growing up in Charleston and the events that contributed to her early political interests. She also talks about her experiences working with Mayor Riley through critical moments in the history of the city such as the development of the Charleston Place, Hurricane Hugo, the annexations of Daniel Island and James Island, the Sofa Super Store fire and the Mother Emanuel massacre. Sullivan reflects about Riley’s leadership style and his inclusion of minorities in government. Finally, she talks about her decision to retire and her plans for the future.
Librarian and educator Kim Williams Odom was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1970. Her family moved to the Jacksonville Military Base in North Carolina when she was in elementary school. Years later, she returned to Charleston as a single mother looking for a better life for herself and her child. She started taking her young daughter to the J.L. Dart Public Library and there she met Cynthia Graham Hurd who became her boss, her mentor, and her best friend. In the interview, Williams Odom tells about her family's deep roots in Charleston and takes pride in her relatives' achievements and contributions to the community. She remembers her struggles to overcome discrimination and succeed in a hostile school environment in North Carolina and tells about her dreams to become a cultural worker. She also talks about her extended career as a public librarian, including her role in the celebration of the J.L. Dart Public Library 85th anniversary and her experience as a manager at the St. Paul's library in Hollywood. She asserts her family's and Graham Hurd's values and ideas shaped her approach to community work. Finally, Williams Odom remembers the day her friend, along with the other eight church members, was killed at Mother Emanuel AME Church. She explains her refusal to let her friend's story to be reduced and defined by the hate and racism that took her life. Instead, she chose to honor Graham Hurd's life and legacy by keeping her work alive and committing her time and energy to several local projects that accomplished that goal. Finally, she states she is taking time to privately mourn her beloved friend.
Thomas Spera (b.1994). His father was born in the USA and his mother in Argentina. They met while on vacation and fell in love. The young couple made Scotch Plains, New Jersey home and there raised Spera and his two youngest siblings. Interested in pursuing a military career, he enrolled at The Citadel. In the interview, Spera recalls his pre-knob week and his time adjusting to The Citadel's culture as a member of the Band Company. He states his appreciation for the Political Science teachers and the value of having well-versed instructors. Spera reflects on his Latino identity and about embracing his Latino roots. Finally, he observes that The Citadel benefits by having a more diverse student body.
Interview with Bill and Suzanne McIntosh, long-time owners of 66 Anson Street (Chazal House), who reminisce about their home and the changes in the Ansonborough neighborhood that they have witnessed over the past 50+ plus years. Mr. McIntosh was a long-time Charlestonian who descended from Mary Fisher Bailey Cross, a Quaker, who came to Charleston in 1680. He grew up on Greenhill Street and later lived on New and Broad Streets. He went to the Craft School and High School of Charleston. He owned a successful travel agency on Broad Street and was the president of the Preservation Society during the "Omni [now Charleston Place] controversies." Mrs. McIntosh is from New Orleans where they met when both were in college. Mrs. McIntosh worked for the Evening Post. They purchased 66 Anson Street from Historic Charleston Foundation in 1961 through its Ansonborough Rehabilitation Project. They bought the house because as preservationists they wanted to restore a house. Also the house was inexpensive and they wanted a house with a yard. They had followed the lead of Peter Manigualt (Evening Post Industries) who had previously purchased a house in Ansonborough. Within eight years after they bought the house, at least 8 other Evening Post/News & Courier staff bought homes in Ansonborough, and as word spread, many others got excited and moved there. Repairing, restoring, and renovating the house has been an ongoing process, starting when the McIntoshes cleared out sand on the ground that had reached the front steps, added a new roof, and installed electricity and plumbing. Herbert DeCosta did the work and also advised on the interiors. Through the Ansonborough Rehabilitation Project under Frances Edmunds's leadership, Ansonborough became one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Charleston. Regarding neighborhood conditions and changes, like other homes in Ansonborough, 66 Anson Street was in deteriorated and neglected condition when the McIntoshes bought it. Many people thought the area was a dangerous slum but "many didn't see the neighborhood for how good it was … It was a poor community, not a slum … After World War II there wasn't any money" so the homes slowly became run down and weren't repaired. There had been corner grocery stores which were essential as most residents didn't have cars. (The corner stores were converted to residential during the Ansonborough Rehabilitation Project.) Many new Ansonborough homeowners were young couples before they had children. They socialized and shared information, eventually forming the Ansonborough Neighborhood Association. Ansonborough was a close community but has changed significantly over the years. Mr. and Mrs. McIntosh are the only original ARP homeowners living in the borough and they don't know many of their neighbors. Tourism has had an impact on Ansonborough, largely that of the carriage tours which Mr. and Mrs. McIntosh have not liked since the earliest tours. The rising value of homes has made it more expensive to live and maintain a house; almost all of the McIntosh's former neighbors have moved. There are also many part-time residents, which has changed the character of the neighborhood. Interviewed by Katherine Pemberton on April 21, 2016 at the McIntosh's home at 66 Anson Street.
Aaron Small, born in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1939, to Sara Berry and Harry Smolowsky, changed his surname when he was eighteen years old because it "was not a business name." Aaron graduated from mortuary school in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1959 and returned to Columbia to work for a funeral home that also had an ambulance service. While working as an EMT on the ambulance service, he met his wife, Betty, an emergency room nurse. They married in 1961. Betty, a Christian, converted to Judaism prior to the wedding, but returned to the church sometime later. Aaron was drafted into the army in 1962 and served for eighteen months in the Fort Bragg mortuary outside of Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 1965, after returning to civilian life, Aaron bought a funeral home in Denmark, South Carolina. There were a number of industries in the small town about fifty miles south of Columbia, which he felt was a positive indicator for growth. However, in the following decade, companies began leaving. The interviewee believes this was attributable to white parents pulling their children from the public schools. Aaron describes daily life in Denmark and mentions the other Jewish families living there at the time—the Druckers and the Nesses. The Small family moved back to Columbia around 1975 and Aaron sold firetrucks to South Carolina municipalities while working on establishing a new funeral home business. In 1978, he opened McMillan-Small Funeral Home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with Stephen McMillan, Sr. After developing an allergy to formaldehyde, Aaron left the partnership, and took a position with the Myrtle Beach Fire Department, assuming command of the volunteer rescue squad in 1987. Up to that point, he had been a volunteer firefighter-EMT in the various places he had lived and had launched the volunteer rescue squad in Denmark. Aaron discusses the other firefighting jobs he held in Myrtle Beach, Richland County, and the state. By 1997, the family had returned to Columbia to help care for Aaron's mother. Aaron talks about antisemitism he experienced in Columbia while in high school; his two children, Michelle and Stuart; the Jewish community of Myrtle Beach, in particular, the recent Israeli immigrants; and how the FBI handled student protesters at Voorhees College (HBCU) in Denmark in the late 1960s. "The FBI came in one day and they just took over the funeral home" so they could make use of the two-way communication system he used for his ambulance service.
Nurse Lillian Green was born in 1934 in Charleston, South Carolina. She remembers growing up in Short Street where she felt loved and protected by her community. However, her reality was different on her daily walk to Buist School. There, she encountered the hostility and hate of white children and police officers. She remembers with affection her teachers and the programs at the Henry P. Archer Auditorium. Years later, she attended Roper’s Practical Nursing School during segregation and kept working on Roper Hospital. In the interview, Green talks in length about her memories of the 1969 Charleston Hospital Workers Strike, she states supporting the nurses’ demands but not being in conditions to stop working. She learned about the demands and actions directly from Mary Moultrie. She also remembers other activists such as William Saunders and Rev.Frederick Douglas Dawson and recalls the support provided by the Jewish community. Green share her memories about other related events including a church meeting where there was a bomb threat. Green argues Roper Hospital workers and many others around the country benefited by the strike’s achievements.
Charleston's long-serving mayor (1975-2016) discusses the transition from his undergraduate experience at The Citadel (BA 1964) to law school at the University of South Carolina (JD 1967). Hearing loss disqualified Riley for the draft and his pursuit of military service. Riley discusses his social life as a student in Columbia and his August 1966 marriage to Charlotte Douglas deLoach of Camden. Riley describes attending law school with very few women and Jasper Cureton, the first African American to be admitted to the law school since Reconstruction. He also discusses his political activities during law school and internships in the state house, as well as with the law firm of Boyd, Bruton, Knowlton, and Tate. The interview concludes with Riley's memories of a summer 1964 tour of Europe, during which he crossed paths with his future wife, Charlotte.
Riley describes meeting his father's politically-connected friends, including Congressman Mendel Rivers, and Senator and Governors James F. Byrnes, and Fritz Hollings. All close associates of his father. He also recounts his efforts to recruit Ken Burns to support the International African American Museum. Riley compares his father's and J.C. Long's careers in real estate development and civic affairs in Charleston and reveals that his father once considered running for mayor. Riley also explains the problems Charleston faced in the last years of the administration of mayor J. Palmer Gaillard Jr. Riley describes having Citadel President General Mark Clark visit the family home. Riley explains his decision to attend The Citadel and recounts his first year.
The former mayor discusses his love of baseball, a passion he shared with his grandfather who brought him to many Charleston Rebels games. Riley describes seeing Hank Aaron play in the game that broke the color line in Charleston. He later met Aaron as an adult. He explains why he is a Dodgers fan and remembers long lost baseball cards. Riley discusses being senior class president of Bishop England High School. Riley reflects on discovering his hearing impairment as a child and his father's hope for treatment. He eventually decided to purchase hearing aids in anticipation of starting a law practice. He realized he would need help to hear in court. The interview concludes with reminiscences of youth dances and hijinks.
The longtime mayor of Charleston discusses his perceptions of class differences in the city of his youth. He discusses parochial school and his family's summer rituals during their time at the beach on Sullivan's Island. Riley reflects on the African American servants - Lucy McBride, Estelle Fickling, and Ben Frasier - who worked for the Riley family during his childhood. Riley offers fond memories of his Cathedral school teacher, Dot Gnann. He concludes with a discussion of neighborhood life around Tradd Street.
Riley discusses his successful campaign for Mayor of Charleston in 1975. Charleston's long-serving mayor, J. Palmer Gaillard had resigned in April 1975 to accept President Ford's nomination to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Reserve Affairs. State Representative Robert R. Woods endorsed Riley after considering his own bid for the mayor's office. Riley also discusses transitioning from state to municipal politics and asserts that he had only intended to serve one term. Rileys involvement in Charles "Pug" Ravenel's unsuccessful gubernatorial run the previous year introduced him to David Rawle, a New York-based media consultant. Rawle agreed to work on the Riley campaign and remained among the mayor's closest associates over the course of his forty years in office. Riley also shares his memories of businessman and civil rights leader Esau Jenkins as well as his first serious political opponent, Nancy Hawk. He concludes with reflections on his family's involvement in the campaign.
Héctor was born San Andres Ixtlahuaca, Oaxaca, Mexico. In the interview, he talks about his land, the Trique culture and language, his work, and his love for basketball. Before arriving in the United States, Héctor followed the path of many young people from his region and emigrated to Mexico City in search of work and better opportunities. Just arrived in the big city, life was difficult because he had no acquaintances and did not speak Spanish well. Later, he got married and had three children. After separating from his wife, he returned to Oaxaca. Before long, he joined a group of people from his town who were planning the trip the north and crossed the border with them, arriving in California, where he worked in agriculture. He eventually settled in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. He started working at Carolina Nurseries and later obtained employment in the construction sector. His greatest passion is basketball. Héctor is the coordinator of the Hispanic League of Basketball that convenes numerous families in the area every weekend.Héctor nació en San Andrés Ixtlahuaca Oaxaca, México. En la entrevista habla acerca de su tierra, la cultura y la lengua trique, su trabajo y su amor por el basquetbol. Antes de llegar a Estados Unidos, Ramírez siguió el camino de muchos jóvenes de su región y emigró a la Ciudad de México en busca de trabajo y un mejor porvenir económico. Recién llegado a la gran ciudad sufrió penurias porque no tenía conocidos y no hablaba bien en español. Más tarde se casó y tuvo tres hijos. Después de separarse de su esposa regresó a Oaxaca. Al poco tiempo se unió a un grupo de gente de su pueblo que emprendía el viaje al norte y cruzó la frontera con ellos, llegando a California, donde trabajó en la agricultura. Finalmente, se estableció en Moncks Corner, Carolina del Sur. Comenzó a trabajar en Carolina Nurseries y posteriormente consiguió empleo en el rubro de la construcción. Su mayor pasión es el basquetbol. Héctor es el coordinador de la liga Hispana de Basquetbol que convoca cada fin de semana a numerosas familias del área.
In this second interview, Córdova delves into the vicissitudes of her family, professional and community life in Charleston, South Carolina, where she has lived since the mid-70s. Córdova remembers the obstacles and challenges she faced as a foreign-born in establishing herself professionally in the United States, and tells about the beginnings of the Círculo Hispanoamericano de Charleston in 1978 reflecting on the past, present, and future of the organization. She also recalls her participation and leadership in Amnesty International, YWCA and the first editions of Piccolo Spoleto Festival. / En esta segunda entrevista Córdova profundiza en las vicisitudes de su vida familiar, profesional y comunitaria en Charleston, Carolina del Sur donde reside desde mediados de los años setenta. En la entrevista, Córdova recuerda los obstáculos y desafíos que sobrellevó para establecerse como profesional extranjera en Estados Unidos y rememora los inicios del Círculo Hispanoamericano de Charleston en el año 1978 reflexionado acerca de la trayectoria, presente y futuro de la organización. También cuenta acerca de su participación y liderazgo en Amnistía Internacional, YWCA y las primeras ediciones de Piccolo Spoleto Festival.
Interview with Yvonne Tucker, who purchased the house at 258 Ashley Avenue through Historic Charleston Foundation's Neighborhood Impact Initiative. Ms. Tucker recalls growing up on the East Side, later moving away, then returning to Elliottborough. After an unsuccessful attempt to purchase a home on Bogard Street through the Charleston Bank Consortium Program, Ms. Tucker believed that she'd never be able to buy a home until sometime later, Historic Charleston Foundation contacted her about its Neighborhood Impact Initiative and offered 258 Ashley Avenue to her. Skeptical at first due to the condition of the house and neighborhood at the time, she purchased the house with assistance from HCF, which also undertook the restoration of the house. Ms. Tucker recalls participating with HCF during the restoration and she learned to appreciate preservation. Asked about how the neighborhood has changed since she bought the house, Ms. Tucker states that there is much less crime and that she and her two daughters who grew up in the house feel safe. There are also more local businesses and her job is within walking distance. The downside is that the neighborhood has priced out some homeowners and that a historic house is expensive to maintain. Despite all the odds stacked against her, Ms. Tucker states that she wouldn't have been able to purchase a home without HCF and that both she and her daughters are proud of their home. "I didn't go looking for a home; a home came looking for me." Interviewed by Katherine Pemberton on March 3, 2016, at Ms. Tucker's home at 258 Ashley Avenue. Richard Almes, videographer. Recorded as part of HCF's "Changing Neighborhoods" series, made possible by a grant from the SC Humanities Commission.
Heide Engelhardt Golden, born in 1941 in Gablingen, Germany, a small farming village near Augsburg, recalls living conditions in the years immediately following World War II. She was the middle child of three daughters. Her father, Karl Engelhardt, who served in the German army, died just before the end of the war. Struggling to care for her three children, Heide’s mother, Anna Heilman Engelhardt, sent Heide, age five, to live with her paternal grandmother. Heide rejoined the family around the time her mother married James Hull, an American soldier, in 1948. The following year, while the family was living on an American base in Augsburg, Heide’s half-brother was born. When James’s unit was assigned to Korea in 1952, the U.S. Army sent Anna and the children to Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. Heide describes adjusting to life in Columbia, her schooling, and working for Eddie and Sarah Picow in their store, Allan’s, where she met her husband, Harvey Golden, a Jewish lawyer originally from Brooklyn, New York. Around 1943 Harvey had moved with his parents, Gertrude and Jack Golden, to Columbia, where they operated an army-navy store. Before marrying Harvey in 1962, Heide studied with Rabbi Abraham Herson of Columbia’s Conservative synagogue, Beth Shalom, and converted to Judaism. The interviewee discusses their three children, Holly, Karl, and Jared; Harvey’s involvement in local theater; race relations in Columbia in the 1960s; and the family’s religious practices. Holly was the first girl in Beth Shalom to have her bat mitzvah ceremony on a Saturday. Heide talks about racial integration in Columbia; working for the department store Berry’s on Main; and flying home from Germany on September 11, 2001, when her plane was grounded in Newfoundland, Canada, after terrorists had flown hijacked jets into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Heide recalls being shocked when she learned about the Holocaust and was surprised when her mother told her neither she nor Heide’s father knew about the concentration camps. During and after the war, ordinary Germans like her mother lived in fear of being reported to the police by their neighbors for saying or doing the wrong thing. Despite that, the one Jewish family that lived in their village, remained there throughout the war.
Michael Roberts was one of the first participants of Occupy Charleston in the year 2011. At that time, Roberts had lost his job in the recession and was living with his wife, Kathleen Ellen Roberts, on a sailboat. In the interview, he remembers how Occupy Charleston came to life: a Facebook page, a meeting at Kudu, a coffee shop in downtown Charleston where six people discussed actions, and the first big gathering at the Gage Hall. He describes the occupation at Brittlebank Park and at Marion Square that ended when the Charleston police arrested several activists. After the arrests, he explains, the meetings moved to the ILA Hall and then each group that had converged at Occupy refocused on their own projects. Roberts reflects on Occupy Charleston lessons and contributions to change. In the second part of the interview, Robert’s wife joins the conversation, providing her own insights. At the end, Roberts discusses his military experiences, his current job, and online activism.
Mathew Rabon was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1981. As an undergraduate student at the College of Charleston, he became one of the organizers of Occupy Charleston after watching news coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests in the fall of 2011. The Wall Street protests against social and economic inequality inspired similar efforts across the country. Rabon created the first Facebook page for the Charleston group and helped convene its first “general assembly” meeting on October 6, 2011 at Gage Hall of the Unitarian Church in Charleston. In the interview, Rabon argues that the group enjoyed success in confronting Republican presidential candidates who were in the state in the lead up to the South Carolina primary. Occupy Charleston challenged the populist credentials of the Republican candidates by spotlighting their close ties to corporate interests. During a November 10, 2011 campaign appearance at Patriot’s Point in Mt. Pleasant, Senator Michele Bachmann was temporarily forced to leave the stage after being confronted by Occupy activists. Rabon was also among the ten occupiers arrested on November 23 for trespassing after they attempted to sleep for a second night in Marion Square. Finally, Rabon discusses his role in Occupy’s demise and reflects on its legacies.
Bernard "Nard" Fleischman was born in 1946 in Columbia, South Carolina, to Marian Daniel and Bernard S. Fleischman. Marian's family, mostly from southern Georgia, has been traced back to 1750 in North America. Her mother was Jewish, her father was Christian, and they raised the children as Jews. On his father's side, Bernard notes that stories from his great-grandmother and Columbia native Rosa David Berman have been passed down to his generation. He relates one of her tales about the invasion of the capital city by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's troops in 1865. Rosa's husband, Barnett Berman, a Polish immigrant, was president of the Columbia Hebrew Benevolent Society from 1888 to 1914, a long period of leadership that set a precedent for Bernard's father, who served the Society for decades as secretary-treasurer, and Bernard, who took over the role in 2003. The interviewee talks about his paternal grandparents, Tillie Berman Fleischman and Sol Fleischman. After Sol died in 1936, Tillie bought a house on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, and Bernard and his family spent their summers there. The family included Bernard, his older sister Lynn, and younger sister Marianne. The interviewee describes his parents' religious observances and their experiences as members of the Reform synagogue in Columbia, Tree of Life. He recalls Jewish merchants, the neighborhoods where he grew up, and childhood friends. He was the only Jewish person in his junior high school and admits he tried to hide that he was Jewish: "I didn't want to stand out." Nevertheless, he experienced no "blatant" antisemitism growing up. "Columbia was a very accepting town, it really was, at least from my perspective." Bernard lists the civic organizations he has been active in, emphasizing his significant involvement in the Jewish organizations. "We think that's something that is important to us, to keep Jewish tradition here in Columbia alive." He sees his family's legacy as one of "service to not only the Jewish community, but we're also very involved in the non-Jewish."
Roy Williams’ family association with Sullivan’s Island goes back to about 1815. This interview focuses on Williams’ recollections of life on the island during World War II. He describes the leisurely pace of life on the island before the war. Williams was in first grade when World War II started. He was aware of the attack on Pearl Harbor, but it seemed very far away to him. The family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina when Williams was in the second grade. Life there was a contrast with life on Sullivan’s Island. There was much more awareness of the war. Williams describes scrap metal and paper drives that took place in Charlotte. By the summer following second grade, Williams’ father had left to become an engineer on a hospital ship making runs from New York to Liverpool, England. His mother took the family to the North Carolina beach for the summer where Williams collected debris from the frequent U-Boat attacks. His mother brought the children back to Sullivan’s Island by the time Williams entered third grade. The island was now in full military mode and populated by many people from other parts of the country. Williams describes the rationing that took place for everything from shoes to beef. The war economy provided his family with money, but there was nothing to buy. Williams talks about the fear of being bombed by the Germans. He recalls that relationship between the islanders and the military Fort Moultrie was good. For Williams, the fort felt like a protective umbrella that provided services such as fighting fires and providing hurricane shelter. Still, Williams could tell the nation was at war. Soldiers marched down Middle Street. There were practice amphibious landings around Station 9. At the northeast end of the island was Battery Marshall, which was fenced off. Williams described how there were stories of prisoners of war being held at that facility. Williams relates how the war became personal to the Williams family on a couple of occasions. He recalls the joy at the end of the war, especially VJ Day, a jubilant time because friends and family were coming home.
Chef and entrepreneur Sameka Merisier Jenkins (b. 1972) grew up in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina in the Seven Mile community. Her early memories relate to the delicious food that was shared by the family on Sundays after worshiping at the Great Will AME Church. She describes her family's cooking practices and the dishes that were prepared. Additionally, she talks about her childhood community, traditional medicine, and the accents and sayings of the elders. Jenkins developed her interest in cooking when she was a teenager and learned her craft by staying in the kitchen with the adults, following directions, and imitating them. She attended Francis Marion University and was soon cooking for her friends. Mixing with people from various places, she became aware of her rich heritage and developed a keen sense of pride in it. Since 2011, Jenkins has owned and operates Carolima’s a catering company that specializes in Gullah Cuisine. Jenkins reflects on the Gullah/ Geechee restaurants in the Lowcountry and her relationship with other business owners.
Beryle Stern Jaffe, born in 1945, talks about growing up in Columbia, South Carolina. She is the eldest daughter of Sarah Kramer and Henry Stern. After Henry was discharged from the military, the Sterns settled in Henry’s home city of Columbia, where he joined his father, Gabe Stern, in his dry goods business, at that time located in nearby Lexington. Beryle recalls segregation and how prejudice against African Americans manifested in public, as well as in her own home with regard to their hired help. The interviewee married Pierre Jaffe in 1967. Pierre, a native of Paris, France, immigrated as a child to the United States with his mother, who had married an American soldier. Pierre and Beryle raised two children, Jason and Erin, in Columbia. Interviewer Lilly Stern Filler’s parents, Ben and Jadzia Stern, were Holocaust survivors who settled in Columbia after World War II. Beryle and Lilly describe the degree to which Lilly’s parents, particularly her father, adjusted to life in a new country.
Born in 1923, Jane Murray McCollum is the third generation of her family to live at Jack Daw Hall Plantation, located on Edisto Island’s Frampton Inlet. From an early age, she called Jack Daw home. It is also home to ‘Murray’s Graveyard,’ a spot of land her great-grandfather gave to the black slave families, and a separate graveyard, called ‘Jenkins’ Cemetery, for whites. Jane came of age during the Depression, which the family weathered by living off the bounty of land and sea—’...fish, oysters, clams...and all kinds of vegetables’—and by operating a small store called the Sea Island Bargain. The Murrays also, on one terrifying night, rode out the hurricane of 1940 at Jack Daw. Jane comes from an artistic family: Her mother, Faith Murray, was an artist who taught at Charleston’s Gibbes Art Gallery; her father, Chalmers Murray, was a writer, best known for his novel, Here Come Joe Mungin. Her father had a long-time friendship with the artist Jasper Johns, who also had a house on Edisto, She and her sister (also Faith; also an artist) went to the tiny Seaside School on Edisto—there were only seven students in Jane’s class—and she later attended the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina, after which she joined the WAVES. Having served in the Hospital Corps, she subsequently went to nursing school, receiving her training at Roper Hospital in Charleston. When she married, Jane moved to Greenville, SC, until her husband’s retirement; In response to a question about race relations in the intervening years, Jane responded that she saw little difference: ‘When I was growing up here, I didn't even realize they were black. They were really friends...Coming back, I still feel the same way.’ But she does feel that the relationships between blacks and whites were better in those days. Jane has lived at Jack Daw exclusively since 1986. She crabs and swims off a floating dock on the same waters she knew as a child. Following in the family tradition, she paints. As to how her return to Edisto suits her, Jane says: ‘Just to be able to sit here on this front porch and look over there at the creek and the beach and to hear the wind blowing through. Can’t do much better.’
Mortimer Bernanke, the youngest of three sons of Pauline and Jonas Bernanke, recounts the history of his family in Dillon, South Carolina. Jonas was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I when he was captured by the Russians and sent to Siberia. Mortimer describes his father's escape through China, whereupon he returned to Austria in 1920 and married Pauline, who had trained as a doctor at the University of Vienna. The couple immigrated to New York City and Jonas earned his pharmacy degree at Fordham University. The Bernankes moved to Dillon in 1941, when Mortimer was thirteen years old. Pauline, who had practiced medicine in New York for two decades, found her career as a physician cut short when she was refused a license by South Carolina. Instead, she assisted Jonas in his pharmacy, Jay Bee Drugs, in Dillon. Mortimer joined his father in the drugstore after studying pharmacy at the University of South Carolina. He describes how his brother Philip joined him in the business, the changes they made during their time as partners, and their decision to sell to a large corporation in the 1990s. Mortimer married Rita Lee Strobing of New Jersey in the mid-1950s and they raised two children in Dillon. They were members of that town's Ohav Shalom Synagogue. Mortimer was among the men who conducted lay services for a congregation of about twenty-five families, a number that fell to three or four by the 1990s. He discusses how the Ohav Shalom members that remained decided to sell the building and divide the proceeds. The interviewee talks about his love of theater; he and another New York transplant, Tom Fletcher, started a theater group in Dillon and, over the course of four years, put on over a dozen plays in a tobacco warehouse. One of their productions was written and performed in celebration of Ohav Shalom's fiftieth anniversary in 1961. Among the topics discussed: the attention Mortimer and Dillon have received thanks to nephew Ben Bernanke's renown as chair of the Federal Reserve; the reorganization of a B'nai B'rith chapter in the Florence area, spurred by Latta resident and businessman Moses Kornblut; and Beth Israel Congregation, Florence, where the interviewee has been a member since the 1990s. Mortimer was joined in this interview by long-time friend Patricia "Pat" Siegel; the interviewer was Beth Israel Congregation's part-time leader, Rabbi Leah Doberne-Schor.
Pat Ferris was born in Greenwood Lake, NY, and lived in Virginia and New York until age nine when he moved to South Carolina. His grandmother had a modern house on South Island with electricity supplied by a generator. The family also had the old plantation house on Cat Island. His grandfather was William G. Ramsey, who worked for the DuPont Company. He became a senior engineer at DuPont, and his stock holdings became very valuable for the family. He came to South Carolina because of the Dupont’s interest in turpentine, and became aware of the excellent hunting opportunities. Living on Cat Island and South Island in his youth, Ferris felt it was “heaven”. He had a little dinghy he rowed around on Winyah Bay, and hunted ducks with a shotgun given to him at age 10 by his grandmother. She also gave him the job of killing snakes and alligators: the latter damaged the dikes. He received a nickel for each kill. Ferris learned to sail on a summer vacation to Nantucket Island. He and his brother would go along with a harbor pilot who guided ships into Georgetown. They signed on as cabin boys on a round trip from Brooklyn, NY, to Georgetown, SC, on the lumber schooner Annie C. Ross. Ferris also described a voyage with his brother and a friend in their teenage years in a catboat from Greenport, Long Island to South Carolina. Ferris went to boarding school, and would spend summers on South Island. Ferris attended the University of North Carolina (UNC) when WWII broke out, and he entered the Coast Guard. He patrolled first St. Helena Sound, and then off Charleston in private yachts. He helped a one-armed man pull a seine net on the edge of Winyah Bay. He knew Tom Yawkey, owner of the Boston Red Sox, and owner of the majority of Cat, South, and North Islands. He went on hunts with him on those properties and elsewhere. Cat Island Plantation continued to actively cultivate rice until 1941. With the damming of the Santee River by Santee Cooper, the influx of saltwater did considerable damage to the dikes, and the family received a $6000 settlement. Ferris described years of hunting on Cat island: deer, ducks, and turkeys. He described how Tom Yawkey set up the Yawkey Wildlife Center. Ferris returned to recounting his Coast Guard service, describing his transfer to the South Pacific after going through training at the Loran School. He was at Guam when the war ended, and returned to the US on the aircraft carrier Belleau Wood. He finished by telling a story when he and his brother were “bad boys’ during their childhood on Cat Island.
Gerald Alston was born at the Wedge Plantation, and at age four moved to Germantown. In his childhood, he, his brother, and friends would cut and split firewood, used for both cooking and heating. Like his father and grandfather, Gerald went to work for Herman “Duff” Holbrook, who taught him about plantation and wildlife habitat management. He recounted one incident when Holbrook had grabbed a rattlesnake by hand, and had Alston drive the truck while Holbrook held the rattlesnake and relocated it. Another memorable story was a canoe trip out to Six Mile, a property in the middle of the Delta. The trip took place the day before the arrival of Hurricane Hugo (1989). It was raining and rough on the water, and Holbrook wanted to protect the property by opening up a trunk. Alston was frightened, but successfully helped Holbrook with this mission; they arrived safely back on land. After Hugo there was extensive work to do on these lands. Holbrook purchased a backhoe that Alston ran for 25 years, operated now by his son. He recalled taking rides from Will Alston in a wagon trailed behind a tractor, going from Germantown to Hampton Plantation. Will Alston would stop by Gerald Alston’s grandmother, Ella Alston, and give him a ride back home. Alston also talked about visiting with Sue Alston in her later years. He remembered Archibald Rutledge as a friendly man. Alston recalled times when the mosquitoes and biting flies were “terrible”. He remembered a trip to Cat Island to purchase an old Pontiac just for the engine. He described an annual event put on by the South Santee community. Alston continues to enjoy his job with While Oak Forestry working for Mike Prevost, and having his sons, Errol and Gerald Jr., working with him.
Reverend McKinley Washington was born in a small community outside of Sumter, South Carolina called Stackhouse Place. In this interview he talks about life on Edisto Island during the height of the civil rights movement including the changes he has witnessed. McKinley’s dad was a sharecropper and his mom a teacher. He graduated from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina with both a degree in political science and religion and a Master of Divinity. During college in the early 60’s he was part of a lunch counter demonstration and listened to Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X when they visited campus. McKinley shares many of his own civil rights experiences. He came to Edisto Island in the mid-60’s to pastor the Edisto Presbyterian Church which was African-American. At this time the African-American community was very poor. Rev. Washington helped organize and was part of the South Carolina Commission for Farm Workers, Community Action Program, Head Start Program, Political Action Committee, and the NAACP. He describes how he worked to get African-American’s registered to vote, to integrate the local schools, the state park, and swim on Edisto beach. He was persuaded to run for public office and elected to the State House of Representatives. There his goal was to get things done in rural areas such as Edisto Island. He fought for roads to be paved, ditches to be cleaned, and was instrumental in getting money for a new bridge to replace the often broken down drawbridge. The new 1993 bridge is named in his honor. He went to Washington to plead for the Sea Island Healthcare Center. After the old Edisto Island School closed rather than be integrated, he helped the African-American community buy it for recreation, summer, adult education, and daycare programs, and community center. McKinley describes his work with Fritz Hollings and the changes in the Republican and Democratic parties. He says that while things have improved tremendously for African-Americans, there is a lot still left undone.
Emily Hutchinson Meggett was born in Edisto, as were her mother, Laura B. Hutchinson (who later moved to New York), and grandmother, Elizabeth Major Hutchinson, who raised Emily. Through her grandmother’s line she is related to Jim Hutchinson (her great-grandfather, sometimes called a ‘king’ of Edisto, who was the illegitimate son of Isaac Jenkins Mikell). Emily attended Seaside, Geneva, and Limay—all Edisto schools. She didn’t finish high school; she married in 1951 instead. With her husband, Jessie Meggett (who once lived in the Point of Pines cabin that now resides at the Smithsonian), Emily raised ten children, all of whom attended Edisto schools and later went on to college and successful careers, in fields as varied as the stock market, nursing, teaching, government administration, and the military. She has 24 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren; only one of the latter lives on Edisto. For 46 years, beginning in 1954, Emily worked for the family that owned Dodge Plantation. The family had a staff of six who worked for them as needed during the winter months. She rose from dishwasher to cook to housekeeper over that time. In the summers, she worked over the years for the Bolton, Mitchell, and Pepper families, among others. Emily talked about the Mother Emanuel murders; she had a family connection to two people who died there. She said she felt sorry ‘for the people who lost their lives, and for that young man and his family.’ She continued: ‘Back in the slavery time, people taught their children hate, and ain’t all of [it] erased. There's still some there.’ Of race relations on Edisto, she acknowledged that she had seen big changes but that she would like to see more. ‘I'm saying this for years and years...the Lord don't want us to be separated. He made you, he made me. [We’ve] got a different color of skin—but you've got the same red blood, and I've got the same red blood, so he don't want us to separate. He wants us to be close to each other...I don't see colors. I see you as a person.’ Maybe, she joked, she thought that way because of her connection to Jim Hutchinson: ‘I got a streak of lean in me, coming out of the white family.’ Emily Meggett has traveled widely: to Germany, Paris, London; Maine, Tennessee, Florida, Maryland, Colorado. When asked where she wants to be, though, she doesn’t hesitate: ‘This is where I want to be.’
Carol Tempel was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1941 to first generation Polish and German- Czechoslovakian parents. Her father was a Roman Catholic Democrat and her mother a Missouri Synod Lutheran Republican. She credits her parents' experiences as the foundation for her understanding of civil rights; " I think those experiences are really the thing that helped me understand what the civil-rights movement was all about, what discrimination was all about, what prejudice was all about, because it was founded on knowing people as people." Her father encouraged her to attend college and pursue a career in science even when in 1963 it was an uncommon career choice for a woman. She graduated from Augustana College, majoring in Biology and Secondary Education. Later she pursued a master's degree in Biology and completed her PhD in Educational Leadership. In the interview, Tempel tells about the times when she was denied employment despite her qualifications because of her gender. In 1978, Tempel moved with her husband, George Tempel, and children from Kansas to Charleston. Tempel remembers feeling she was "an anomaly" among the other women. She joined the League of Women Voters and soon was deeply involved in the Equal Rights Movement. She tells about the efforts to reform the legislation in South Carolina, the criticism she received in her own community because of her activism, and finally the frustration when despite all the hard work in 1982 the legislation did not pass. Tempel never stopped working in the community; from ‘82 to ‘88 she served as a chair of the James Island Constituent School Board and was the owner of a small business. In '88, she was hired by Charleston County Schools as curriculum specialist and she worked with the school district in many different capacities until her retirement. She is the president of the American Association of University Women of South Carolina. In the interview, Tempel reflects about the motivations behind her activism, her biggest accomplishments, and what means for her to be a feminist and a southern woman.
Susan K. Dunn (1951) was born in Murray, Kentucky. Her mother was a homemaker and her father, a World War II veteran, was a Methodist Church minister who was very active in the Civil Rights movement. Dunn attended Duke University from 1968 to 1972, and her whole college experience was deeply impacted by the anti-war movement. In this interview, Dunn remembers her days as a student, protesting in the Duke Campus, and marching to DC. After college she decided to become an attorney and attended the University Of North Carolina School Of Law in Chapel Hill. Although it was a predominately male environment she did not face discrimination or problems for being a woman. It was later, when she was looking for a job that she confronted more barriers related not only to her gender but also to the fact that she lacked family connections. After graduation she moved with her husband to Charleston and worked for a small local law firm for a while. Later, she opened her own practice focusing mainly in family law. In 1993, Dunn began litigating in a high profile case known as Ferguson et al V. City of Charleston et all which lasted for more than a decade and was decided by the United States Supreme Court. "It involved a legal challenge to a policy that was basically created by the Charleston City Police and the Medical University. It was a policy that dealt with drug-testing pregnant women and using the criminal procedure to force them into treatment or to arrest them." The Supreme Court held that the policy was unconstitutional because it violated the Fourth Amendment. During all the years living and practicing law in Charleston Dunn has been involved in many causes directly related to protect and advance women's rights. Dunn has devoted her time and energy to many organizations, such as NOW (National Organization of Women), The South Carolina Women Lawyers' Association, and the City of Charleston Women Association. However, she affirms that "probably the place where I've affected more women is representing them in divorces and not charging them an arm and a leg and, you know, trying to, in one way that I could, help them get through that process with their dignity intact".In addition, Dunn worked as a lay minister at the Circular Church from 1999 to 2009. She explains that her church community is very important for her. Finally, Dunn reflects about her life as a mother and professional, and about what it means to her to be a feminist and a southern woman.
Marshall Stein, born in Allendale, South Carolina, in 1935 to Lena Young and Max Stein, recounts the Stein and Young family histories. Lena, a Beaufort, South Carolina, native, was a daughter of Russian immigrants Toby and Julius Young, who, having lived in a number of northern cities, including New York, moved to Beaufort to take advantage of the lower cost of living and the less populated, rural atmosphere. Besides opening dry goods and furniture stores in Beaufort, the Youngs ran lumber mills in neighboring Burton and in Allendale, about sixty miles inland. The interviewee relays anecdotes about Julius, who was fully accepted by his fellow businessmen in Beaufort, so much so, he had the dubious distinction of being invited to join the Ku Klux Klan. Max Stein was one of four sons of Lena (same name as her daughter-in-law) and Morris Stein of Indianapolis, Indiana. Morris ran a tannery and frequently went on the road to sell his hides. Julius Young was one of his customers, and Max met his future wife, Lena, after accompanying his father on a sales trip. Max and his new bride tried living in Indianapolis, but Lena didn't like it, so they moved to Allendale where Max opened a grocery store. The family relocated to Beaufort when Marshall was six years old; by then, he was a big brother to Bernard. Max joined the Young family in the lumber industry, which expanded to include a building supply and contracting business in Beaufort. Marshall describes growing up in the Lowcountry town with his brother, Bernie, and his sister, Leonora Lynn, born four years after the move. He shares fond memories of the Youngs, particularly his four cousins, who were like brothers, and his aunt Sanie, who married Ben Fox of Asheville, North Carolina; Ben ran Fox's Jewelers on Bay Street in Beaufort. The interviewee cherished the small-town atmosphere and the intimacy of services and gatherings at Beaufort's Orthodox synagogue, Beth Israel, led by Rabbi Spier. He recalls one or two "Germanic Jewish" families living in Beaufort who didn't attend Beth Israel; instead they traveled to the Reform synagogue in Savannah or Charleston. "Because of that they didn't fit in too well with the rest." Note: the transcript includes comments and corrections made by the interviewee and interviewer during proofing.
Nicolas Lindsay was born in 1927 at the Hotel Davenport of Spokane, Washington. He was the son of renowned American poet Vachel Lindsay and poet Elizabeth (Lisa) Connor Lindsay of St. Louis. His father killed himself when Nick was four; he and his sister were raised by their mother thereafter. The family moved across the country: to Illinois, California, Alabama, Maryland, and to New York, where he attended boarding schools. Nick did not graduate from high school, but went to work in a steel mill instead, where he helped organize Steel Workers of America, CIO. Later he attended college in Connecticut and got a scholarship to UNC, where he met his future wife, Frances Easley DuBose (DuBose). They raised 10 children and have been married for 70 years. DuBose, a South Carolinian, had visited Edisto as a child, a connection that led to the young Lindsay family’s moving to the Island in 1955. Before arriving on Edisto, Nick worked briefly for the Atomic Energy Commission, which was building what came to be known the Savannah River Project. After the family moved to Edisto, Nick worked as a teacher for a time; but he needed to make more money, so he took on carpentry work, building houses and boats, among other things, including the steeple on the Episcopal Church, which he and his wife did together. The two of them also got involved in efforts to help the black residents of Hollywood and Edisto register to vote—a dangerous business at the time. Because of intimidation by armed white men at the registration center, ‘Nobody got out of the car. I turned around; we came home.’ He continued: ‘We were troublemakers,’ citing the history of the white Presbyterian Church he was asked to write, but which the Church subsequently declined to publish. Nick referred to another book he wrote, And I’m Glad, an oral history mostly narrated by Edisto Islander Sam Gadsden. He discussed a number of renowned Edisto Islanders throughout its history, including April Frasier (on whom, he noted, the title character from Here Come Joe Mungen was based); slavery-era plantation owners Townsend Mikell and his father, Isaac Jenkins Mikell; the ‘King of Edisto,’ Johnny Thorne, who established the freedmen’s village of Shago; and Jim Hutchinson (‘the founding father of the Republican party’) and his son, Henry.
Roselen Morris Rivkin, born in 1926 in Romania, immigrated with her family to the United States in 1932. They lived first in Elkhart, Indiana, then South Bend, Indiana. She met her husband, Arnold Rivkin, of Columbia, South Carolina, while he was stationed at Notre Dame during World War II. They married in South Bend in August 1946 and moved about three months later to Columbia to operate Edward’s Men’s Shop at the corner of Washington and Assembly streets. After twenty years, the store relocated to 1625 Main Street and reopened as Marks’ Men’s Wear. Roselen talks briefly about Arnold’s parents, Rachel and Raphael Rivkin, and recalls the Jewish merchants she knew on Assembly Street and Main Street. She found Columbia’s Jewish community to be small, close-knit, and welcoming. Roselen and Arnold raised three children, Mark, Allen, and Lynda, in the capital city. For a related interview, see Caba Rivkin, Mss. 1035-017.
Selma Blick Dickman of Columbia, South Carolina, is joined by her daughter Janis Dickman in this interview, which focuses on social issues dating to the late 1940s. Selma, a New York transplant, describes how she feels about living in the South. After moving to Sumter, South Carolina, in 1949, her tendency to talk about New York was greeted with advice from the Jewish natives: talk less about New York and more about her new home. Selma discusses her past perceptions of Jewish-Christian relations and notes how they have changed over time. She and Janis respond to questions about antisemitism and Janis recalls that as a child growing up in Columbia, "I always remember feeling different." Both describe their reactions to learning of the Holocaust and Selma remembers the arrival in Columbia of survivors Jadzia Sklar and Ben Stern, the interviewer's parents. Selma considers how her views of African-Americans have changed during her lifetime; both interviewees talk about racism, segregation, and present-day race relations, including the controversy surrounding the presence of the Confederate flag on the South Carolina State House grounds. Selma's husband, Max Dickman, who died thirty years before this interview, co-founded the scrap metal business, Columbia Steel and Metal. The Dickmans raised three daughters in Columbia. In a postscript to the interview, Janis describes the Dickman family's relationship with Florida Boyd, an African-American woman who worked in their home for forty-three years. The transcript also includes comments and corrections made by Janis during proofing and additional background information she provided upon request.
Eleanor Evens Levy was born in 1936 in Pulaski, Virginia, the youngest of three children of Annie Kessler and Sam Evens [Eventov]. Sam, who was from Rogachev, Russia, was educated as an engineer. Eleanor reports he "discovered the glue that was used in plywood" and came to America "to open up American plywood plants all over the country." The first was in Macon, Georgia, where Annie lived. They married in 1918, moved to Pulaski, and opened a dry goods store. Eleanor describes growing up in the small town in southwestern Virginia. "The closest synagogue was sixty miles away." She had no Jewish friends, and did not experience any antisemitism. She attended Greensboro Women's College in North Carolina. "Immediately when I got to Greensboro, I got in with the people that lived in Greensboro, and I went to synagogue every Friday. I felt very much at home there." Eleanor met Joel Levy, a native of Batesburg, South Carolina, when she was a sophomore. They married in 1955, and moved to Columbia, South Carolina. Joel, an optometrist, established a practice in nearby Winnsboro. Eleanor notes that she and Joel decided to live in Columbia because they wanted to have a "Jewish life." She offers some details about her involvement with various programs and plays at Columbia's Jewish Community Center.
Belle Lavisky Jewler, born in 1936, grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, the only daughter of Emma Bogen and Mike Lavisky. She talks about her brother, Saul, and her extended family, in particular the Katzenellenbogens, from whom her mother was descended. Belle's father owned a number of stores in Columbia, among them, King's Jeweler's, which he opened with his partner Eddie Picow. Growing up, the interviewee says, "I felt different. I never knew antisemitism. I was kind of raised to stay with your own kind, so almost all my friends were Jewish." She met her husband, Allen "Jerry" Jewler, in Columbia when he was stationed at Fort Jackson. They were married in 1960 and moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, where she gave birth to daughter, Melissa, and son, Scott. Jerry's jobs took the family to Charlotte, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina, before they returned to Columbia to stay in 1972. Belle discusses her children, her involvement in Beth Shalom, her Jewish identity, and her support for Israel. For a follow-up interview conducted on December 21, 2015, see Mss. 1035-459. See also Belle Jewler's March 4, 1997, interview with her mother, Emma Bogen Lavisky Bukatman, Mss. 1035-135.
In this follow-up to her November 4, 2015, interview, Belle Lavisky Jewler discusses in more depth her childhood memories of House of Peace in Columbia, South Carolina, at the time an Orthodox synagogue, and her involvement as an adult with the same congregation, which, by the late 1950s, had changed its affiliation to Conservative and had begun using its Hebrew name, Beth Shalom. She recalls the changes in practices that took place in the congregation over the years, in particular, allowing women to participate in services. Belle relates stories about her father's family's experiences upon arriving in America and describes her mother preparing for Passover. She mentions two of her mother's ancestors and their claim to fame: Saul Wahl Katzenellenbogen was the King of Poland for a day and a half and Louis Katzenellenbogen was a founder of the Bialystoker Shul in New York City. She remembers spending a lot of time in Caba Rivkin's deli: "A lot of what went on in old Columbia happened in Caba Rivkin's grocery store-delicatessen." For Jewler's November 4, 2015, interview, see Mss. 1035-458. See also Belle Jewler's March 4, 1997, interview with her mother, Emma Bogen Lavisky Bukatman, Mss. 1035-135.
![Interview with Thomas Pinckney Rutledge Rivers [Tommy Rivers]](https://rspace.library.cofc.edu/filestore/9/9/7/0/2/2_95b79094de0524c/220799_alt_32898_44746902137e16d.jpg)
