Born in Newberry, South Carolina on August 21, 1933, Marlene O'Bryant-Seabrook calls herself "an educator who quilts". In 1975, Seabrook became the first African American and second women to join The Citadel as full time faculty and in 2009 she was one of the forty-four fiber artists chosen to participate in an exhibition to honor president Obama's first inauguration. Her quilt entitled "They Paved the Way" and many others she has created are featured in national and international publications and exhibits. A third generation educator, in this interview, she asserts that growing up among teachers left a indelible mark on her which guided her career choices and shaped her attitude towards life's challenges. "If I'm prepared to do something, then the rest of it does not make any difference. It never occurred to me that my being black or female should have stopped me from doing something." Seabrook attended Avery Normal Institute and then pursued higher education at South Carolina State, The Citadel, and finally the University of South Carolina where she completed her Ph.D. During her tenure at The Citadel, she was treated with respect. However,she taught mostly graduate students and only after a year of employment she was allowed to work with cadets, which she did in a very limited fashion. After leaving The Citadel in 1980, she returned to Charleston County Public School System where she worked until she retired "from employment but not from work."
John Asbury Zeigler, Jr., Citadel Class of 1932, was born in 1912 in Manning, South Carolina. He was a poet, philanthropist, and co-owner of the Book Basement, a bookstore which once operated on the present campus of the College of Charleston. His family had deep roots in Charleston. His parents were Virginia Elfe and John Zeigler. His family lived many years in Florence, where his father founded a newspaper, the Florence Morning News. He recalls his earliest childhood memory with a poem he wrote when he was eight years old. He states the best thing about attending The Citadel was meting his roommate, the man that later would marry his sister and whose family gave him great joy. Zeigler Jr. explains that he survived by avoiding bringing attention to himself. He was active in the campus culture scene: founded The Citadel literary magazine and was introduced to the Poetry Society of South Carolina by General Days. After graduation, Zeigler Jr. worked as a teacher in Charleston and then moved to Washington, D.C., where he resided for several years until his return to Charleston to focus on his writing. Zeigler Jr. states he was always loved and accepted by his family for who he was, and that his family equally embraced his long-life partner, Edwin Peacock. He tells about their love story with two poems he asks the interviewer to read and remembers how they kept their relationship during WW II. Finally, Zeigler Jr. talks about the Book Basement bookstore they co-owned for twenty-five years at 9 College Street, the prominent visitors they hosted, and the reasons why it became an iconic cultural space in Charleston. The transcript includes several annotations by Mary Jo Potter, Zeigler’s niece.
Born in Charleston, SC on September 11, 1976 and raised in nearby Pinopolis, Lindsay Holler is a singer, composer, and guitar player who has additionally been a strong advocate for local musicians and a fixture of the music scene. In this interview she recalls her musical influences, including her parents’ mainstream pop records and her brother’s enthusiasm for the Black Crows. In addition to playing flute in the middle school band and taking piano lessons, Holler also studied voice with opera singer June Bonner. That association led to a visit to Broadway at age 13, where she saw Gregory Hines and Phylicia Rashad in Jelly’s Last Jam. “I kind of fell in love with New York a little bit, and I was like, oh, man, that’s where I want to go,” Holler recalls. Following her high school graduation, Holler studied jazz at the Berklee College of Music before returning to Charleston to complete her musical education at the College of Charleston. She has recorded and performed with several locally-based groups, including the Dirty Kids, the Western Polaroids, and Matadero. Though often in the spotlight as the lead singer, Holler is ambivalent about the attention that it brings her and worries that that ambivalence may undermine her success: “Everybody is me, me, me, show me, let me show you, you know, it’s such a prevalent posture nowadays, where it’s in your face, and who’s going to be the loudest, and who is going to be the most out there, and that’s never been my thing. But I worry do you have to be like that in order to be successful?”
This panel brought together for the first time in the City of Charleston a group of Jewish Cadets who shared their memories in a public forum (September 29, 2013). The program was possible thanks to the collaboration between the Jewish Studies Program at The College of Charleston and The Citadel. Martin Perlmutter introduced the program and Dr. Sam Hines introduced the moderator, Dr. Joelle Neulander. The event was dedicated to the memory of Maurice Fox, Citadel Class 1953. The panelists recall their experiences as Jewish cadets at The Citadel and reflect on how those experiences shaped their lives when they left the institution. All together the panelists experience span over seven decades. They provide a glimpse into the history of The Citadel from the WWII years to the present. The panelist include, Bernard Warshaw, Class of 1942, Bernard Solomon, Class of 1947, Les Bergen, Class of 1969, Steve Josias, Class of 1970, Alan Reyner, Class of 1972 and Jonathan Rosen, Class of 2014.
Lutheran Pastor Thulisiwe "Thulie" Beresford was born in Vryheid, South Africa on February 2, 1962. The third of seven children, she grew up in a devoted Lutheran family under the racist system of the apartheid. At age of nine, Beresford and one of her brothers were sent to Swaziland to live with their maternal grandmother and continue their education. Beresford excelled in math and science and in 1984 she graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Biology and a concurrent Diploma in Education. She taught for two years in South Africa and after receiving a scholarship moved to the United States to study at Ohio University in Athens where she earned a Master Degree in Biology. She went back to South Africa for two years and returned to USA to attend the seminary. In this interview, Beresford explains the policies of racial segregation imposed for the apartheid and how they impacted the life of her family and community. She also recalls episodes of violence, persecution, and repression she witnessed when growing up. Beresford also describes her experiences as a South African immigrant in USA. Finally, she tells about her call to become a Lutheran minister and reflects about balancing her roles as a pastor, mother, and wife.
Bobby Richardson was born in Sumter, South Carolina on August 19, 1935. While playing high school and American Legion baseball, he was discovered by the New York Yankees and after his high school graduation he joined them. He played two years on the Yankees' minor league farm team and at nineteen he participated in his first professional game. Richardson played with the Yankees for ten years from 1955 to 1966 and won nine out of ten World Series. Richardson earned several awards and holds still-standing records. Following his retirement from professional baseball Richardson coached the University of South Carolina Gamecocks from 1970-1976. In the interview Richardson recalls his friendships with baseball legends Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris; he shares his opinions about the present-day game of baseball, including length of the season, finances, and steroid use. Finally he reflects about the importance of his faith and the impact it has on his personal and professional life. When asked about his best year in baseball he choose 1962, stating "It was just one of those years when everything seemed to go my way."
Susan Breslin was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In the summer of 1963, she joined The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Harlem after graduating from the University of Toronto. In recalling her time with the organization, Breslin talks about the intense work she performed with the TV Image Campaign, a movement devised by CORE to force major companies to use integrated advertisement. She also discusses the significance of the August, 1963 March on Washington, stating, “I think everybody who participated in the March on Washington—and they came from everywhere—walked away knowing they were part of something huge.” Breslin’s interview dives into the rich depths of CORE’s history; specifically the evolution of its ideology. Breslin discusses the controversy that bubbled up when some CORE leaders advocated for separation instead of integration, and the resulting break that led her to leave the group in the fall of 1965. Breslin also shares her memories of major historical events such as the funerals of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. She reflects on how her participation in the civil rights movement impacted her personal relationships, discusses the emotional quality of those times, and encourages her audience to find the issue of their time and become involved. Breslin believes, as she says, “Every little step creates controversy, but the controversy does not last. What lasts is the door that has been opened.” Later, Breslin moved to South Carolina, and now resides in Folly Beach, where she continues to be active in local political issues.
Jacquelyn Elaine Venning was born in Charleston, South Carolina, where she spent most of her life. Venning describes being raised in a Christian family and her experience in private schools, including Sacred Heart Catholic School and Bishop England, where she was educated until eleventh grade. Venning graduated from Burke High School in 1983. Venning recalls her first job as a shampoo girl, which she got in sixth grade and continued to work at through her schooling. After high school, Venning relates how she fell in love and got married. Her husband then joined the military, which relocated them around the world. Venning describes her experience living internationally in Germany, and in Texas and Georgia before returning to Charleston in 1992. Since then, she has been working with Aramark at The Citadel, first serving in the Mess Hall and later serving as a supervisor in the Daniel Library Java City. In her interview, Venning recalls her apprehension of working in The Citadel’s male-only environment. But she states that her fears quickly dissipated and describes the cadets as having always been gentle and respectful with her and her job enjoyable. Venning recounts the many institutional changes she has experienced during her than twenty-plus years working at The Citadel, including the deeply controversial admission of Sharon Faulkner to the school and later the full inclusion of women to the Corps. Venning concludes with how the food industry has changed over the years and the attempts to unionize The Citadel food workers.
Bill Carson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in October of 1976, and when he was ten years old his family relocated to James Island, South Carolina. It was around this time that Carson become interested in playing guitar. Carson talks about his formative years, the music that inspired him, and the people who supported him. He reminices how the Jump Little Children’s band members trained and nurtured him and describes them as being “like big brothers” to him and many other young local musicians. Despite participation in a band during his senior year of high school, Carson did not have plans to pursue a music career, and enrolled at the College of Charleston to study philosophy and art. After graduation, Carson began work in a glass shop, but continued playing in different bands in his free time. He remembers his first show, an opening for the band The Groovy Cools which drew a laughably small audience, and his first serious show with a band called Bud Collins. Carson recalls some of his best experiences playing in an ensemble, especially his participation in the Groundhog Concert Day at the Halsey Institute, which brought many of his favorite local musicians together. When asked whether he thought Charleston had a special sound, he stated that he considered Charleston to be special due to its sense of community. Carson recalls the instrumental trio he formed with Ron Wiltrout and Nathan Koci, known as The Opposite of Train, and his 2011 project to document indigenous music on Johns Island. Today, Carson is known for a vast career that includes writing, recording, and performing music, as well as for his collaborative projects and commissioned productions. He also finds time to be a full time elementary school teacher in his community.
Gerald G. Mishoe was born in Conway, South Carolina in 1949. He was the son of Conway firefighter Julian Grant Mishoe, who sparked Gerald Mishoe’s love of firefighting. He spent much of his childhood with his father at the firehouse and watching him fight fires. Mishoe moved to Charleston, South Carolina in 1964. After graduating from high school he joined the St. Andrews Parish fire department to work with his father. After retiring and since the death of nine Charleston firefighters at the Sofa Superstore in 2007, Mishoe has been working with the Lowcountry Firefighter Support Team, which helps firefighters cope with the emotional burden associated with their profession. The team has supported nearly six thousand firefighters and their family members. In the interview, Mishoe tells about fires that stand out in his memory, the occasions he felt his life was in danger, and the changes he has witnessed over decades in the firefighting practice. He explains advances in technology have driven some changes, but others have been driven by tragedies, such us the Sofa Super Store fire in Charleston. He details things that went wrong during the fatal 2007 store fire. He states that a thorough evaluation of those failures has lead to improvements in safety protocols, accountability, equipment, and training. Mishoe also reflects on his journey learning to acknowledge his feelings and the effects of untreated trauma on himself and his family. He states that the ‘machismo’ common among first responders constitutes a huge risk for them. He asserts the importance of the work that Lowcountry Firefighter Support Team is doing, helping firefighters to stay in the job and increasing the quality of life. Mishoe’s son carries on the family tradition as a Charleston firefighter.
Anthony Wright, renowned locally as "Tony the Peanut Man" was born in Savannah, Georgia on December 12, 1952. He grew up in the segregated Maryville community with his mother and five siblings. He attended Wallace High School and following school integration he went to Moultrie High. He was suspended for a year because he fought with a Caucasian student. He decided to quit school and instead earn his GED. In 1973 enlisted in the United States Army. After his service, Wright was employed by Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah, and Lockheed in Charleston. When Lockheed closed, Wright struggled to get a good paying job. Mr. Marion Howard encouraged him to try selling peanuts in the Charleston market. Reluctantly, he decided to give it a try. At the beginning he was shy and other sellers in the market urged him to "be more like Mr. Ben," who was old and beloved peanut seller. Wright created a song and dance that helped him to increase sales. Wright sang, "I got some boiled and I got some toasted, got some stewed and I got some roasted. Oh, yeah, peanut man, uh-huh, catch him if you can because I got the right one baby, uh-huh." Wright's friendly and personable style made him successful and lead to appearances on television and a film. Moreover, his attitude and community involvement earned him the love and recognition of his fellow Charlestonians. Wright's entrepreneur spirit took him to write a comic book, Peanut Man. He used it as a tool to persuade children to follow their dreams. He also looked for ways to expand his business. In the interview he describes his struggles as an African-American vendor to be allowed to sell peanuts at The Citadel, Joe Riley Stadium, and the Daniel Island stadium and also the challenges he experienced when a fire destroyed his business and when a deal to sell can peanuts ended badly. In the interview he asserts being grateful for his life experiences and looking at the future with enthusiasm, "my goal is to be the number one peanut man in the world ... I just want to leave something behind that people can appreciate."
Mario Puga was born in Mexico in 1974. When he was sixteen years old he moved to the United States and resided in Rhode Island with his older siblings. He graduated from high school and dreamed of attending college but could not because he was undocumented. Thus, he went back to his country and met a beautiful young woman, Alma Lopez. However, he soon realized he would have better chances to succeed in the United States and decided to return. He was in Texas living with his brother when he learned that Alma also had made the trip, and was living in Johns Island, South Carolina. He followed her and found himself living in a rural area for the first time in his life. He started working in agriculture mainly because there were no other available jobs, but also because it provided housing. Soon, he married his girlfriend and they had their first child. In the interview, Puga explains he always had a drive for learning and improving himself. He has participated in many community organizations but states it was Sister Mary Joseph Ritter from Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach who taught him about leadership and community service. Puga and his wife participated in the march opposing the South Carolina immigration law SB 20 and are working with a retired police officer, Key Wang, to promote legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to apply and obtain driver licenses in South Carolina. Descripción: Mario Puga nació en México en 1974. Cuando tenía dieciséis años se radicó en Rhode Island donde estaban sus hermanos mayores. Se graduó de la escuela secundaria y soñaba con ir a la universidad, pero no pudo porque era indocumentado. Volvió a su país para visitar a sus padres y estando en su tierra natal conoció a su futura esposa, Alma López. Cuando se dió cuenta de que sus posibilidades de progresar eran muy limitadas decidió regresar a Estados Unidos. Se estableció en Texas donde vivía uno de sus hermanos. Estando allí supo que Alma había cruzado la frontera y que estaba residiendo en Johns Island en Carolina del Sur. Entonces resolvió buscarla. El cambio de paisaje no fue fácil, había vivido la mayor parte de su vida en ciudades grandes y tuvo que aprender a vivir en un área rural. Se empleó como trabajador agrícola, en primer lugar porque no había muchas otras opciones laborales pero también porque este trabajo le proporcionaba vivienda. Al poco tiempo contrajo matrimonio y tuvo su primer hijo. En la entrevista, Puga explica que siempre ha tenido el deseo de aprender y superarse y por eso mismo siempre ha estado interesado en participar en proyectos colectivos. Ha sido miembro activo de muchas organizaciones desde su juventud, pero afirma que la hermana Mary Joseph Ritter de Our Lady of Mercy Outreach ha sido la persona que realmente le enseñó el significado de liderazgo y servicio comunitario. En el año 2011, Puga y su esposa participaron en las protestas comunitarias en contra de la promulgación y puesta en vigencia de ley de la inmigración de Carolina del Sur SB 20. También han trabajado con un oficial de policía retirado, el señor Key Wang, para elaborar y promover un proyecto de ley que permitiría a los inmigrantes indocumentados solicitar y obtener licencias de conducir en Carolina del Sur.
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.
Theron Snype was born and raised in Downtown Charleston. In 1967, he graduated from Burke High School. In the interview, Snype remembers his experiences at Burke High School. He talks about his favorite English teachers, Ms. Doris Hazel and Ms. Altimeze McGriff, and his geometry teacher, Ms. Hazel Stewart. He describes Burke's positive environment and the abundance of activities available to students. Finally, he remembers the students that integrated Charleston Schools and states that activism was not promoted at Burke. He reflects on the limited understanding he and his friends had back then about the magnitude of the civil rights movement in Charleston. He also reflects on how he did not learn until he was older the importance the contribution of leaders like Septima Clark were in Charleston. He concludes with comments about how important his experiences at Burke were to helping him see a life beyond the segregated society he grew up in, and he expressed pride in what he and his fellow classmates went on to accomplish.
Mary Edwards was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1967 she graduated from C.A. Brown High School. In the interview, Edwards recalls memories about her childhood in the Eastside Community, her experiences at C.A. Brown, and school integration. Finally, Edward focuses on her work as a counselor and instructor at Trident Technical College.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Consuelo Campos was born in Aquila, Michoacán, Mexico. Because her family was very poor and she was the oldest of thirteen siblings, she started working at an early age in the production of bricks and selling food that her mother prepared. She attended school only for two years after the village priest convinced her father that education was necessary and important. Poverty and the news of prosperity that came from the north fueled her desire to emigrate and help her family. At the age of nineteen, she married a young man from her town who worked as an agricultural worker in the United States. Soon after, in 1989 they settled in the state of Washington. In 1992, they moved to Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina but continued to travel as a migrant working family. Finally, after almost ten years working in the fields and concerned about her children’s wellbeing, she decided to settle down and began to clean houses in Johns Island. She learned English and opened several small businesses, including a cleaning company and a restaurant. At the time of the interview, Campos was working full-time with the company Mary Kay. She reflects on the reasons for emigrating, remembers life on Johns Island and Wadmalaw Island in the 90s, and takes pride in accomplishing her goal of helping her family. / Consuelo Campos nació en Aquila, Michoacán México. Su familia era muy pobre y como era la mayor de trece hermanos tuvo que comenzar a trabajar desde muy pequeña en la producción de ladrillos y vendiendo comida que su madre preparaba. Asistió a la escuela solamente por dos años después de que el sacerdote del pueblo convenciera a su padre de la que la educación era necesaria e importante. La pobreza y las noticias de prosperidad que llegaban desde el norte alimentaron su deseo de emigrar y ayudar a su familia. A los 19 años se casó con un joven de su pueblo, que se desempeñaba como trabajador agrícola en los Estados Unidos y con él, en el año 1989 se radicó en el estado de Washington. En 1992 se mudaron a Wadmalaw Island, Carolina del Sur, pero siguieron viajando en familia como trabajadores migrantes. Finalmente, después de casi diez años trabajando en el campo y pensando en el bienestar de sus hijos, decidió establecerse y para ganar su sustento empezó a limpiar casas en Johns Island. Aprendió inglés y abrió varios pequeños negocios, entre ellos una compañía de limpieza y un restaurante. Al tiempo de la entrevista Campos estaba abocada a tiempo completo a trabajar con la compañía Mary Kay. Campos reflexiona sobre las razones para emigrar, recuerda la vida en Johns Island and Wadmanlaw Island en la década de los noventa y se enorgullece de haber logrado su objetivo de ayudar a su familia.
Enrique Martinez is the owner of La Casa Mexicana, one of the first Hispanic stores in the city of Goose Creek. He was born in Tampico Tamaulipas, Mexico and studied Agricultural Administration at the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas. At the end of the 80s, he emigrated with his then-wife Marcela Ortega to the United States and after a brief stay in Texas, they settled in Johns Island, South Carolina. Martinez started working in agriculture, but the devastation caused by hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the subsequent real estate development in the area demanded more workers and created new job opportunities. Martinez found work in the construction of the Kiawah golf courses. He and his wife opened El Mercadito, the first Hispanic store in Johns Island. After their separation, Martinez left the island and moved to North Charleston. He became familiar with the growing Hispanic community of Goose Creek and decided to establish the store he still owns. In the interview, Martínez reflects on his experiences as an immigrant and the evolution of the Hispanic community in the area. He also speaks proudly of his children and of what he has been able to achieve in his life. / Enrique Martínez es el propietario de ”La Casa Mexicana” uno de las tiendas de productos hispanos con más trayectoria en la ciudad de Goose Creek. Nació en Tampico Tamaulipas, México y estudió administración agropecuaria en la Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas. A fines de la década de los ochenta emigró con su entonces esposa, Marcela Ortega, a los Estados Unidos y después de una breve temporada en Texas la pareja se asentó en Johns Island, Carolina del Sur. Martínez encontró empleo en la agricultura, pero la devastación producida por el huracán Hugo en 1989 y el posterior desarrollo inmobiliario de la zona demandaron más trabajadores y originaron nuevas oportunidades por lo cual Martínez comenzó a trabajar en la construcción de los campos de golf de Kiawah. Junto a su esposa abrió la primera tienda de productos hispanos en Johns Island ”El Mercadito”. Después de su separación, Martínez dejó la isla y se mudó a North Charleston. Se familiarizó con la vibrante comunidad hispana de Goose Creek y decidió establecer allí el negocio que todavía conserva. En la entrevista, Martínez reflexiona acerca de la evolución de la comunidad hispana en el área y sus experiencias personales como inmigrante. También habla con orgullo de sus dos hijos y de lo que ha podido construir en su vida.
Singer and storyteller Ann Caldwell was born in Denmark, South Carolina in 1952. Her family moved to Charleston when she was three years old. Her early musical memories relate to the church music and the long hours she spent listening to gospel and R&B on the radio. However, her interest in pursuing a professional musical career would develop much later. She was an adult when she had her first solo concert at St. Paul AME Church in the City of North Charleston in 1982. In the interview, Caldwell recalls the challenges of being a working mother and a party band singer as well as her experiences singing with the David Archer Band. She also talks about the Magnolia Singers, a Charleston-based vocal group she founded and gained national recognition. Caldwell reflects about what means for her to perform Gullah Spirituals, the music of her ancestors to different audiences. She discusses her participation in programs and events with musicians of different styles and traditions such as the Women & Series at the Music Hall and talks about what it takes to be a working musician in Charleston. Finally, she reflects about the Charleston music community response to Mother Emanuel tragedy and affirms, "I don't believe the music has changed. It's the medicine we lean on."
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.
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.
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."
María was born in Caracheo, Guanajuato, Mexico. She is the youngest of eleven siblings in a family dedicated to rural work. She got married when she was twenty years old. Soon after, her husband, following in the footsteps of family and friends, left for the United States to work in agriculture. While her husband worked in the United States, she took care of the family in Caracheo. Each year, her husband went back home. However, after the terrorist attack in New York City, the trip became increasingly more dangerous. Thinking that her children needed to be with their father and have a better future, Maria decided to move to the United States and settled in Johns Island, South Carolina. In the interview, Maria talks about the process of adaptation to life in the United States, the difficulties related to physical and cultural isolation and the support she received from the island's Hispanic community. Maria affirms that, despite the obstacles, she is happy because her family is reunited and her children are well. At the time of the interview, Maria had four children and two grandchildren. / María, nació en Caracheo, Guanajuato, México. Es la menor de once hermanos de una familia dedicada al trabajo rural. A los veinte años se casó. Al poco tiempo su esposo, siguiendo los pasos de familiares y amigos, se marchó a los Estados Unidos para trabajar en la agricultura. Mientras Su esposo trabajaba en Estados Unidos ella cuidaba la familia en Caracheo. Cada año su esposo regresaba al pueblo para estar con la familia. Pero después del ataque terrorista en la ciudad de Nueva York el viaje se volvió cada vez más peligroso. Para que sus hijos pudieran crecer junto a su padre y tener un mejor futuro, María decidió mudarse a Estados Unidos y se estableció en Johns Island, Carolina del Sur. En la entrevista, María habla acerca del proceso de adaptación a la vida en Estados Unidos, las dificultades relacionadas con el aislamiento físico y cultural y el apoyo que recibió de la comunidad hispana de la isla. María afirma que, a pesar de los obstáculos, ella es feliz porque su familia está reunida y sus hijos están bien. Al momento de la entrevista María tenía cuatro hijos y dos nietos.
United Methodist Church minister Wiley Barrow Cooper (b. 1942) was born in Greenville, South Carolina. In addition to his pastoral work, he had a long career in human services. In the interview, Cooper discusses his association with South Carolina Clergy Consultation Service for Problem Pregnancies (SCCCS) in Greenville. He explains why he became involved, his role as a volunteer counselor, and the problems women faced during that time in South Carolina. Finally, he reflects on his own spiritual beliefs regarding abortion and his participation in the civil rights movement.
United Methodist Church minister James Ellis Griffeth (b. 1942) grew up in Greenville, S.C. He attended Wofford College and later Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC. He worked as a chaplain with the Greenville Health System for twenty-four years until his retirement in 1998. In the interview, Griffeth discusses his association with South Carolina Clergy Consultation Service for Problem Pregnancies (SCCCS) in Greenville. He explains why he became involved and details the problems women requiring counsel faced during that time in South Carolina. Finally, he reflects on his own spiritual beliefs regarding abortion.
Charles W. Smith discusses growing up, his adult professional life as a city planner and realtor, his personal life and his work as an activist for LGBTQ rights. His family lived in Orangeburg, Beaufort, Florence and Charleston and he was educated at the College of Charleston and Clemson University, moving to Miami in 1984. His early family life was overshadowed by the illness and death of an older brother. Realizing he was gay, he avoided being bullied in school by staying closeted. In 1987 in Miami Beach, FL, he met Carlos Guillermo Rodriguez. Soon after, Smith told his family he was gay and Rodriguez tested HIV positive. He wanted Smith to leave him, but Smith refused; their families in South Carolina and Colombia, South America accepted them. Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Miami, with which Smith was affiliated as a senior warden, was also accepting and affirming. After his lover’s death in 1995, Smith, who had run for political office, but lost, moved to Charleston, SC in 1996, finding a changed city, which he attributes to Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. We Are Family, a youth-oriented LGBTQ organization had been founded by Thomas Myers and Smith stayed, founding a real estate firm catering to LGBTQ clients. There were a number of bars in town he remembers frequenting; he affiliated with St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, a historically African American congregation opened up to white congregants, many of whom were LGBTQ. Smith and others, mostly non natives, such as Linda Ketner, Jim and Warren Redman-Gress, Carolyn Kirk, Lynne Moldenhauer and Linda G. William, helped found Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA). They publicly confronted a newspaper ad attacking LGBTQ people. This, Smith believes, began the process of removing shame and empowering the LGBTQ community. Smith also describes the “thousand year rainfall event” of 2015 and his marriage to Rob Suli that year, in a Columbia, SC hospital to ensure their rights were respected in the arena of health care. He notes the importance of the internet to LGBTQ people in finding community. He mentions Lowcountry Gay and Lesbian Alliance (LGLA), the lives of Jay Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson in Miami, and two gay men, who wintered in Charleston, SC. They, according to Smith, participated in the gay purges of US State Department employees in the 1940s and ‘50s. He also mentions the ownership of gay bars in Charleston, SC and the conflict over LGBTQ rights that has split the local Episcopal Diocese.
Taylor DeBartola tells the story of his upbringing in Peachtree City, Georgia, a town he describes as “very conservative.” He discusses the competitive relationship he had with his younger brother who is close in age, as well as the role that religion played in their early life. DeBartola reflects on the way that he revealed his sexuality to his family, and the period of time where things between them were rocky, discussing the ways in which he had to be patient and allow his parents to “take their time” to accept him. Taylor then talks about his “chosen family,” and the way they all met at Dudley’s, a popular gay bar in downtown Charleston. He details the ways he sees gatherings with gay men changing in recent years, moving from public spaces to more private locations such as personal residences. Taylor also discusses gay married life in the South, later noting that he and his now-husband were “engaged when it was not going to be legal,” and stressing that young people should educate themselves on gay history, especially the HIV/AIDS crisis, which he stresses is far from over. He also talks about the ways that particular books shaped him and his desire to learn more about gay history, mentioning Harlan Greene’s Why We Never Danced the Charleston. DeBartola then describes the impact that artist and activist David Wojnarowicz has had on his life, and the ways that he has tried to trace Wojnarowicz’s and his partner’s time spent on a trip to Charleston. Finally, Taylor talks about his experiences being an openly gay College of Charleston student.
Lee Anne Leland (pronouns: She/Hers) now living in McClellanville, SC, tells her story of coming to terms with and exploring her identity as a self-identified gender-nonconforming, lesbian, transgender woman. Being raised as a boy in a family of five siblings, she grew up in a prominent, socially and religiously conservative Mount Pleasant family where she struggled to understand and come to terms with her identity facing the disapproval of many. She describes a continuing and confusing search for self-expression and the impact such words as “cross-dresser” and “transsexual” had on her and her search for community, until, with the help of friends, she found her transgender identity. She recounts how she dealt with coming out, her experience with depression, thoughts of suicide, dysphoria over her appearance, various work experiences, and self-acceptance as an adult. Through all of this, Leland discusses the love and support she has received from her wife, Cindy, and the role she has had as an activist. Leland continues as coordinator of the Charleston Area Transgender Support (CATS), a board member of We Are Family, and a speaker at public events such as Transgender Day of Remembrance. She discusses how she perceives that claiming and living her authentic existence, even walking down the street, can be an act of political activism. Leland stresses the need for conversations and political activism especially in the political climate of 2018. Additionally, Leland recounts experiences and histories of Charleston’s gay bars, specifically the Lion’s Head, and the King Street Garden and Gun Club. She also mentions White Point Garden as a cruising spot, the Spoleto Festival, and the impact that the transsexual Dawn Langley Hall Simmons had on the Charleston community.
Dennis "Denny" O’Brien discusses his upbringing as part of an Irish-American family. His maternal grandfather came over during the Famine and settled in Tennessee. His paternal grandfather came over from a small town outside of Cork in 1912, to Omaha, Nebraska, where he practiced law. His father was an Army officer, so he spent much of his childhood overseas, including Japan, where he attended high school. He eventually settled in Charleston after marrying a woman who’s family has been here for generation. He’s been a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernia and belongs to a number of Catholic organizations. He discusses stories passed on to him by his father, particularly about political events in Ireland, and how the events framed a lot of the anti-British sentiment among the Irish, including members of his family. His family identified primarily as American Irish, rather than Irish-American, and that their Catholic identity was prioritized above their Irish background. The Catholic Church played an important role in his upbringing, and Catholicism is something he has tried to pass on to his children as much as possible. For him, his family is, first and foremost, American with Irish heritage. While he states that the Irish presence is stronger and “more militant” in northern cities such as Boston, he argues that there is a significant Irish culture and community in Charleston.
Karl Beckwith Smith (pronouns: He/Him) born in Saranac Lake, N.Y. in 1950, describes his early childhood in New York state and in Darien, Conn. as well as his relationship with his family, particularly his engineer father, whom he describes as a “man’s man,” and notable athlete, despite his father’s life-long struggle with diabetes. (At his death at age ninety, his father was reputed to be one of the world’s longest survivors and users of insulin.) Smith also discusses the eventual death of his mother and his time in St. Paul’s, a prestigious prep school in Concord, N.H., and his difficulties with classmates, whom he says knew he was gay before he himself knew. He speaks of how art provided an “escape” from many of the obstacles in his early life. He then delves into his time at Princeton University, where he studied art history and was one of the first students to paint for his thesis. While there, he lived for a few years in a commune-like setting with many others, including Lisa Halabey, eventually Queen Noor of Jordan. He makes mention of his mentor, the artist Esteban Vicente, and his exposure to other notable artists including Helen Frankenthaler. Smith recalls the date of April 1, 1972, when he met Hal Truesdale as one of the turning points of his life. He details the early years of their partnership, their travels in Europe and their “pioneering” loft living and entertaining extravagantly in lower Manhattan, where after giving up acting, Hal had his private hairdressing salon with prominent clients. Also discussed is the time they lived in Cold Springs, N.Y., their summer cottage at Loon Lake, Vt., and Smith’s very successful competitive sailing seasons in Newport, R.I. In 1984, Smith gave up other jobs to become an artist full-time, mostly painting furniture, interiors and mural. Returning to Truesdale’s birthplace of Columbia, S.C., to take care of his mother, the couple then moved to Charleston in 1992, where Beckwith painted murals for Charleston Place Hotel and a mural on André Michaux at the Charleston International Airport. After brief mentions of the AIDS crisis in NY and the Stonewall riot, Smith describes their settle life in Charleston. He and Truesdale were united in a civil union in 2000 in Vermont and married in 2013 in New York.
Sarah Davis discusses her experiences as an Irish American growing up in the Northeast. She admits that it is difficult to pinpoint her experience with Irishness, as her family background is made up of several different backgrounds, but states that she connects most with the community and hospitality aspects of Irishness. She also offers some comments on perceptions of Irish American vs Irish identities, and on the changing political and social environment in Ireland today.
Barbara Nicodemus (pronouns: She/Hers), white retired school teacher, discusses her life, which she describes as "pretty boring," "pretty golden," and one lived under a "miracle cloud." Growing up in a close-knit, loving and accepting Catholic family in Indianapolis, IN, she accompanied her parents to marches and rallies in Chicago as a youngster. She attended Catholic schools (where she had to get permission to take physics instead of home economics), Ball State University, and Purdue, majoring in science education and later in biochemistry, when it was unusual for women to do so. Involved with another woman academician, she helped organize and run a women's center, "really a lesbian" center, and never encountered any sort of pushback there for her views or actions. She gave up working at Eli Lilly and Company, not agreeing with their philosophy, and moved with partner to various other universities, eventually moving to Clemson, SC. Starting a new career, Nicodemus became a high school teacher and had her education loans forgiven by teaching in the rural area of Walhalla, South Carolina. There, she was a "breath of fresh air," being out, when so many people were not. She continued to live under that "miracle cloud" of never facing any prejudice against her for being a lesbian, which she attributes to her personally being "passable" in her looks, and due to the Southern pattern of behavior of not being confrontational. After a year-and-a-half of attempts at artificial insemination, she gave birth to twin girls, whom she and her partner raised. While their relationship ended, the women remained close both emotionally and geographically. Nicodemus started and ran the "Upstate Women's Community" for lesbians for about ten years, putting on events to raise funds to help publish a newsletter. Teaching school, she was a role model for some students and staff and she expressed her disapproval once when an older friend dated a student. Retiring, she moved to Charleston with her wife, where she is involved with the Charleston Social Club, has joined book clubs (one specifically for lesbians), and volunteers to work with senior dementia patients. In speaking on LGBTQ topics, she notes her belief that gay men, like her brother, who also has children, might face more discrimination that gay women do; she describes her long-standing attendance at a women's festival, ponders its stand as terfs, trans-exclusionary radical feminists, not opening the festival to trans women, and questions her own thoughts on the topic. Being LGBTQ has just made her human, she feels, earlier noting that LGBTQ people often work harder than their straight peers, just to prove their worth. She ends the interview suggesting that while she has lived a life "in neutral," she has occasionally, when needed, shifted into "drive."
George Thomas Lamme (Pronouns: He/Him/His), discusses his early years in Nebraska, moving to New York City and Chicago, and then settling in Charleston, SC where he became involved in many LGBTQ related projects and businesses. Growing up gay and Catholic in Beemer, Nebraska, Lamme always knew he was different; engaging in cowboy and Indian games, he always played Big Ruby, "a bar girl". Attending a Lutheran college, he intended to be a priest, but eventually became a teacher in a Catholic school in his hometown instead. Pursuing some legal action against the school, he was threatened with being outed by the administration if he did not quit; it was recommended he move to New York City. There, he pursued his interest in theatre, working with H.M. Koutoukas and La Mama's avant gard theatre, among other things. Moving to Chicago, where he had worked in the box office of the Academy Festival Theatre, he met David Cardwell and Jeff Miller, who moved to Charleston, SC. In 1978, Lamme came to visit and never left. He was instrumental in finding backers for their bar Les Jardins, soon working there, writing, staging, and directing various musical spoofs and tributes. He also was befriended by Richard (Dick) Robison, whose Garden and Gun Club Lamme later joined as staff. He describes the small "quiet? beautiful" town Charleston was, its social structure and its class of closeted gay men. "Everybody knew that there were important people in the city? who had boyfriends," he notes. "But Charleston was such a polite city, you don't bring up that subject because? [t]hat person is a good person?." As a bartender and a door man, he was involved with selecting or rejecting those applying for membership, and got to know drag queens, society women, bar owners, other bars and bar patrons, many of which he describes. He also became active in the founding and running of Helping Hands dedicated to raising awareness of HIV and AIDS and raising funds for people with AIDS. He reflects on some of the earlier aspects of gay life in the city, speaks of attending local and national LGBTQ parades, describes the devastation of Hurricane Hugo, his work in hotel banqueting, as a guide at the Calhoun (now Williams) Mansion, and in the tourism office of the City of Charleston. He ends by affirming how satisfying it is to see LGBTQ people out in the community, describing how children and others realize he is gay, and how he loves "the fact that not a single person makes any trouble for anyone walking hand in hand in Charleston right now."
Jensen Cowan (pronouns: They/Them) was born July 4, 1997 in Brandon, Florida, and discusses growing up in Socastee, adjacent to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in an emotionally and verbally abusive home. They discuss chosen family and close friends, their relationship with their mother and four sisters in a blended family and what it meant to leave home to start a new life at the College of Charleston, with mentions of being in the Bonner Leadership Program there. Cowan describes the struggles of separating from their family financially and finding a method to pay for school. Working with We Are Family and attending functions of Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), Cowan felt “discrepancies in maturities” in various groups, eventually finding supportive friends and neighbors to help with personal issues and the need for food. Cowan discusses identifying as queer, nonbinary, and trans, mentions a fundraiser they started to help pay for surgery and speaks of their capstone project to map all the gender-neutral bathrooms on the College of Charleston campus. Cowan notes a lack of response from College administrators on this and other LGBTQ oriented issues, describes the inconveniences and disruptions caused to their college studies by this lack of facilities and speaks to the insensitivity of some faculty and friends in using offensive vocabularies and inappropriate pronouns. Cowan and the interviewer discuss the lack of diversity within Charleston Pride, and the larger LGBTQ movement as a whole, while praising classes and faculty, such as Dr. Kristi Bryan, within the College’s Women’s & Gender Studies program and the positive effect it has had on them and others. The interview closes with a discussion of Cowan’s plans for the future after graduating in May 2019, having earlier mentioned a disinclination to return to working as an educator/camp counselor at Kids On Point (formerly Chucktown Squash), due to the fact that the students there would have known them under a different name.
Jeanette P. Singleton was born on October 6, 1932 in Awendaw, South Carolina. She attended South Carolina College and later the University of South Carolina where she earned a master's degree in library science. Upon her graduation, in 1954 she was hired at Lincoln School in McClellanville, South Carolina. She worked in this institution for thirty-seven years until her retirement in 1992. In the interview, Ms. Singleton talks about the school's lack of resources during segregation and the challenges brought by integration. She remembers Hurricane Hugo devastation and the efforts to recover from it. Singleton laments the closing of Lincoln High in 2016 arguing the school was important for the local community, which took pride in its history and its graduates' accomplishments. Finally, Singleton reflects on her calling to be an educator and offers words of advice and encouragement to young teachers.
Eréndira Fabela Estrada (b. 1963) was born in San Pedro, Coahuila, Mexico. Her large family, school, and participation in the Catholic Church youth groups shaped her life. When she was twenty years old, she arrived for the first time to Johns Island, South Carolina to visit her sister and brother-in-law. There, she met her future husband and father of her daughter who worked as a contractor for a local farmer. Soon, Fabela Estrada was working with him in the fields and helping to manage the administrative side of contracting seasonal agricultural workers. The couple divided their time between Johns Island and San Pedro but decided to settle down definitively when their daughter started school. Motivated to improve her English to help her girl with the school homework, Fabela Estrada began taking classes at the College of Charleston. She continued studying until she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Spanish and Education. For twelve years, she has worked as a Spanish teacher at the Military Magnet Academy in the City of North Charleston. In the interview, Fabela Estrada reflects on her experiences working in the agricultural fields, her love for studying and teaching, and the difficulties and satisfactions she experienced by challenging her community traditional roles. Eréndira Fabela Estrada (1963) nació en San Pedro Coahuila, México y creció sin carencias ni lujos en el seno de una familia numerosa. Su familia, la escuela y la participación en los grupos juveniles de la iglesia católica dejaron una marca importante en su vida. A los veinte años llegó a Johns Island, Carolina del Sur para pasar un tiempo con su hermana y su cuñado que se habían radicado en la isla. Fue ahí donde conoció a su futuro esposo y padre de su hija que trabajaba como contratista para un ranchero local. Con él trabajó en todas las labores implicadas en el cuidado de los campos y la organización de los trabajadores. La pareja repartía su tiempo entre Johns Island y San Pedro, pero decidieron establecerse definitivamente cuando la hija de ambos comenzó la escuela. Motivada a capacitarse y mejorar su inglés para poder ayudar a la niña con las tareas escolares, Fabela Estrada comenzó a tomar clases en el College of Charleston. Poco a poco, continúo estudiando y se graduó con un Bachelor en español y educación. Por doce años se ha desempeñado como profesora de español en la escuela Military Magnet Academy en la Ciudad de North Charleston. En la entrevista, Fabela Estrada reflexiona acerca de sus experiencias trabajando en el campo, su amor por el estudio y la enseñanza y los desafíos que enfrentó para salirse de los roles tradicionales de su comunidad.
Terry Cherry (pronouns: She/Her/Hers), white police officer, discusses the path of her life from birth in North Carolina, to education in California and elsewhere, to her service, in a number of capacities, as an out LGBTQ person in the Charleston, SC police force. She was born in Pinehurst, NC into a Methodist family. Her parents were both professors and very accepting and loving. Identifying as boy, she felt constricted by what society demanded of her, and went into therapy as a child to help with her anger at the situation. She attended UCLA, and when studying abroad in Australia, she reached a crisis when she nearly died from influenza. At her recovery, she decided to live as fully and honestly as possible. She came out to her parents, at first assuming she would be a disappointment and "imperfect," something her family totally rejected. At the Church of Christ-affiliated Pepperdine University, getting an MBA, she stressed LGBTQ issues and after graduating, she worked in the private sector before asking herself, "What can I do to make a memorable impact?" Turning to law enforcement, she went through the San Diego Police Academy training and in 2012 returned, hesitantly, to the Lowcountry where she has family. Expecting to find herself in a more conservative environment, she nevertheless lived openly in her daily life and work for the Charleston Police Force. She first served as a patrol officer on James and Johns Island, where she made an "investment" in learning the culture and heritage of the community, becoming a valued friend to many. She was officer of the year in 2017 and was among the first on the police force to participate in the Pride parade. Throughout the interview, Cherry speaks of the need to be oneself, to always expect the best of all situations, and others, and to ignore stereotypes, while working for social justice. She also notes that the Charleston Police Department, where she has worked as liaisons to the LGBTQ and Latinx communities, and now serves as the head of recruitment activities, has become a leader in the nation in diversity and inclusion, while not necessarily advertising the fact. She also gives a few brief vignettes of her professional life, referencing working the Emanuel AME massacre, talking a young lesbian out of suicide, and other incidents. She also discusses the city of Charleston's hate crimes ordinance.
Narrator_042 (Pronouns: He/Him/His), who requested the withholding of his name from the interview, discuses growing up in a small town in South Carolina as part of a financially "pretty well-off" blended family. At a young age, he began to notice that he was different. Realizing that he identified as gay, the narrator encountered resistance and hostility from family members. He recounts his experiences of starting to embrace his identity. In the process, he experienced "a lot of acceptance from friends," but at home, he realized "things were kind of shunned away or seen as just wrong," or even "demonic." He details his family's denial of his sexuality, their attempts to rid him of what they viewed as a "demon," and their attempts to maintain a strict home life structured around religion and scripture. This included monitoring his activity to prevent exposure to what they viewed as corrupting content on television and the internet. Despite such opposition, he periodically came out to his family, first at the age of thirteen, again at fifteen, and for a third time as a College of Charleston student. He describes in detail the reactions of the people closest to him, the actions taken by his family, and the challenges he continues to encounter with family members and how they have progressed over time. Note: At the request of the narrator, his name and other identifying details have been removed from the transcript, and the audio file of this oral history interview is not available. In lieu of a proper name, the speaker is referred to as Narrator_042, and other deletions made to the transcript are denoted in brackets.
In this interview Crystal Denise Helton (pronouns she, her, hers), a white program coordinator at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), speaks of growing up in West Virginia, her awakening to her sexual identity, her experiences with friends, family and lovers, her marriage and divorce, her conversion to Judaism, and her reflections on herself and society. An only child growing up in with parents who were divorced, but still living together, Helton had a solitary youth, taking refuge in reading, offering escape from an alcoholic father, and a sometimes-inattentive mother. Closeted in high school, she nevertheless had a girlfriend who lived nearby and she avoided the censure of disapproving peers while attending a series of different churches and denominations. Helton first realized she was lesbian when she had a crush on a Sunday school teacher, and evolved a healthy attitude to her sexuality without the guidance or advice of others. Leaving home, near Princeton, West Virginia, Helton attended Marshall University and later lived in Lexington, KY where she switched from a PhD program in history to a masters program in library science, and where she was in a relationship with the woman who eventually became her wife. While she understood prejudice against gay people, Helton never felt much of it directed at her, commenting that her conversion to Judaism, completed at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE), in Charleston, SC, has sparked more of a negative response from others than her sexuality. Her ex-wife joined her in the conversion experience and there was much resistance to this religious change in her spouse's family. The breakup and divorce (the couple had three varying marriage ceremonies, including a very positive experience at KKBE), was difficult for Helton, who did not instigate it. Calling her ex-wife the extrovert, and herself an introvert, Helton discusses her family of choice, including a long-time friend, and new ones made in a bocce league and among "murderinos", fans of the "My Favorite Murders" podcast. She speaks of learning patience in a romantic relationship, and discusses the greater ease with identity and gender fluidity she sees in people younger than she. She believes that being a member of the LGBTQ community has brought her insight into privilege, power, and prejudice in the larger society.
Vanity Reid Deterville (she, her, hers), discusses her upbringing in Charleston, SC, college years spent in Atlanta, GA, and the challenges she faced as accepting herself and being accepted in society as an African American trans woman. Growing up in an extended religious family, Deterville knew she was different from most of her friends and family as she heeded the warning of her grandmother to not share her concept of her gender identity with most other people. Attending Morehouse College in Atlanta opened up new ways of expressing gender identity and sexual orientation for her, but conflicts with her family over these and other issues led to an unstable period in her life, when she experienced homelessness or near homelessness, financial problems and battles with drugs and dependency. She describes the various stages of self-expression she went through at Morehouse and the issues presenting feminine triggered at the all-male school and how over the years, there have been family rifts and reconciliations. She addresses what it was like to come out in Charleston, mentions the role the LGBTQ youth organization We Are Family played in the process and speaks a bit about the bar scene, articulating a stratification she noticed along class and racial lines._Deterville also speaks about local transgender issues, the segregated nature of LGBTQ life, and how many of her friends are more eager to attend Black Gay Pride events out of town rather than local gay pride events. She also notes the irony that people in the white community seem more empathetic on, and attuned to, transgender issues, than many in the people of color community. Yet white gay men tend to want to label and define her only as a drag performer and not accept her for her true status. She refers to a play "Sugar in the Grits" she wrote and performed for the local MOJA festival, a rare event that linked Gullah-Geechee heritage and LGBTQ life._In response to the question of what being LGBTQ has meant to her, she answers that it has led to "trailblazing," being constantly open to questioning normalcy, learning to love oneself, despite what one is taught, and being able to look at life in an a more nuanced and even more spiritual manner._
Jeanne Chirdon discusses her experience with Irish heritage and the journey of her family?s immigration from Ireland. After her great great grandparents immigrated from Ireland, they settled in Pennsylvania. Some of her family traveled through the port in Cork, Ireland and most of her family immigrated through Ellis Island, New York. One of seven siblings, Jeanne grew up Roman Catholic and discusses Catholic traditions and how they have influenced her life. Jeanne shares the role of Irish music in her life, which developed from her relationship with "the Toms" at the age of 16. Music, for Jeanne, influenced her sense of community and comfort in Irish culture. After living in Cork, Ireland from 2003-2006, Jeanne moved to Asheville for graduate school, and later moved to Charleston with her husband. She plays the banjo, and is very involved in the Irish music scene in Charleston.
Shelli Quenga (pronouns: She/Hers), describes living all over the world, moving to Charleston in her 20s and coming out as a lesbian in her 40s. Her father was in the Air Force, and she discusses her experiences being the daughter of a mixed-race couple with a Guamanian father and a white mother. Educated at Vassar, she married twice. Although she had a gay uncle, “it just never occurred to me that being gay was an option,” she states. Married with one child, she met another woman with four children (two withs special needs) and their relationship began; the coming out process was “tortuous.” During it, she lost a relationship with her daughter, her parents, and her job due to its homophobic work environment. Quenga discusses how her experience differs from that of lesbians who never married men, noting her realization that heterosexuality did give her more power and status. She speaks of her obliviousness to LGBTQ people and issues before coming out and her limited awareness of the Charleston LGBTQ community. That changed once she met Lynn Dugan and began to attend functions organized by the Charleston Social Club, a local lesbian group that Dugan founded. She describes the pressure she feels to keep her personal and business lives separate, including on social media, while also observing how such mundane things as health care forms can be off-putting to LGBTQ people and express subtle discrimination. With the passage of time, she has become more vocal in order to demonstrate to others how misleading or stereotypical their assumptions about her can be, and she has found a shift in those around her, too. She and her wife have been accepted by their extended families, their children now have LGBTQ friends, and Quenga discusses how they keep her up to date with terminology and issues in the community. She mentions the rupture in the congregation of Old St. Andrews Episcopal Church over the ordination of a gay bishop, and ends the interview discussing racism and sexism in South Carolina, and how an inability to be fully free and out causes her to question staying in the state. Her advice for younger people, however, is to leave the state, achieve success not possible here, and then perhaps come back.
Andrew Becknell, sometimes known as Andrezia (pronouns: they/them, but also she/her) describes growing up in the Charleston area as a bigender or two-spirit person. They grew up in a conservative Catholic family, moving from West of the Ashley to Mount Pleasant. Becknell's parents divorced when they were young, and they became close to their mother, and has only recently begun to renew ties with their father. Becknell has Tourette's syndrome, misdiagnosed early on as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), leading to bad reactions to drugs and an unhappy year at Blessed Sacrament School. Later attending Wando High School, Becknell, who always sensed they were different, began experimenting with high heels and other forms of feminine attire, eliciting a range of both negative and positive reaction, the former from his family and the latter from a church youth group leader. Attending Trident Technical College, Becknell served as Vice President of Gay/Straight Alliance, which they helped found and later had both positive and negative experiences in a different work environments. Now working as a car-detailer, a job much enjoyed, Becknell discusses being out, "blending in," and also moving into "survival mode." Becknell mentions attending some Charleston Area Transgender Support (CATS) meetings, notes being more attracted to women, describes the impact of certain albums and musicians on them, declares that "The binary must die," and speaks of their attraction to Norse Polytheism. They also muse on the rigidity of the older generation, both straight and gay, in viewing of sex and gender roles, mentioning a lesbian "takeover" of the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), making the organization more accepting. Becknell also discusses work with a number of therapists, and how a gender therapist has been most helpful.
Robert Arrington (pronouns: He/Him/His), Black reverend of the Unity Fellowship Church, the only affirming church for LGBTQ people of color in the Charleston, SC area, discusses his personal life, his spiritual growth, and troubles and issues with his church and the larger Charleston, SC community. A native of Harlem, NY, Arrington grew up in an abusive household and due to a misdiagnosis, was sent to schools for the mentally handicapped. "My childhood was just about survival," he notes. Being different, he was the subject of contempt by others and sought solace in religion and the church, where he was told he was gifted. After being sent to a rigorous all male Catholic School, and his father's murder in 1974, Arrington and his family moved to a rural area near Durham, NC, where he graduated high school. In college, he married a woman "to make everybody happy," but that did not work out, and, moving to Fayetteville, NC, he became involved in a party scene, contracted HIV and nearly died. Back in Durham, facing family issues, Arrington rejoined the church, started an AIDS ministry, and could not be ordained as a minister in the Missionary Baptist Church as a gay man but only as "a non-practicing homosexual." To preserve his integrity, he joined the Unity Fellowship Church movement, and had a congregation in Charlotte, NC. Arrington then gives a brief history of the denomination, noting how he moved to Rochester, NY before coming to Charleston in 2010 and setting up a Pentecostal type church service here. Arrington describes the growth and decline of his congregation, mentions an ex-husband, and speaks of the prejudice he has felt in Charleston directed against him as an African American, and specifically against him as a reverend in and out LGBTQ church. While loving the area, he comments on the resistance of "gatekeepers" to change, feeling that racism is "in the air." He comments favorably on many working to improve the LGBTQ and African American communities, but concludes that many with power and privilege are halting progress.
Steven Willard (pronouns: He/Him), a white yoga and meditation teacher in Charleston, SC, speaks about his life and changes seen in society and in the LGBTQ community over the years. With a father in Vietnam when he was born, Willard and his family moved to North Charleston, SC when he was six. It was "small town, USA," and Willard attended church and public schools, where, knowing he was different, he found a friend who was also gay. As a teen, he worked in a record store in a mall and found comfort in seeing people he could identify as LGBTQ even as he sought further "validation" in movies, books and on television. He describes how he and his friend, with false IDs, attended bars such as the Garden and Gun Club and the Arcade, and the impact it had on them. While distanced from his father, he had a fairly good relationship with his mother; yet being discovered as gay as he finished high school at eighteen in 1986, led to his removal from his home. He moved to New York City where he felt safe for the first time. Mentored by an older gay man, he worked in a variety of jobs. Growing up in SC, he had had no access to positive information about gay life or AIDS prevention, and throughout the interview, Willard marvels at his luck at surviving the death and devastation around him. He returned to Charleston in 1993, left periodically, but came back. He found it necessary to be closeted working for the Department of Motor Vehicles, and coming out, experienced prejudice and harassment. He stood up to this, however, noting, "I might have been a fag, but I wasn't a punk." An interest in yoga lead him to teaching, and in the 1990s and afterwards, he witnessed a change in the city triggered by the empowerment from surviving AIDS. He noticed more gender fluidity in younger people and in himself in such places as the Treehouse bar. He gives a vivid description of the celebrations that occurred in Charleston when marriage equality was achieved, unfortunately, very close to the time that the massacre at Emanuel AME Church occurred. Throughout, he speaks of the loss of honesty, and face-to-face communication that social dating apps have brought about and then mentions the loss of LGBTQ spaces in the city, specifically describing Dudley's as a gathering spot for bridal parties. He regrets the lack of political involvement on social issues, such as abortion, among younger people, yet also believes that being LGBTQ "just living our lives is a form of activism." In reply to how being LGBTQ has influenced his life, Willard responds that, if not challenged as a minority and faced with prejudice, he could have become complacent. "Like women, people of color, LGBT, we all have to realize that we ?re in those cross hairs of these straight white Christian dudes, and we all have to fight together."
Yulma López-López (b. 1997) was born in Oaxaca, Mexico. When she was three years old, her parents decided to seek better luck in the United States and arrived to California where they worked as agricultural workers. Subsequently, the family moved to other states pursuing better employment opportunities until finally establishing themselves in North Charleston, South Carolina. López-López recalls her experiences at Midland Park Elementary and Charleston County School of the Arts and the teachers who helped her. She explains that she began to progressively understand her status as an undocumented immigrant and, therefore, the reasons why she could not access higher education in South Carolina. In 2016, thanks to a grant from The Dream.Us organization, she was accepted as a student at the University of Delaware. Along with other students, she is part of an organization that advocates for the rights of DACA students and seeks to persuade lawmakers in Washington of DACA students' rights. In the interview, López-López tells how she experiences the challenges of university life, including fear for her safety and that of her loved ones. Finally, she reflects on the limited information and support DACA eligible people and recipients have in the Lowcountry as well as the barriers to organizing politically. Yulma López-López (1997) nació en Oaxaca, México. Cuando tenía tres años, sus padres decidieron buscar mejor suerte en los Estados Unidos y llegaron a California donde se desempeñaron como trabajadores agrícolas. Posteriormente fueron mudándose a otros estados persiguiendo mejores oportunidades de empleo hasta que se establecieron definitivamente en North Charleston, Carolina del Sur. López-López recuerda sus vivencias en las escuelas Midland Park Elementary y Charleston County School of the Arts y a los maestros que la ayudaron. Explica cómo progresivamente fue entendiendo su condición de inmigrante indocumentada y las razones por las que no podía acceder a la educación superior en Carolina del Sur. En el año 2016, gracias a una beca de la organización The Dream.Us es aceptada como estudiante en la Universidad de Delaware. Junto con sus compañeros forma parte de una organización que defiende los derechos de los jóvenes DACA y busca persuadir a los legisladores en Washington. En la entrevista Lopez-Lopez cuenta como experimenta los desafíos de la vida universitaria, incluido el temor por su seguridad y la de sus seres queridos. Finalmente, reflexiona acerca de la limitada información y apoyo con que cuentan los jóvenes DACA en el Lowcountry como así también de las barreras que enfrentan para organizarse políticamente.
Karla Aguirre (b. 1995) was born in Mexico City, Mexico and lived there until she was six years old when her parents decided to immigrate to the United States. In the interview, Aguirre recalls her childhood in a neighborhood in the capital of Mexico, the journey to the United States and her impressions when she found herself for the first time in an unknown place surrounded by an unknown extended family. She explains that growing up in Johns Island was complex because she was part of two very different cultures: one of her classmates at the private school Charleston Collegiate, mostly middle-class whites, and the other, her working-class Mexican community. After finishing school, she participated in a workshop organized by United We Dream in Washington, DC. Then, she joined the organization as an activist and organizer. Aguirre talks about the barriers that dreamers face, including the high rate of mental health problems and the difficulty in accessing adequate services. She also reflects on the challenges of organizing politically, both in South Carolina and nationally, the positive and negative aspects of being an activist and organizer, and defends the right of undocumented youth to tell their own story and to define themselves. Finally, she points out that her dream is to resume her studies. Aguirre (1995) nació en la Ciudad de México, México y vivió allí hasta los seis años cuando sus padres decidieron emigrar a los Estados Unidos. En la entrevista, Aguirre recuerda su infancia en un barrio de la capital de México, la travesía hacia Estados Unidos y sus impresiones al encontrarse con una tierra y una familia extendida desconocidas. Explica que creció en Johns Island en un mundo muy complejo marcado por dos culturas completamente diferentes: la de sus compañeros en la escuela privada Charleston Collegiate, quienes en su mayoría eran blancos de clase media y la de su comunidad de origen mexicana y de clase trabajadora. Después de terminar la escuela, participó en un taller de la organización United We Dream para jóvenes DACA en Washington, DC y luego se unió a ellos como activista y organizadora. Aguirre habla acerca de algunas barreras que enfrentan los jóvenes soñadores, entre otros el alto índice de problemas de salud mental y la dificultad para acceder a servicios adecuados. También reflexiona acerca de desafíos para organizarse políticamente tanto en Carolina del Sur como nacionalmente, los aspectos positivos y negativos de su trabajo como organizadora y defiende el derecho de los jóvenes indocumentados a contar su propia historia y a definirse a sí mismos. Finalmente, señala que su sueño es retomar sus estudios universitarios.
Marcela Ortega was born in a rural area of the state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico. When she was nine years old, her family moved to Tampico, Tamaulipas. In 1989, she decided to immigrate to the United States to build a more prosperous future for the son she was pregnant with. Ortega and her husband arrived to Johns Island, South Carolina to work in a store that sold beverages to migrant workers. Shortly after, Ortega began cooking and selling food to the agricultural workers in Johns Island fields and surrounding areas. In the early nineties, responding to the growing community's needs she established El Mercadito, the first Hispanic store on Johns Island. Later, she opened La Huasteca, a Mexican restaurant. In the interview, Ortega describes Johns Island at the end of the eighties and in the nineties and reflects on the changes she has witnessed. Finally, she remembers participating in numerous cultural events as a dancer and takes pride in the fact that her story has been featured in the local newspaper, the Post and Courier. Marcela Ortega nació y vivió hasta los nueve años en una zona rural del estado de San Luis Potosí, México y luego se mudó junto a su familia a la ciudad de Tampico en el estado de Tamaulipas. En el año 1989 decidió emigrar a los Estados Unidos para construir un futuro más próspero para el hijo que estaba esperando. Junto a su esposo se estableció en Johns Island y comenzó a trabajar en una tienda que vendía bebidas y algunos otros productos a los trabajadores migrantes que llegaban a la isla en la época de la cosecha. Poco después, Ortega comenzó a vender comida en los campos no sólo de la isla, sino de poblaciones aledañas. A principios de los noventa, respondiendo a la necesidad de la comunidad que comenzaba a crecer, estableció El Mercadito, el primer negocio de venta de productos hispanos en Johns Island. Posteriormente también abriría un restaurante llamado La Huasteca. En la entrevista, Ortega recuerda la vida en Johns Island al final de la década de los ochenta y los noventa y reflexiona acerca de los cambios que ella ha observado. Finalmente, cuenta que participó bailando en numerosos eventos culturales y que se enorgullece de que su historia haya sido contada en el periódico local Post and Courier.
Jamie Nadeau (pronouns: She/Her/Hers) describes her journey to self-realization as a lesbian trans woman and a successful business owner of a hand-press greeting card printing company in Charleston, South Carolina. Born in Nashville, Tennessee into a religious Church of Christ family, Nadeau attended religious schools. Her father, a member of the Potawatomi Nation, and her mother divorced when she was young, and she speaks of trying to reclaim and learn more about her native American heritage. Born intersex, Nadeau retains early childhood hospital memories and speaks of her conservative upbringing where LGBTQ people were seen as “cultural oddities” and trans people were thought “horrific monsters.” Trying to imagine herself as a lesbian in that conservative environment “broke my brain,” and she had to go through the “impostor syndrome” before claiming and becoming comfortable as her true self. Embracing technology and computers long before they were commonplace, she was a young hacker and researched gender identities in cyberspace when others perhaps were still using libraries. She attended Middle Tennessee State University for a year, where and when she first began to explore her identity; she then studied at, and received her degree from, the Savannah College of Art and Design. After her mother’s death, Nadeau vowed she would never wear men’s clothes again and began seeing a gender therapist. She quickly began sharing her status with friends, family and her wife Allison, meeting wholehearted support from the latter, and a variety of responses from others. Nadeau speaks to the various levels of acceptance from the religious community, and from her biological and chosen families. She speaks at length of her experiences in coming out, noting how “soul crushing” being “misgendered” in public can be, and praises the Charleston trans women’s community for being so accepting and supportive, affirming the importance of support groups and loyal friends. Nadeau also describes how she and her wife, Allison, friends since childhood, followed their fascination with printing and design and left their professions to become proprietors of their greeting card company, Ink Meets Paper. There is a brief discussion focusing on Charleston being a safer space for LGBTQ people than other areas of the Deep South, and in response to the interviewer, Nadeau suggest that LGBTQ people should not necessarily focus on otherness, but see the world as she does, a place of countless, diverse narratives, where people are to be encouraged for finding their own way and lauded for their strength in “occupying space” in a world of proscriptions and possiblities.
Cormac O?Duffy (b. 1950) shares his experience of being born in America, but being raised in Dublin. Cormac?s father was a well-known singer in Ireland, which provided opportunities for Cormac such as meeting De Valera. Cormac O?Duffy was raised to love music and spends his time writing music. He discusses pursuing higher education degrees in Ireland and coming to America for teaching opportunities. He also discusses key differences in life in America and Ireland.
Brendan Dagg (b. 1981) describes his experience as an Irish immigrant living in Charleston. Brendan grew up in Tullamore, County Offlay. His parents owned a local grocery store in the community, and he describes his upbringing as ?typical Irish,? and very positive. He emigrated to the United States in 2011, after marrying his wife, who is American, and immediately settled in Charleston. The transition to living in the U.S. was ?fairly challenging? at first but got easier once the decision was made to make things permanent. Brendan comments that the only thing he really misses about Ireland is the relationships with family and being able to be a part of certain milestones, which is why he and his wife bring their two children over to visit with extended family as often as they can. Brendan is very involved with sports and is a part of the hurling team here in Charleston.
Joseph Kelly (b. 1962) describes his experience growing up in an Irish American family living in New Jersey and Texas. The only background information he knows of regarding his family is that his paternal great-grandfather was from Roscommon, and that he came over to New York City in the late 1890?s. Both of his parents grew up in Irish neighborhoods in the Bronx and were the first generation in the family to go to college. The family moved from New Jersey to Houston in the late seventies, and he notes that there was not a real sense of Irish ethnicity in Houston, as compared to what it was in the Northeast. He also notes that the sense of Irish culture, and celebration of Irishness, is growing in Charleston as a result of the public outreach he has done as Director of the Irish and Irish American Studies program at CofC.
Thomas Horan describes his experience growing up in an Irish American family in Boston. The paternal side of his family comes from County Galway, his paternal grandmother having come to the United States when she was sixteen, before Irish independence. His maternal grandmother married a man of Scotch-Irish descent. He was raised in the Catholic Church, as a result of what he refers to as an insistence on ?middle-class respectability,? and his family was close with some of the priests from the area, however, he is no longer an active participant in the Church. Though living in an area with a lot of Irish meant that the family didn?t experience any particularly significant discrimination, there was a sense of wanting to assimilate and move up into the middle class. He moved to the South in 1999, first to attend graduate school at Chapel Hill, and then to Charleston. He states that, in terms of anti-Irish or anti-Catholic sentiment in the South, there seems to be more continuity in population here than in northern cities, which perhaps makes things harder for new ethnic populations to integrate.
Anne Owens speaks about her experience growing up Irish American, having Irish ancestors on both sides of her family. She spent her childhood in California but moved to Charleston after her mother remarried. Her maternal grandmother?s family came from Anglo-Irish roots in County Offlay in the 1860?s, entering the U.S. in Boston and making their way to Michigan. Her paternal grandmother?s family was from County Fermanagh and came to the U.S. in the early 1800?s, through Georgetown, South Carolina, and eventually settled in Cheraw. It is through this side of the family that Anne is related to Patrick Lynch, who became Bishop of Charleston in 1855. Her great-great grandfather, James Thomas Lynch, married a woman from the Pinckney family, so Anne has deep family roots here in Charleston, as well as in Colleton County, where her great-great grandparents owned the Ashepoo Plantation. However, Anne also has a familial connection with her stepfather?s family, who are native Charlestonians, as her research has led her to discover that her biological father and her stepfather are in fact cousins, due to their shared Charleston roots. She feels a deep connection with the Shannon River area in Ireland, where her maternal ancestors had lived for centuries as landed gentry. Though she sees ethnic identity becoming less prominent as the years go on, she likes ?seeing America as an amalgamation of many, many people.?
Thalia Orozco (b.1994) was born in Charleston, South Carolina. Her parents are from Michoacán, Mexico, and they came to the USA as agricultural migrant workers. In the nineties, they settled down in Wadmalaw Island, SC. Orozco attended Rural Mission, Frierson Elementary, Angel Oak Elementary, and graduated from high school at Charleston Collegiate. In the interview, she remembers her childhood and teen years and explains the challenges of growing up in the Sea Islands as a first-generation American- born citizen. She reflects on race relationships, belonging and exclusion, representation, and the barriers to political engagement. Thalia Orozco (b.1994) nació en Charleston, SC. Sus padres, originarios del estado de Michoacán, México, llegaron a los Estados Unidos como trabajadores agrícolas migrantes. En los años noventa se establecieron en Wadmalaw Island, SC. Orozco aprendió sus primeras letras con el programa Head Start en Rural Mission. Luego fue estudiante de las escuelas Frierson Elementary y Angel Oak Elementary y completo sus estudios en la escuela media y preparatoria en Charleston Collegiate. En la entrevista recuerda su infancia y adolescencia y explica los desafíos de crecer en el Lowcountry como ciudadana de primera generación nacida en Estados Unidos. Reflexiona acerca de las tensiones raciales y las cuestiones de pertenencia y exclusión que ha experimentado como así también acerca de las barreras y desafíos para la representación y participación política.
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.
Stephen “Steve” Cagle (pronouns: He/Him/His) discusses his upbringing in North Carolina, education as a pharmacist, service in the armed forces, his experiences as a gay man in the South, abroad and in California, and eventually opening a gay bed and breakfast with his domestic partner, Charles S. Holt, at Folly Beach, SC. Born in Concord NC, he grew up with an ailing father who died young, and a mother who struggled to find her son positive male role models. Knowing he was gay from an early age, Cagle, while having sexual experiences, kept quiet about his orientation in his hometown where such things were not discussed, but not necessarily condemned. He had somewhat closeted affairs when he attended pharmacy school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Drafted into the army, Cagle, wanting to serve his country to fulfill his father’s inability to do so, found a fairly tolerant attitude to gays in the military. Despite others being out, he was more reserved, yet he mentions sexual experiences at bases at home and abroad in his service in northern Italy. After leaving the service Cagle lived in Henderson, NC, and then in Charlotte, NC, working as a pharmacist. He describes a gay bar in Charlotte sharing a site with a Denny’s Restaurant and explains the allure and dangers of anonymous sex in rest stops on the Interstate 85 Highway corridor in North Carolina, mentioning a Highway Patrolman who frequented those sites. Having been raised an only child and feeling he lacked social skills in befriending people, Cagle did find relationships, eventually falling in love with a married US Marine who suggested Cagle move to California in 1977 to be near him. There, the affair ended, as Cagle knew it would, but he met Charles (Chuck) Holt, who worked in Los Angeles, reading film scripts and crossing paths with celebrities such as Liberace and Rock Hudson. The men became a couple, and they began to explore their options in 1986 after Holt discovered he was HIV positive. The couple pulled up stakes, began an extended road trip across the country, guided by Damron’s Gay Guides, and ended up founding and running the gay Charleston Bed and Breakfast at Folly Beach. Cagle discusses the place’s importance, its success, the friendly acceptance it met on Folly Beach, also mentioning Hurricane Hugo, and how others, including his mother, came to accept him and help run the B and B after Holt’s death in 1995. Cagle sold the B and B, retired from the Ralph Johnson Veterans Administration Hospital and now lives in Charleston with his husband John Meffert.
Blanche McCrary Boyd (pronouns: she/her/hers) describes the events that lead to her becoming an acclaimed novelist and professor at Connecticut College. Born in Charleston, SC in 1945 to working class parents, she lost her father at age 15, one of the crucial events of her life. Living with family on a 400-acre plantation near Rantowles, SC, she became “radicalized” by events seen on television, realizing, unlike other members of her family, that she lived in a racist society, finding a “sense of horror” and a “sense of beauty” in the South. She attended Duke University and met Dean Boyd, the man she married, while attending Harvard University summer school. Boyd credits her husband for helping her mature and encouraging her writing once she decided upon that as a goal. Moving to California, Boyd began writing seriously at Pomona College, and won a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University. Her marriage unraveled, as she discovered feminism, and her attraction to women, bringing her to a “different reality.” She had starting drinking alcohol soon after her father’s death and she spent over a decade abusing it and drugs as she moved to New York and became a “radical lesbian.” She helped set type for the classic novel Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown, and founded Sagaris, an “institute for feminist thought,” associating with leading feminists, including accused bomber Patricia Swinton. She published essays, mostly about the South, in The Village Voice, learned how to “seize” her authority, and published books on popular musicians under the name Vivian Claire. She returned to Charleston, continuing writing and publishing novels, becoming sober in 1981. She discusses how a teenage car wreck involving a Black man’s death became the “fulcrum of my understanding of life” and how it serves as a metaphor for America as she wonders “what white people who are anti-racist are going to do about white supremacy.” She and her wife Leslie are the mothers of twins, James and Julia, and Boyd reflects on parenting, Leslie’s life-threatening illnesses, and how her novel Tomb of the Unknown Racist has capped her fiction writing career. As retirement from Connecticut College looms, she assesses her accomplishments, notes satisfactions, and the many surprising turns her life took.
Douglas Seymour (pronouns: He/Him/His) relates the story of his abusive childhood, growing up and attending school and college in Charleston, SC, his life as an adult, and his work as a peer navigator for people with HIV, often speaking forcefully on the corrosive impact of homophobia. He was beaten by his father for not liking sports and cars, and, although he adored his mother, she told him “being gay was worse than being a child molester and a child murderer.” He always knew he was attracted to men, and if “there hadn’t been the hitch of being told it was wrong...it would have been a natural flow into adulthood.” He graduated First Baptist High School, and due to his father’s demands, attended the Citadel, terrified that he would be picked on for being gay. There, however, he found acceptance among upperclassmen for his knowledge of pop music and found other gay cadets. Having started frequenting the bar Basin Street South as an underage teen, he began going to the King Street Garden and Gun Club, and Seymour recalls his times there and that era of the late 1970s and early 1980s as one of the happiest periods of his life. After college, he worked as a journalist in Summerville, SC, and he describes the cliquish nature of Charleston gay life at the time. His lack of self-esteem, he says, prompted his alcoholism and his settling into personal relationships that were often abusive. He lived in Washington, DC, from 1982 to 1991 and returned to Charleston with a diagnosis of AIDS, told by physicians to prepare to die. After living with his parents, and coming out to them, he moved into his own apartment and received health care from his physician and Lowcountry AIDS Services. Facing health crises, he quit drinking and quit smoking, hired a personal trainer and was in the best shape of his life in his fifties. He began to work for the local Ryan White program as a peer navigator for people newly diagnosed or those long-term survivors like himself. Seymour describes some of the social support programs he set up and notes the quandary of “a whole bunch of us gay men...[with] no career, no retirement...because we weren’t supposed to be here, and now we’re older, we’re isolated...[and] it kind of feels like nobody wants you.” The interview ends with reflections on the lack of a variety of specific spaces for LGBTQ people and how Charleston has changed over the years.
Eric Sullivan (Pronouns: He/Him/His) describes growing up Easton, Maryland, moving to Charleston, SC to attend the College of Charleston, his graduate school training in Los Angeles, CA and his work as an LGBTQ therapist. One of five siblings, Sullivan knew he was different at "a pretty young age," and had a sense that he was gay before fully understanding what that meant. He "never got any messages growing up?about ? what the LGBTQ community was," but did have access to television programs such as Will and Grace and Queer as Folk. Coming out first to a friend, and then to his mother, he came out in "a public declarative statement" as part of a high school group project studying conversion therapy, realizing he could not just remain "a neutral party." He had experienced some negative responses before coming out, but very little afterwards. Sullivan explains his decision to attend the College of Charleston where he had his "first glimpse into gay culture" at a gay straight alliance meeting and at the gay bar Patrick's, and later Pantheon, both of which he describes. He notes with satisfaction how LGBTQ visibility has increased on campus since his years in school and recounts how a chance encounter working as waiter led him to graduate school in Los Angeles in the first LGBTQ counseling program in the country. He worked with homeless LGBTQ youth, adapted to the life there, was licensed and eventually moved back to Charleston, where, after some trepidation, he opened a practice specifically targeting LGBTQ clients. Responding to queries from people throughout the state seeking his services, he developed a successful on-line video practice before the COVID 19 pandemic. The interview concludes with Sullivan discussing the impacts of isolation, religion, and the lack of visibility on South Carolina's LGBTQ community, as well as other mental health issues.
Stephen Gilroy talks about his experience growing up in an Irish American family in New York City and New Jersey. His grandparents came from County Leitrim, County Longford, County Cork, and County Waterford from the mid-1800?s to the very early 1900?s. All of his grandparents were in the working-class, as cabinet makers, butchers, dock-workers, and other blue-collar jobs. There wasn?t much focus on Irishness in his family while he was growing up, though he did have a strong relationship with an uncle who told him about all of the Irish families in the area. He?s been to Ireland with his family and has been to the church in County Leitrim where his paternal grandparents are from. He feels a connection with Ireland, which he describes as a ?magical? place. He and his wife moved to Charleston recently to be near their daughter, and he states that there is less of an emphasis on ethnic identity in Charleston, and more emphasis on a general Southern identity.
Erica Cokley was born in 1980 in Columbia, South Carolina. She graduated from Brookland-Cayce High School in 1998 and later studied at Strayer University in Charleston, where she earned an associate degree in business management. In the interview, she discusses how her childhood, her experiences at school, and the challenges she faces as a single mother intersect with her determination to participate in the political arena. Cokley remembers joining Fight for $15 when she was a Taco Bell employee, reflecting on her involvement in community issues and her determination to improve children’s living conditions and opportunities to succeed. In 2019, she formed Voices United, a non-profit organization. In 2020, she organized the Million Womxn’s March in North Charleston and was elected as a Charleston School District board member. Cokley discusses how the tragic deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd brought new urgency to working to stop racial injustices.
Melissa Moore (they/them) grew up in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, and they earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology at the College of Charleston. In college, they got engaged with feminist and queer groups. When they were 22 years old, they joined the Alliance for Full Acceptance and were hired as its Assistant Director. Soon after, they joined SC Equality and were actively engaged in a campaign against the marriage amendment and other policies issues related to the LGBTQ+ community. Moore was approached by the board of We Are Family, an organization focused on LGBTQ+ and straight ally youth, and became its Executive Director. Moore takes pride in the organization's progress made under their tenure that includes opening the Close Case Thrift store and work to end homeliness in Charleston. Later Moore worked with Housing for All in Mt. Pleasant and at the time of the interview, they were WREN Lowcountry manager. In the interview, they reflect on their experience as a queer person growing up and living in South Carolina. They reflect on the progress made by the LGBTQ+ community as well as the limitations of their political demands when the demands do not include addressing poverty and access to housing and health care.
Alma Lopez and Mario Puga were born in Mexico. In this interview, they focus on their experiences as workers. Puga tells he started working at a young age with his father and asserts children mature quickly in Mexico. As a young man, he joined his brothers in Rhode Island, where he finished high school. When he returned to Mexico, he met Lopez. She worked in housekeeping. Later, both separately immigrated to the United States. Lopez was with her family in Johns Island and Puga joined her. There both worked in agriculture and progressively moved to less physically demanding jobs. Lopez learned English at Our Lady of Mercy and became active in the community. In 2015, she opened a cleaning business. In 2020, the COVID pandemic caused a severe decrease in revenue in her business. Seeking a way to support themselves during these trying times, they decided to dig into their cultural roots and sell food. They knew there was a need: Latino workers did not have a place to buy breakfast in the morning. Lopez and Puga discuss the nuances of the food truck business and assert that it is a very tiring activity. They state the biggest reward in this endeavor is to share their food with their clients and receive their appreciation.
Samuel Cooper (pronouns: He/His) discusses his upbringing, life history and beliefs, focusing often on the topic of being a gay African American man of faith. When his father, minister of Centenary Methodist Church, Charleston, SC, joined the military to become a chaplain, Cooper and his family began a peripatetic life that took them to various bases in this country and in Germany. Knowing early he was gay, seeing his homosexuality as a "gift," Cooper nevertheless suppressed it, eventually coming out to his family who accepted him, partially, he believes, due to his father having had counseled many LGBTQ men and women in the military. He notes both the benefits and liabilities of being Black and of being gay and describes an episode of crisis at Clemson University. A homophobic comment by a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes prompted him to leave that group, come out, join, and become an officer of Clemson's LGBTQ organization, the Lambda Society. He faced near dismissal from Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law for being an advocate of LGBTQ visibility, and later in the interview he discusses the impacts racial prejudice, both Black and white, and homophobia, can have on clients he represents as a personal injury attorney. In his return to South Carolina working briefly in the Fourth Circuit Solicitor's office, he traveled the state; Cooper, throughout the interview, gives many details of various bars in Columbia, Myrtle Beach and Charleston, describing their appearance and layout and the groups attending them. Once relocated permanently to Charleston, SC, he attended the Metropolitan Community Church and its off shoot, Open Door. He discusses his relationship with his husband, Stavely Edgar, recounts some failed homophobic attacks against him, and notes little or no pushback against Edgar and himself as an interracial couple. He speaks of his religious faith, the Black church, his opinion of historically black colleges possibly limiting experiences for their students, and the threats menacing minorities and democracy due to the presidency of Donald J. Trump.
George Hopkins was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1947. He is a College of Charleston professor emeritus. This interview focuses on his family background, his anti-war activism, and his academic career. Hopkins’ parents were WWII veterans. The family resided in mostly suburban, white Republican areas. He worked in a steel mill and attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. These life experiences expanded and changed his worldview. In his college years, Hopkins participated in the anti-Vietnam War movement and declared himself a conscientious objector. His activism continued in graduate school at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he studied urban and labor history. There, Hopkins and other students supported the work of Fort Bragg’s GIs that opposed the war. In 1976, he moved to Charleston with a one-year contract that became a thirty-two-year teaching career. Hopkins talks about his teaching and his research and writing. Some of the works he focuses on are his dissertation on Miners for Democracy; his essay on Charleston and the metropolitan military complex included in Martial Metropolis, edited by Roger W. Lotchin, an article about historians’ interpretations of the Vietnam War, and others focused on pop culture.
Beverly Stark was born in Lansing, Michigan. She joined the Dominican Sisters of Adrian after completing her junior year in high school. Vatican II and the civil rights movement framed her formative years. Stark remembers an immersion experience working with farmworkers in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico that was key to her understanding of the capitalist economy and its consequences. In 1974, Stark and her friend Sister Mary Trzasko moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to work at the St. James Church outreach center. For the next ten years, they engaged in grassroots organizing. In 1985, Stark and Trzasko moved to Beaufort, South Carolina where they resided for thirty years. There, Stark worked with the Upward Bound Program with the Technical College of the Lowcountry, and Trzasko founded the after-school program Thumbs Up. After retirement, they moved to Charleston and became members of St. Patrick Church. They continued working in social justice and got involved with Charleston Area Justice Ministry and Charleston Alliance for Fair Employment. In 2019, Stark and her lifelong friend moved back to Adrian, Michigan.
Marcus McDonald was born in Silver Springs, Maryland, and grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. He moved to Charleston in 2014 to attend the College of Charleston, where he graduated with a degree in finances. McDonald is the founder of Adesso Entertainment. In 2020, after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, he felt compelled to act and started organizing with Black Lives Matter. McDonald talks about the marches organized in downtown Charleston right after the video of George Floyd’s police killing was released and about the police repression that followed up. He discusses the challenges of being a new face in the Charleston organizing scene, the process of forming the Independent Charleston Black Lives Matter Chapter, and how he became identified as its leader. In the interview, McDonald reflects on teaching at Burke High, his work with the Eastside Community Development Corporation, and his participation in several local coalitions that focus on police brutality, racism, and gentrification.
Christina Butler is a historical preservationist, a professor at the College of Charleston, a horse-drawn carriage tour guide in Charleston, and an equine enthusiast. Growing up in Ohio, she spent considerable time around horses and stables. When she moved to Charleston at the age of 19, Butler recognized that becoming a tour guide would be the ideal opportunity to combine her love of history and her passion for horses. In this interview, Butler describes her background working with mules and draft horses and how she first became interested in these creatures. She also delves into Charleston's history regarding horses and the part they have played throughout the years. Butler also addresses the contentious issue of horse-drawn carriage trips, which many people feel are cruel and exploitative of the animals. She disagrees stating these horses have been bred to work, and asserting that they are treated with respect, and care. She hopes that by sharing accurate information and raising awareness about this issue, the city of Charleston will continue offering these tours that are worthwhile experiences for visitors.
Johnathan Lyon is a Dock Master at the Detyens Shipyard located in North Charleston, South Carolina. Lyon was born in 1958 in Awendaw, South Carolina, and has been employed at the shipyard since 1974 when he was 16 years old. With an extensive background working at Detyens, Lyon has witnessed the shipyard growth, has seen new safety measures put into place over the years, and has worked his way up in the ranks from his start in the carpenter shop to now as a Dock Master. Lyon provides a rundown of the day-to-day basis as a Dock Master and what some of these tasks might entail. He also discusses some of the challenges that are faced such as hurricanes and ship repairs. In addition to this, he praises his late mentor, Mr. Stewart, who taught him life lessons that he has remembered for years.
John Holenko is a musician from New Jersey with a master’s degree from the University of Southern California in classical guitar. In this interview, Holenko explores how his interest in music began, his journey of getting into gigging in Boston and California, and then eventually settling in Charleston, South Carolina. He now owns his own studio, Hungry Monk, where he gives music lessons to others. The name of his studio has its own story of how it came to be, as Holenko encountered actual Tibetan monks in a café that inspired the name. He also lists some of the places he has performed himself, including an Early Music Festival in Germany. Furthermore, Holenko touches on how COVID-19 affected his business, his personal music influences, and even provides some advice for those that are interested in getting into music.
Fernando Soto was born in 1984 in San Pedro de las Colonias, Coahuila, Mexico. When he was seven years old, his family immigrated to the United States. Soto remembers growing up on Johns Island, South Carolina, and reflects on how this small rural community has changed over time. He attended Spring Hill College in Alabama and earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism. Soto talks about his decision to follow this professional path and states his family background informs his interest and passion for the field. He asserts he is not an activist but a journalist reporting on issues relevant to the Latino community. He talks about the Charleston Immigrant Coalition (CIC), explaining its beginnings and the issues it championed, particularly the end of the 287(g) program in Charleston County. Soto addresses the impact of COVID 19 in the Latino community and the disparities in access to care, stressing these same Latinos who are ignored by the government are the essential workers that keep the city alive and thriving. Finally, he reflects on the multilayered and complex scenarios Latinos face when they decide to leave home and cross the border.
Eric Esquivel was born in 1975 in Danville, Pennsylvania. His father was from Colombia, and his mother was from New Jersey. In the mid-eighties, his family moved to Hilton Head, South Carolina. He remembers how as a child he noticed the exuberant landscape and the racial diversity in his school. He grew up as a mainstream American child who was aware of his Latino roots because his family traveled frequently to Colombia. Esquivel attended Hampden-Sydney College and majored in Spanish. After college, he taught Spanish in Hilton Head and then, moved to Austin, Texas to work with Dell. In 1998, Esquivel and his two siblings created La Isla Magazine, which was launched in November 1999. Esquivel reflects on Hilton Head's demographics and the key role the Latino community has played in region’s economy. He remembers the origin of the Lowcountry Immigrant Coalition, and states it was formed in response to a Beaufort County's attempt to implement the Legal Employment ordinance, which encouraged citizens to report to the authorities people they suspected were undocumented. The business community, dependent on the immigrant labor rallied against it. Over the years, the coalition has kept working on many issues, among them, supporting DACA recipients, advocating against the "show me your papers" laws, providing counseling to immigrants and offering citizenship seminars. Finally, Esquivel reflects on the effects of President Trump’s race rhetoric in the local community relationships and immigrants’ fears.
Fred Lincoln is a resident of the Jack Primus community in Cainhoy, South Carolina. He lives on the land owned and passed down by his formerly slaved ancestors. Lincoln discusses the protest organized by John "Sammy" Sanders to save the Meeting Tree in Daniel Island that got the attention of the local media but received limited support from the local Black community. He affirms the most pressing issue is protecting Black residents’ property rights. Lincoln has been a member of the Wando-Huger, Community Development Corporation since 1992. This organization has worked since its inception to ensure black residents receive adequate compensation when development is unavoidable. Lincoln takes pride in their work with Charleston County to zone 150 acres for affordable homes, as well as, stopping the Port Authority’s plan to open railroad and truck access through their community. He affirms that their ability to show up as an organized community with deep roots in the region earned them the political support they needed to succeed. Finally, Lincoln states they are currently working with the Department of Health and Environmental Control to bring city water and sewer services to the community.
Karla Martinez was born in 1981 in Zacatecoluca, El Salvador. Escaping the civil war, her family went to Mexico, stayed there undocumented for several years, and then crossed the border into the United States. Martinez grew up in Los Angeles, California. She remembers her life in Mexico and Los Angeles and shares her struggles as an undocumented student aspiring to attend college. Martinez attended UCLA and focused on economics and Latin American studies. Then, she attended law school at the University of Iowa. After graduation, she moved to Florida, where she practiced farmworker law. In 2016, Martinez relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, and joined South Carolina Legal Services and a few years later, the Charleston County Public Defender’s Office. Martinez talks about how she became involved with Charleston Immigrant Coalition (CIC). She reflects on the importance of ending the 287(g) program in Charleston County and the role the CIC had in the process. Finally, she reflects on the changes she would like to see including the law enforcement agencies providing appropriate cultural and linguistic services and South Carolina becoming more accepting of the Latino community.
Thomas A. Dixon (b. September 1952) grew up in the projects in Chicago and was educated in the Catholic faith. Thinking priesthood could be his calling, Dixon attended Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary. There, he was part of the United Black Seminarians and became interested in the civil rights movement. He loved music and was a member of a performing trio. During his teen years, he started abusing alcohol and drugs. In 1982, he joined the Navy hoping the structured environment would help him to overcome his addictions and improve his life. Dixon talks in length about the variety of experiences he had while serving, included his two years onboard the USS Mahan. He continued struggling with addictions that prevented him from having the successful career he had envisioned. When he got discharged, Dixon joined his family in Charleston, South Carolina. At the end of the interview, Dixon remembers his parents and siblings and expresses gratitude for his present life, particularly his relationship with his wife and adult children.
In this interview, Thomas A. Dixon (b. September 1952) reflects on his community and political involvement in the aftermath of the killing of Walter Scott and the Mother Emanuel massacre. He talks about how he learned about each event and his role in a community looking for answers and justice. Dixon reflects on the impact of these events, the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the need for local police reform. He remembers his decision to enter politics and talks about his campaigns in 2016 for Senate against Tim Scott and in 2020 for Mayor of North Charleston against Keith Summey. Dixon describes the challenges he faced, the lack of support from the Democrat Party, and the lessons he learned. At the end of the interview, he states his family's respect and support are what he treasures the most.
In this interview, Thomas A. Dixon recounts his life in Charleston after his military discharge. He arrived in town at the end of 1988. Soon after, he had an accident that left him with a broken leg and twenty thousand dollars in medical debt. Dixon remembers the events that landed him in prison for three years and describes his life in jail, prison, and the pre-release center. He explains that during this time, his faith was decisive for his transformation and sense of purpose. Dixon states his life experiences including his upbringing in Chicago, his addictions, his job history, and his family problems, gave him a firsthand understanding of the needs and hopes of people struggling in our society. That personal understanding informs his community and political work. He ends the interview with a word of advice: "Don’t let others define your future or your purpose by their opinion of you because people don't know the whole story. Only you know the whole story and take that whole story, embrace that whole story, and begin to work for the betterment of others. And I guess that would be the final thing that I would say to anyone is to understand that every life, every person that's born, we're not, we were not born for ourselves. We were born to serve others, to be a blessing to others. That's why God's, God's got a sense of humor."
Lynne Moldenhauer was born in St. Claire, Michigan in 1952. After high school, she joined the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and earned a bachelor's degree in religious studies at Marygrove College. Moldenhauer moved to South Carolina and progressively became more aware of her sexuality. She left the religious community and went to work for the SC Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services until she retired in 2010. While living in Columbia, she joined the efforts of the Gay and Lesbian Business Guild and later became one of the founding members of the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA) in Charleston. In the interview, Moldenhauer talks about the multiple actions the Alliance promoted to improve the life of the South Carolina LGBTQ+ people. Some of them included changing the community attitudes, and others aimed to help its members to learn to love themselves. After forty years living in South Carolina, she moved back to Michigan and re-entered her old congregation. Moldenhauer concludes the interview by stating: "AFFA was the birthplace of a lot, and it gave birth to a stronger, better me, more honest me and I think that would be a true story from just about everyone that encountered and engaged with AFFA."
Raynique Syas was born in Los Angeles, CA, in 1985. She is a Charleston Area Justice Ministry organizer. She remembers growing up in Watts in a typical urban area of the city impacted by poverty, drugs, and violence. There, she also experienced a profound sense of community and the support of her family strong women. Syas states that it was much later in life that she understood the systemic injustices that plagued her community and affirms it was this awareness that fuels her activism. Syas moved to Charleston looking for better opportunities for her three children but was unprepared for the cultural differences and the racism she encountered in South Carolina. Finally, she talks about why she joined Charleston Area Justice Ministry (CAJM), first as a member and team leader and later as an organizer. She reflects on one of the biggest CAJM efforts, the racial audit of Charleston and North Charleston police departments, and how COVID impacted organizing work.
Wendy Dallas Damron was born in 1973 in Detroit, Michigan. In 2013, Damron, her husband, and her two children moved to the South Carolina Lowcountry attracted by the area's beauty, warm temperatures, and conservative politics. In the interview, Damron defines herself as Reagan's conservative, talks about her initial enthusiasm with the Tea Party, and remembers her frustration when she realized the movement was unable to change the federal government. She understood the importance of focusing her activism and efforts on local and state government issues. In 2016, Damron attended a Heritage Foundation event and learned about the Convention of the States Project. Since then, she has been working to have it signed in South Carolina becoming the Coastal Region’s captain and legislative liaison. Damron is also a board member of the Palmetto Promise Institute, a South Carolina conservative think tank.
John Gardner was born in Hilton Head, SC (South Carolina), and raised in a tight-knit Black community in Beaufort, SC. In this interview, Gardner recalls his early years when his father owned a grocery store, and his mother was a schoolteacher and were both active community members. As a teenager, Gardner participated in seminars and training sessions at the Penn Center. Later he attended an NAACP Youth Council Seminar where he met Vernon Jordan. Gardner moved to Atlanta, Georgia to attend Morehouse College, where he continued his involvement with the civil rights movement. He graduated in 1968 and went to work in corporate America. In the interview, he reflects on his experiences and the value of history lessons in the present days. Gardner was a historical interpreter at McLeod Plantation and Historic Site on James Island in Charleston, South Carolina.
