Correspondence from Jane Cornell, Administrative Officer for VISTA, to James Clyburn, Executive Director for the South Carolina Commission for Farm Workers, regarding VISTA grant application details.
Oral history interview conducted by College of Charleston Libraries Special Collections and Archives as part of the ongoing efforts to preserve, elevate, and document the stories and history of the LGBTQ+ community in South Carolina. Cator Sparks (pronouns: he/him), white board president of LGBTQ youth organization We Are Family, discusses his life as a gay man and his volunteer and professional work. He describes growing up in a liberal family in Atlanta, Georgia, and his difficulties and successes in high school. Sparks attended the College of Charleston in the early 1990s and speaks of coming out in Charleston into an exciting and accepting environment, then detailing his experiences in the rave scene. Along with rave venues, he describes gay bars including Treehouse, A.C.'s, and The Arcade. He discusses his volunteer work with neighborhood associations in the Cannonborough-Elliotborough neighborhood in Charleston and Harlem in New York City. Sparks performed in drag in Atlanta as Spectra Gramm, one of his performances during the Olympics being televised in France, where he soon went to study abroad. Back in Atlanta, he enrolled in American College, finishing his degree in fashion marketing in London. It was there he discovered dandyism, and he speaks of his conversion to it from rave fashion, defining what dandyism means to him, the effect it had on his life, and how it can educate others. He emphasizes how he values working with LGBTQ youth and his experiences volunteering with the Harvey Milk High School in New York City and with We Are Family in Charleston. Sparks describes the impact the 2016 Presidential election had on him, prompting his social action and recaps his professional life, including a description of working in Jeffrey, a high-end New York shoe store started by Jeffrey Kalinksy of Charleston, his freelance writing and his future plans of becoming a life coach. Photograph credited to Carolina Knopf.
Correspondence from Christine O. Jackson to Eileen Muir, Correlator for the Southern Region of the National Board of the Y.W.C.A., regarding recommended personnel.
Correspondence from James T. Coats, Regional Representative of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare Social Security Administration, to Esau Jenkins regarding the Thrift Honor Award for 1969.
Correspondence from Fred W. Harris, Jr. and Paul T. Collier, the Regional Attorney and Acting Regional Attorney for the United States Department of Agriculture, to Paul R. Kugler, Assistant Administrator for the United States Department of Agriculture regarding COBRA Farmers Home Administration Applicant Organizational Documents.
Correspondence from Mary E. King, Communications for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, to James Hornaday of Presbyterian Life for the purpose of of reserving advertising space.
