Celebrate Black History Month: Events in the Lowcountry

 BLACK HISTORY MONTH SYMPOSIUM: CANNON STREET YMCA ALL STARS IN UNIFORM

On Thursday, February 11, Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum will host a free symposium to remember the impact of Charleston’s Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars team (the only non-white Little League team in South Carolina in 1955) and their journey to the Little League World Series amidst the struggle for civil rights in South Carolina and throughout the South. The symposium titled, Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars in Uniform, will feature a panel of former players from the team, several of whom later served in the military. The panelists will include: Leroy Major, Vermont Brown, Augustus Holt and John Rivers. These former players will recount their memories of living in Charleston at a tumultuous time and their feelings when 61 other Little League teams in South Carolina refused to play them because of the color of their skin. As a direct result of this protest, the white teams formed the Dixie Youth Baseball League and abandoned Little League entirely. The Cannon Street YMCA All Stars were able to go watch the Little League World Series that year in Pennsylvania, but were not able to participate since they had not played in the state tournament. This symposium is offered as part of Black History Month and will delve into the pivotal topic of civil rights in the South in the 1950s.

THE CITADEL

An African-American Bazaar will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17, in the Mark Clark Hall Reception Room. The bazaar will feature live reggae music from “Equal Rights,” free sampling of various soul foods, and artwork and displays from area vendors. Admission is free. - See more at: http://www.citadel.edu/root/news-archives-spring96-nr96jan12black#sthash...

CHARLESTON MUSEUM

On February 18, the museum will host a workshop titled “Sweetgrass Baskets: Hands-On History Workshop.” Visitors will have the chance to admire and purchase artisans’ work as they learn how sweetgrass basket-making was and is still done during the workshop. For additional details, call 843.722.2996

LIFE BEFORE AND AFTER FREEDOM

Four storytellers with blacksmith, cooking and brickmaking demonstrations at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens will present life on a Southern plantation before and after the end of chattel slavery. Following the demonstrations on Feb. 20 award-winning television actress and storyteller Natalie Daise will guide an audience through the development of Araminta Ross as she became the iconic abolitionist and Union Army spy known as Harriet Tubman. Daise’s 60-minute performance, “Becoming Harriet Tubman” at 4:30 p.m. in the Carriage House, will be a fundraiser for Charleston’s proposed International African American Museum. Seating is limited to the invitation-only event. “Life Before and After Freedom” will be held 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, at the restored cabins that once housed enslaved workers who helped design and maintain Magnolia’s gardens and later were garden guides following the Civil War. On Feb. 20, Magnolia’s award-winning cabin tour “From Slavery to Freedom” and the storytelling program and craft demonstrations at the cabins will be free with garden admission. The program at the cabins includes Gullah storyteller Sharon Cooper Murray; children’s storyteller Alada Shinault-Small; and Civil War storyteller James Brown of Charleston; and Dontavis Williams of York County, S.C., will portray a slave named Adam. Craft demonstrations at the cabins include: blacksmithing, Gilbert Walker of Savannah, Ga.; outdoor cooking, Jerome Bias of Winston-Salem, N.C.; and brickmaking, Rodney Prioleau of Charleston.

THE CITADEL

A panel discussion on law and justice, to include practicing attorneys and officers from the Charleston Police Department, will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22, in Bond Hall, Room 165. Attorney Craig Burgess, a 1987 graduate of The Citadel, will moderate. Admission is free and the public is invited to participate. - See more at: http://www.citadel.edu/root/news-archives-spring96-nr96jan12black#sthash...

CIVIL RIGHTS CONFERENCE

Scholars will gather this month at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg for a conference called “South Carolina and the Civil Rights Struggle.” The conference - to be held in the Barbara A. Vaughan Recital Hall from 6 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 23, and from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 24 -- will honor the remaining members of the Friendship Nine, who served 30 days in jail following a 1961 sit-in at McCrory’s lunch counter in Rock Hill. The conference is meant for all audiences, but several sessions are designed especially for K-12 teachers and students. The cost is $40 per person, $25 for students. For more information, or to register, visit www.nche.net or call Larry Watson at 803-536-7243 or 803-536-8914.

THE CITADEL

A Black History Quiz Bowl will be held Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. in Mark Clark Hall Auditorium. Students from The Citadel, College of Charleston, Charleston Southern University, and Trident Technical College will compete. Admission is free. - See more at: http://www.citadel.edu/root/news-archives-spring96-nr96jan12black#sthash...

GULLAH EXHIBIT

The pioneering scholarship of Lorenzo Dow Turner, a linguist who helped link West African communities to the coastal Southeast of the United States, is the subject of a traveling exhibition presented by the College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture. “Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Communities Through Language” is on view through April 4. Curated by Alcione Amos of the Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Community Museum, the show corresponds with Black History Month and includes several special events scheduled for Saturday afternoons in February and March. The Avery Research Center is located at 125 Bull St. For more information, call 953-7609.

CHARLES PINCKNEY NATIONAL HISTORICAL SITE

This historic site was established to interpret Charles Pinckney’s plantation, Snee Farm, his role in the development of the U.S. Constitution, and the transition of the U.S. from a group of colonies to a nation. Interpretive exhibits highlight these areas as well as the influences of African Americans in the development of Snee Farm. A series of free cultural programs will take place every Saturday at 2pm during February and March 2010. These Gullah programs include craft demonstrations, cooking, African drumming and story-telling and other musical performances. For more information, call 843.881.5516 or visit http://www.nps.gov/chpi.

Daniel Island Publishing

225 Seven Farms Drive
Unit 108
Daniel Island, SC 29492 

Office Number: 843-856-1999
Fax Number: 843-856-8555

 

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