It’s Black History month and of course we gotta talk about our people. We have some famous folks who did their big one in Charleston that still has significance to this day. I want to highlight some of those black Charlestonians you should know in today’s post and tell you what they did and how their history impacts me to this day.
Some famous black folks from Charleston, SC
Phillip Simmons
Born on Daniel Island (a white area these days) he moved to Charleston at a young age. I like to call him the keeper of the gate. His work can be seen all over Charleston. If you touch some of his work I swear you can feel it in your soul. He started off doing horse shoes and had to be convinced to do iron work. He was not trained to do art but his work took him to that level. It’s funny how we can do one thing well and it takes us into a whole new era of the unknown. You can start off doing something simple then make it into something great. Did you know that in 1970, he hand-crafted a cup holder for a Volvo car using nothing but a metal coat hanger? (Funny fact Volvo is now in Charleston well outside of it but still near there) He is famous for his tight C-scrolls and S-scrolls, but he was largely self-taught in these designs. He learned by “studying the tracks” left by colonial blacksmiths—examining their old work and teaching himself how to replicate their techniques. Some of his work can be seen here and here.
Robert Smalls
Born in Beaufort, SC (near Charleston and where my grandad is from) he was cival war hero and union naval captain. Did you also know he was a republican? You know before this new age republican era. After the war he bought his slave masters’ house the McKee house, where he and his mother had been enslaved. He lived there for the rest of his life. I love that reminds me of when my mom used to work at Kiawah Island and I asked her why we can never come here to go on the beach. She said black people don’t come here to vacation because we can’t afford it and we probably never will. I remember when I rented a beach house on that very beach and walked out on the beach to look up to heaven and say …well mom I did actually make it back here to rent it out. Buying a beach house is next! Beyond his military and federal political career, Smalls authored state legislation that gave South Carolina the first free and compulsory public school system in the United States. He believed education was the ultimate key to permanent freedom.
Anna DeCosta Banks
She graduated from the Hampton Institute and became the head nurse at the Hospital and Training School for Nurses (later the McClennan-Banks Hospital) in Charleston, which was established to serve the Black community when other hospitals practiced segregation. They have a wing at MUSC named after her. She spent years being boots on the ground and going to homes to help people with their health when they couldn’t afford the hospitals. A beautiful “unknown” fact is that her daughter, Evangeline Banks Harrison, also worked at that same hospital, serving as its Medical Records Librarian. She died as the oldest practicing nurse in the state of South Carolina. As a huge component of making sure your whole team is as black as they can be when it comes to your health it’s good to know that we have some of our people in the field making healthcare moves to help us.
Those are just a few. If you have some folks that you know that are black and have a history in Charleston,SC, let me know below in the comment section.
