Showing Collections: 1 - 10 of 12
Craft and Crum families papers
Collection
Identifier: AMN 1102
Abstract
William Craft (1824-1900) and Ellen Smith Craft (1826-1891) were slaves who met on a plantation in Macon, Georgia. Unwilling to raise children in slavery, in December 1848 they devised a plan to escape to Philadephia, Pennsylvania. Ellen dressed as an invalid male, her arm in a sling to avoid writing (neither William nor Ellen could read or write) and face in bandages to obscure her feminine voice and lack of facial hair. William accompanied her as a servant. They arrived in Philadelphia on...
Dates:
1780-2007
Frank Augustus DeCosta papers
Collection
Identifier: AMN 1106
Abstract
Frank Augustus DeCosta (1910-1972) was an African-American educator, administrator and scholar born in Charleston, South Carolina. In a career that spanned four decades, DeCosta served as a teacher and principal of two high schools, supervisor and chairman of an education department, director of instruction and of student teaching, foreign service statistical officer, and organizing dean of two graduate schools.The collection includes correspondence, research notes, essays,...
Dates:
1847-2000; Majority of material found within 1940-1972
Julia Alston Gourdine papers
Collection
Identifier: AMN 1130
Abstract
Julia Waites Alston Gourdine (1923-2009), an African-American elementary school educator who worked in the Charleston County School District for thirty-five years. Alston Gourdine was also an integral Senior Trustee Board member of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Charleston, South Carolina. She married Robert H. Gourdine, Jr. in 1944, and they had one son, Robert H. Gourdine, III.The collection contains documents and photographs relating to Gourdine's...
Dates:
1880-2002; Majority of material found within 1950-1996
Graves family papers
Collection
Identifier: AMN 1081
Abstract
The Graves family of Charleston, South Carolina, was an African American family consisting largely of educators and Avery Institute graduates. James R. B. Graves, Jr. (1883-1969), a Pullman porter and union member of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, married Rose Laura Winds (1890-1978) in 1915. Together, they raised five children: J. Michael, Pauline, Annette, Robert, and Eugene. J. Michael Graves (1915-1996), a Class of 1932 graduate of the Avery Institute, was an educator and...
Dates:
1884-2004
Holloway family scrapbook
Collection
Identifier: AMN 1065
Abstract
James Harrison Holloway, compiler of the family scrapbook, collected materials in the early twentieth century to preserve a record of his family’s legacy as free prominent African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina, from their arrival in the late eighteenth century. In the wake of Reconstruction and the dawn of Jim Crow, Holloway, whose vocations ranged between preacher, postmaster, and harness maker, sought to assert his family's legacy against the economic, social, and political...
Dates:
1776-1977, undated
Anna D. Kelly papers
Collection
Identifier: AMN 1083
Abstract
Anna D. Kelly (1913-2007) is known for her efforts to connect Lowcountry African Americans with the Highlander Folk School, most notably recruiting Septima Clark. A graduate of the Avery Normal Institute in Charleston, South Carolina, Kelly was a charter member of the Avery Institute of African American History and Culture. She then played a crucial role in establishment of the Avery Research Center.The collection includes personal papers and photographs related to Anna D. Kelly...
Dates:
1930s-1999
Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club records
Collection
Identifier: AMN 1031
Abstract
The Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club was formed in 1916 under the direction of Jeannette Cox, wife of Avery Normal Institute principal Benjamin Cox. The club consisted of nineteen women members meeting to discuss literary works by such authors as W.E.B. DuBois, Carter G. Woodson and others. The club women also helped fulfill their mission to "lift as we climb" by taking an active role in Charleston's African American community by donating funds to such organizations as the YWCA,...
Dates:
1907-2017
Miriam DeCosta Seabrook and Herbert U. Seabrook papers
Collection
Identifier: AMN 1094
Abstract
Miriam DeCosta Seabrook (1896-1992) was an African-American educator born in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1923, she married Dr. Herbert U. Seabrook (1884-1941), an African American physician who practiced medicine in Charleston. They had one son, Herbert U. Seabrook, Jr., who also became a physician.The collection includes correspondence, certificates, photographs, and other materials related to Miriam DeCosta Seabrook's education at Avery Institute and elsewhere, teaching...
Dates:
1882-1995
Lucille Simmons Whipper papers
Collection
Identifier: AMN 1146
Abstract
Lucille Simmons Whipper (1928-2021), an educator, guidance counselor, academic administrator, community, and religious leader and the first African-American woman to serve as an State of South Carolina House of Representatives in Charleston's District 109 (1986-1996). She exercised her activism with her graduating class at Avery Institute in their attempts to desegregate the College of Charleston in 1944. Decades later, Whipper was instrumental in working with the State of South Carolina and...
Dates:
1900-2016, undated