search toggle
DonateKnown as South Carolina's “matriarch of Civil Rights activists," Modjeska Monteith Simkins led the fight for equality tirelessly her entire adult life.
—Modjeska Simkins
Modjeska Monteith was born in Columbia, SC, on December 5, 1899 to Henry Clarence Monteith and Rachel Hull. She served as a key strategist for several organizations, including the SC NAACP, the Southern Negro Youth Congress, and the Richland County Citizens Committee, and also co-owned Motel Simbeth, which appeared in the Negro Traveler's Green Book. Although her activism extends across more than seven decades and numerous causes, she is best remembered for her leadership during the early Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina.
Modjeska Monteith, late 1920s. Image courtesy Richland Library
From 1932 until her death in 1992, Modjeska Monteith Simkins’ home in Columbia, SC, served as the city's center for civil rights and social justice activities. In 2006, Historic Columbia took over the stewardship of the site from the Collaborative for Community Trust, which saved the site from demolition. Next month, the multimedia exhibit "An Advocate of the People," will debut at the site. By using her life as a lens through which we view historical inequality, the impact of organizing, and the power of protest, her home will once again become a center of engagement and action for the community.
Simkins sits on her front porch. Historic Columbia collection
On 20 October 1955, Jet, a national weekly digest with a primarily black audience, published the expose “SOUTH CAROLINA’S PLOT TO STARVE NEGROES.” The six-page piece described efforts by White Citizens Councils in Clarendon and Orangeburg counties to create an “economic squeeze” on black community members. The goal of the...
