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Modjeska Monteith Simkins

Motel Simbeth postcard

#TBT: Motel Simbeth + Cornwell Tourist Home

By: Lois Carlisle, Consulting Historian

Thursday, February 21st 2019

We’ve talked about the Green Book before in this series , but here’s a refresher: As automobile travel grew increasingly popular from the 1930s through the 1960s , African Americans found themselves faced with what historian Gretchen Sorin called “an uncertain landscape,” much of which was “composed of white spaces...

Motel Simbeth matchbooks

Searching for Motel Simbeth

By: Katharine Allen, Director of Research

Friday, February 22nd 2019

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...

Simkins at Home

Modjeska Monteith Simkins: An Advocate for the People

By: Katharine Allen, Director of Research

Thursday, February 21st 2019

Modjeska Monteith Simkins was born in Columbia, S.C. on December 5, 1899, into a society that legally dispossessed women and people of color of their civil liberties. Over the course of her 92 years, she displayed a courage and perseverance that many argue was unmatched. Today, Simkins is rightfully lauded...