This historical marker denotes the location of the Aiken Graded School, a two-story brick elementary school for black children built in 1924-25 with funds provided by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. One of South Carolina's finest Rosenwald schools, the school had...
Allen Temple AME Church was organized as a mission church during Reconstruction. Cuban-born Juan Benito Molina, then Greenville's only Black architect, designed this early 20th century Classical Revival structure to serve as the congregation's new home in 1929....
Originally founded in 1870 as Payne Institute, AME leadership relocated the school to Columbia nearly a decade later. It was renamed Allen University in honor of Bishop Richard Allen, the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The campus features five...
Paramount is the Clay Hill community that centers around the life of Elias Hill, a formerly enslaved man who led the migration of freed slaves from York County to Liberia, Africa, in 1871. Hill and his followers were victimized by the Klan during the Reconstruction...
Alston Graded School, one of the first schools for black children in Dorchester County, stood here from 1910 to 1953. Named for its founder, Dr. J. H. Alston, it included grades 1-11 until 1949, when grade 12 was added. In 1953 the two-story wood frame building was...
Built around 1875, this one-story Greek Revival cottage was used as a residence and business in the late 19th century by Carolina Alston, an African American businesswoman. Alston acquired the property in 1888, but might have leased it earlier. She operated a dry...
Atlantic Beach--nicknamed “The Black Pearl"--was an oceanfront community for African Americans who were denied access to Myrtle Beach and other leisure sites due to segregation. Established around 1934, it soon became one of the most popular beach resorts along the...
Founded by Francis L. Cardozo in 1865 as the Saxton School, the Avery Normal Institute was a private teacher-training school for African Americans. Three years later, the American Missionary Association purchased a lot on Bull Street and built this three-story brick...
Built in 1926, Bell Street School was the second school built on this site for African Americans. The first was Friendship School, founded in 1883 by the Friendship AME Church. Roughly a decade later, Bell Street School became the first black high school in Laurens...
The American Baptist Home Mission Society established Benedict Institute in 1870 for the training of black Baptist ministers and teachers. Named in honor of Rhode Island abolitionist Stephen Benedict, the institute became known as Benedict College in 1894. Dr. John...
This house is the birthplace of Dr. Benjamin E. Mays (1894-1984), Baptist minister, college president, author, and civil rights pioneer. It was originally located 14 miles from this site in the Epworth community. Mays was the eighth child of Hezekiah and Louvenia...
Samuel J. Bampfield, an influential African American political figure during Reconstruction, was the founder of Berean Presbyterian Church. He served as postmaster, clerk of the Beaufort County court, and a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. The...
Berkeley Training High School, first called Dixie Training School, stood here from 1920 until the 1980s. The first public school for blacks in Moncks Corner was founded in 1880. It held classes in local churches until its first school was built in 1900. The three-room...
Bertha Lee Strickland Cultural Museum is the only exhibit museum in Oconee County that underscores the rich, colorful, turbulent history of the local African American community. As stated in its motto, “Honoring the Past – Elevating the Future,” the museum...