Published by The History Press
Charleston, SC 29403
www.historypress.net
Copyright 2008 by Damon L. Fordham
All rights reserved
Cover design by Marshall Hudson.
First published 2008
e-book edition 2012
ISBN 978.1.61423.462.3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fordham, Damon L.
True stories of Black South Carolina / Damon L. Fordham.
p. cm.
print edition ISBN 978-1-59629-405-9 (alk. paper)
1. African Americans--South Carolina--Biography--Anecdotes. 2. African Americans--South Carolina--History--Anecdotes. I. Title.
E185.93.S7F67 2008
975.700496--dc22
2007048970
Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Contents
Acknowledgements
First I would like to thank my parents for adopting and raising me: Dad, for instilling a love of storytelling and history, and my mother for imparting a sense of morals. Also, thanks to my adopted and biological relatives and friends in Spartanburg, Columbia and Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
I extend my gratitude to Dean Willie Harriford of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, Joseph Kimpson of Carver High School in Spartanburg and Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney of the College of Charleston for refining my interest in history and helping to set me on this path.
Thanks to my sister Bobbie and to Georgette Mayo of the Avery Research Center for helping to scan the pictures, and to Johnetta Howard, Alestine Burns, Alice Burns Singleton, Mignon Clyburn, Minnie Parker, William Bill Saunders, Herbert Fielding, Father Stan Gumula, Stanley and Betty Richmond, Mack Simmons, Angeline Segar McDaniel, W. Russell Floyd, Dr. Kim Richardson, Harlan Greene, Danielle Hardee, Sonya McGowan, Linda Conley, Lorraine Moore, Carole Moore Richard, Jennifer Brown and Jack McCray for the interviews and assistance.
Introduction
This book is not an official history of blacks in South Carolina; rather, it is a collection of historical articles and anecdotes regarding African Americans in the Palmetto State.
As I mention in some of these chapters, I grew up listening to my father and other elders tell fascinating stories about their experiences and their recollections of history. Years later, I would conduct research projects as a professional historian and occasionally stumble across these same stories in obscure newspaper articles. These would often consist of little-known stories that were missed by the history books and are collected in this volume.
During my days as a columnist for the Charleston Coastal Times from 1994 to 1998, on weeks where there was little of note to comment upon, I would write stories about growing up in Mount Pleasant, South Carolinas African American community in the 1970s. Three of those articles begin this book. The other chapters were either published elsewhere as noted or were written especially for this book.
While some of the better-known stories of South Carolinas black history, including those of Robert Smalls and the Jenkins Orphanage among others, are absent, I decided to focus on the lesser-known stories that have not been written about extensively elsewhere. There are a few chapters that involve some familiar incidents such as the Denmark Vesey revolt and the Stono Rebellion, but these articles cover some less familiar aspects of these events.
For the Brothers Who Arent Here
Not too long ago, I saw the classic 1975 movie Cooley High on television for the first time in years. For those of you who dont know, this comedy/drama about black teenagers growing up in Chicago inspired the late 1970s television comedy Whats Happening!!
There is a scene midway through the film in which the teenagers are drinking wine in an alley. One of them pours the remaining bottle of wine down the gutter. When asked why he is doing this, the young man replies, This is for the brothers who aint here.
Although I had seen this film before as a child when it first came out, this sequence had added relevance to me upon seeing it as an adult. The film made me contemplate the fact that although I am a young man in my late twenties, there are a lot of brothers who arent here with whom I shared the joys of childhood. In the neighborhood cemetery alone there is Reginald Neal Linyard, who died in his early twenties in 1987. He was a pretty nice guy who taught me how to ride a skateboard. Then there is Dudley Do-Right Richardson, the neighborhood joker who made up crazy songs and dances and who was killed in a car crash. He would have gone far on television. Buried not too far from him is another person who stood tall in my childhoodJerome Gordon Parker Jr.
Gordon Parker (19661990). Courtesy of Mrs. Minnie Parker.
Gordon was in the second grade and I was in the third when he moved to our neighborhood in Mount Pleasant in 1973. Although one year tends to make a big difference among children at that age, it did not when it came to our friendship. Along with Thomas Rouse, Tyrone Swinton, my cousin Lee Brown, E.E. Jones and Anthony Dip Hazelton, we formed our little group and, for the most part, lifelong friendships.
Gordon was quite a funny and good-hearted fellow. About a year after his arrival, our Cub Scout troop had a talent show. Another childhood friend named Erwin White imitated Ed Sullivan as our master of ceremonies, and Gordon did a skit portraying the comedian Jimmy J.J. Walker as he tried to join the army. He portrayed Walker doing all sorts of crazy dances as he was supposed to be marching with his squadron. This brought both our friends and parents into hysterics and, if I recall correctly, he won the show.
However, what cemented our friendship took place around October 1974 when I was in the fourth grade. I was over at his house one day when his mother, a kind schoolteacher named Mrs. Minnie Parker, was preparing to take Gordon and his siblings to see the movie Charlottes Web, a cartoon about a spider that saves a pigs life. Since I wasnt raised with my sister, I was an only child, and usually when I visited friends and their parents wanted to take them somewhere, their parents would say that it was time for me to go home. I was about to do just that when Mrs. Parker asked, Damon, where are you going? I replied that she probably didnt want me around since she was going to take her children to the movies.
Mrs. Parker replied, Listen, go home quickly and ask your father for some money. You are coming with us.
That was the first time I ever saw a movie in a theater, and my fondness for both Charlottes Web and Mrs. Parker lasts to this day.
About a year later, Gordon and his family moved to another neighborhood, but we would still get together from time to time. Not long after their move, we learned that Gordon had been hit by a car and was fighting for his life. Members of our church held a huge prayer session for him, and there was not a dry eye in the place. Fortunately, Gordon survived, and we threw a huge party for him at the local community center; but his motor abilities and speech were impaired for the rest of his life.
