Day 7 Avery Research Center

Today we visted the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture which is part of the College of Charleston. Its curator and Director of Museum Education, Curtis Franks, introduced us to the history of the research center and its current tasks. The center is dedicated to collecting, preserving and documenting the history and culture of African Americans in the region through art and historical research. It was already founded in 1865 as a private schools for African American children, an institution dedicated to the transition of blacks from servitude to making their way in the USA. Thus, the school helped reordering the American society and fighting prejudices of black intellectual inferiority. A dangerous task at this time! The school dedicated itself to the uplift of the African American "race" by training teachers and leaders like Septima P. Clarke. Therefore, the center is an institution of historical significance. Today it is dedicated to preserving Gullah culture as well as African American art. The center supports young artists and film makers from Charleston, SC. After Franks' introduction to the history of the research center, we visited an exhibition of black artists from the area. Unfortunately, Frank provided no further information to the works. However, the exhibtions are worth seeing. Moreover, researchers can use the archives of the center. Research materials are also provided to schools and other institutions. Personally, it was an interesting experience but more information would have been useful.

Franziska

Archaeology in Columbia?

In Richland Street, Columbia you can find Mann-Simmons site  that dates back to the time from 1843 to 1970.

In his vivid talk the archeologist Jacob Crocketts  took us with him to the 19th century when Cecilia Mann, a free African American  woman, lived on this street corner with her family.

Jacob Crocketts told us the story of Cecilia Man and her ancestors  through photographs and his archeological findings. Among these were curious artifacts like a labeled glas bottle of skin whitener or a metall condom case.

In the presentation we were shown how the site of the family, which was the only African American family living in the neighborhood during this time, has been transformed during the years.

In 1970 it was just saved before being bulldozed like many houses of former African American neighbourhoods.

One day after Mr Crockett‘s presentation we got to see the house museum on the Mann-Simmons Site.

The Legal History of Civil Rights

The second speaker on Wednesday was Lewis Burke, professor of Law at the Department of Clinical Legal Studies at the University of South Carolina. He gave our study group a short introduction into the legal history of Civil Rights in South Carolina. Burke emphasized the discrimination towards black voters which continues to exist in some parts of the United States till today. After the end of the Civil War African Americans were enfranchised. However, this new won legal freedom didn't exist for a long time. During Reconstruction Black Codes were enacted which limited and discriminated the civil rights for African Americans, including the right to vote. He also mentioned in this context the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Burke furthermore talked about the establishment of the NAACP in South Carolina, the significance of voter registrations, Voter Identification Laws and the current situation in South Carolina. His very interesting short talk about Civil Rights in South Carolina gave an overview on how the legal history of Civil Rights developed; at the same time it showed that this development is still in process. Burke concluded his talk by arguing that South Carolina needs a new voting rights act in order to stop voter harassment.

Ewa

Day 1: Hello Columbia, hello USC!

Our study of African American history and culture started at the University of South Carolina with a series of interesting presentations about different aspects of African American life. Daniel Littlefield gave the first presentation „Race and South Carolina“ talking about slavery and race-relations in early South Carolina and how they relate to today’s situation of African Americans. "Race" is an important issue to the state of South Carolina as its African American majority makes it distinctive in comparison to most other states oft he USA in which African Americans constitute only a minority. Littlefield argued that a distinctive slave culture developed in SC because of its high number of African American inhabitants enabling the survival of African traditions. According to Littlefiled, among these Africanisms are the language Gullah and thus, early SC bilingualism, a certain architecture, assumptions of life, cosmology, food, naming practices as well as music instruments. The banjo was a distinctive feature of African American music before becoming popular among white country musicians. Littlefield also mentioned other characteristics of race relations in SC like the task system, rice cultivation and miscegenation, the open practice of masters fathering slaves. Littlefield’s talk gave us a good basis for the upcoming presentations and events of the study tour.

Franziska

Heading West in a Couple of Hours

Seven hours to go and we're slowly but surely getting excited...  At 4.30 am we're gonna meet the rest of the study group at Leipzig Hauptbahnhof to head to Frankfurt Airport. We've been planning this trip for almost a year now but still it feels surreal to be going. 

In the winter term all of us enrolled in the seminar "African Americans in the US South" with Professor Keil and Professor Thiele. The seminar laid the groundwork for what we're going to experience firsthand. During the seminar we discussed the history of African Americans in the United States, the current situation in cities like New Orleans, the Confederate Flag controversy in SC, and other issues concerning blacks. Ewa held a presentation on Lawrence Hill's novel "The Book of Negroes" in which she emphasized the use of historical sources and the significance of historcial fiction as a contribution to an African American collective memory.

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 In her presentation Carolin talked about the representation of blacks in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes and the novel of the same name written by Fannie Flagg. While the novel described the both the lives of whites and blacks in Birmingham, Alabama in detail, focusing on urban segregation and the famous blackborough Slagtown/ Birmingham, the film painted a more stereotypical picture of African Americans living in the South of the 1930s and 40s.

So now there are only six more hours to go... yes, this text really took us this long owing to phone calls and other disturbances :-) From Frankfurt Airport we're going to fly to Charlotte, NC and then go to Spartanburg SC where we will spend our first night on American soil. From there we will go to Columbia, SC and Charleston, SC. But you'll see anyway, on this blog.

We're ending by saying good night and hopefully we'll be up on time to catch our train with Professor Keil and the others.

Ewa and Caro