Greetings from the Newberry County Literacy Council. 2023 was another productive year for us. The Council again hosted the tax program, sponsored the Wise Street summer camp, offered numerous tutoring programs to adults and children, ran the Weekly Reader Book Club and offered a place for education, fun and fellowship. We held a sixty-year celebration at the Old Hotel in September with testimonials from participants from the past, a presentation of the history of the Council and great fun. We also strengthened our board, updated our by-laws, and collaborated with other programs. We appreciate the dedicated work put in by Ms. Barbara Chapman, Executive Director and the support of numerous donors, including Newberry County Council.
Ms. Chapman and the Council also assisted with my book “With All Deliberate Speed” published in September, about school desegregation in Newberry in the 1960s and the boycott at Gallman High. Barbara and I used the Council office to interview participants and observers of those events with Marshall Maddy of Newberry College filming the interviews. The response to the book from those connected in some way to Gallman – former students, teachers, friends, family members of these – was tremendous. The Literacy Council sponsored a talk about it in September and many former Gallman students attended. We sold over a hundred copies, with all the money going to the Literacy Council and Gallman Place. The Weekly Reader Book Club chose it as one of the books read in the fall.
The response from the larger community has been less impressive. Even though we spread the word around the community about the talk and the book, interest outside the community of Gallman supporters did not materialize. We had expected that other groups and organizations might invite us to talk about it or react in some way to it but that did not happen. It may be that people are defining it as a ‘black story’ or just of black interest. To us, however, it is a human story and a Newberry story, with roots in the larger history of our state, region, and nation. I spent four years on this project, digging into newspaper accounts in over a dozen papers, reading books and journal articles about the Civil Rights movement, school desegregation across the South, the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling of 1896 that legitimated the rise of Jim Crow, and events across the 20th century that gradually enabled protest to occur and then become effective. I wanted to contribute to our understanding of the past in a way that gave us hope for the future.
As I wrote in the book’s conclusion, this story “exposes community conflict, questionable thinking and decision making, prejudice, and discrimination. But it also contains bravery, hope, social change, and promise. Through the good and bad of the story, we know more than before, which should be counted as a good thing. Knowing ourselves and our community is important. It frees us to be honest and open, to admit mistakes and to learn from them. It is also important that we find and tell stories that expand the breadth of our knowledge of our past, that include episodes, people, and events previously ignored or understudied. The fight for racial justice embodied in the desegregation of Newberry schools and the boycott at Gallman High deserve to be acknowledged as part of the history of this community.”
We may hold another talk about the events of the book soon with panel discussions, reflections on how history is written, considerations about justice and how race and class intersect in fighting for justice, and the state of justice in Newberry. Please watch for announcements and consider participating.
A final note about another research project the Council is involved in. Gloria Glasgow and I have been collaborating on a history of the Back Streets area of Newberry, that section of downtown that was home to numerous black businesses from the early days of the 20th century till the 1970s. With Barbara Chapman’s assistance, we have used the Literacy Council as a site to film interviews and spread out our research, including maps, lists, and diagrams. We hope to produce both a book and a documentary. Stay tuned and if you have stories or reflections to share about the Back Streets, please contact us.
In the meantime, we are moving ahead with plans for this year. We are planning some events involving Dr. King in February. The Weekly Reader Book Club is selecting their next book. We are considering bringing back the People’s College. We are writing a grant about parents and their children working together to improve learning. And much more. Certainly, there is much to do. If you would like to volunteer or participate in our programs or join the book club, please call or come by. We are at 1208 Main Street and our phone number is 803-276-8086.
And, as we always say, “Happy Reading.”