Ella Baker: the Midwife of the Civil Rights movement

The social, economic, and political landscape of this country were forever changed by the Civil Rights movement. The men we have come to know and appreciated were not alone; women played a big part in this great change. In review of recent events, this historical presentation revisits the significant role Ella Baker and other women … Read more

Madam C.J. Walker

Madam C.J. Walker was a businesswoman and activist in the age of Booker T. Washington. This is my story of a self-made millionaire and her impact on black life and culture.

African Americans and the Civil War

What role did black people play in preserving the Union and ending slavery? With (or without) a period uniform, including a Springfield rifle, Donald West will present a brief history of African Americans and the Civil War which includes data, facts, figures, and key people (men and women).

Blue, Red, & Black: African Americans and the Revolutionary War

What role did black people play in the quest for liberty? This presentation and PowerPoints of period artwork, illustrations, and historical documentation addressing the little-known, yet significant impact African Americans made in US history during the period of 1763-1783.

The African Slave Trade (Atlantic and Indian Oceans)

Between 750-1890, Africans were forcefully removed from the continent to places throughout the Islamic world and the Americas. Donald West addresses this historical period with the support of a PowerPoint presentation.

The History of Black Children’s Literature

This presentation begins with late 19th century Negro children’s literature to the evolution of the present-day Black children’s literature and features a colorful Power Point.

Black Southern Folklore – Storytelling

This program explores and celebrates the art of storytelling through the tales founded in the southern states of the U.S. with specific origins from South Carolina.

Richard T. Greener

Donald Sweeper brings to life professor Richard T. Greener, the first African American to graduate from Harvard University and the first African American faculty to teach at the University of South Carolina during Reconstruction from 1873-1877.  At the University of South Carolina, Greener reorganized and cataloged the library holdings which were in disarray after the … Read more

Growing up Gullah

This is a 45-minute one-man show in which Donald Sweeper tells stories shared to him by his ancestors and the elderly people from the community in which he grew up. This performance also includes Gullah folklore and traditions, as well as rites of passages performed by many of the African American Churches from Reconstruction up … Read more

A visit from Dr. Ernest Everett Just, Research Scientist

This performance, in which Donald Sweeper portrays Dr. Ernest E. Just Chautauqua-style, is about 35 minutes in length. As Dr. Ernest E. Just, he tells the story of how the doctor succeeded as a research biologist working at the Woods Hold Marine Biology Lab in Massachusetts from 1909 to 1930 while also heading the Zoology … Read more

Robert Smalls “Rising to the Occasion”

This is a stage reenactment which is approximately 35 minutes long in which Donald Sweeper portrays Robert Smalls Chautauqua-style, as if the current year is 1895. Donald Sweeper dramatizes the commandeering of the Planter boat on the early morning of May 13, 1862 as Robert Smalls piloted through the Charleston Harbor undetected by the Confederates … Read more

The Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties lives large in our imaginations: flappers, jazz, bathtub gin, gangsters — the 1920s were all that. But the 20s was also a time of tremendous prosperity for some and abject poverty for others, especially in the rural South. For the rising middle class, there were marvels to buy with the new installment … Read more

The Stono Rebellion

The Stono Rebellion on September 9, 1739, was the largest slave uprising in North America.  Twenty-one whites and approximately 40 African slaves were killed in this bloody confrontation just twenty miles from Charleston.  This presentation examines the social and political context of the South Carolina Lowcountry’s plantation system and the growth of slavery in the early Colonial … Read more

54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry & Africans in the Civil War

A brief history of the approximately 180,000 African Americans that served in the Union Army and Navy during the Civil War, with a focus on the history of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the regiment that was portrayed in the award-winning movie, Glory. This presentation is given in a Civil War uniform and includes a first-person characterization.

Sports & Social Protest

This program uses the Viet Nam War Civil Rights protests in sport (the Wyoming University “Black 14,” Muhammed Ali’s CO status, 1968 Olympics, etc.) as a spring-board to discuss modern/present-day issues of race (cf. Naomi Osaka, the NBA, the MLB/Black Lives Matter/voting rights) and sport begetting social protest. We will attempt to make sense of … Read more

Civil Rights Movement & the Viet Nam War

This program will feature songs of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in the United States discussed in context of historical events. Lyrics are provided. Dive into an investigation of the folk roots of early Civil Rights songs and the influence of soul/R&B on memorable Civil Rights anthems, from Guthrie to Franklin to Cooke, as well … Read more

The Power of Black Female Flight in the Neo-Slave Narrative

In modern fictionalized narratives on slavery by black authors, black women are given a supernatural ability to transcend time and space in order to alter their genealogies and family trauma. This lecture details such abilities given to black female characters and its implications on race relations in the 21st century. 

Gamechanger: The Life and Writing of Julia Mood Peterkin

Julia Peterkin was a white woman who wrote about Gullah people living on her family’s plantation out of a desire to honor and preserve their culture. She was shunned by white Southerners for “betraying her race” but became accepted by Harlem Renaissance writers, such as Langston Hughes and W.E.B. DuBois. Regardless of criticism, she continued … Read more

The Lynching of Willie Earle in Greenville – 1947

Willie Earle, an African American, was accused of killing Thomas Watson Brown, a cab driver from Greenville, SC.  Thirty-one white men (mostly cab drivers – all white) drove from Greenville in the middle of the night to take Earle out of the Pickens County Jail.  They then beat him, burned him, and shot him in … Read more

Collecting and Telling Your and Others’ Stories

For Stories of Struggle I interviewed at least 150 Black activists while I worked as a journalist at The State and as director of a writing program at Columbia College. I wanted to preserve Black elders’ stories, and, through their stories, to reveal a true portrait of segregation in South Carolina. I believe in the … Read more

Education and the Vote: Then and Now

South Carolina’s 1895 constitution disenfranchised Black citizens. The constitution, which was not submitted to a popular vote, also said, “Separate schools shall be provided for children of the white and colored races, and no child of either race shall ever be permitted to attend a school provided for children of the other race.” That constitution … Read more

400 Black Women and a Union: The 1969 Charleston Hospital Strike

In December 1967, five Black women left work at Medical College Hospital in Charleston when ordered to violate their LPN licensing limits. Despite the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the hospital segregated patients, restrooms, and cafeterias, and did not provide Black doctors or training programs for Black workers. With the help of the Southern Christian Leadership … Read more

“Soul Power“ of South Carolina Sit-Ins

James T. McCain, fired as a school principal for NAACP membership, became the first Black and Southern field secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). CORE’s founders had accepted imprisonment rather than fight in World War II and Korea; they emulated Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent methods of opposing injustice. The training CORE’s McCain provided South … Read more

From a Wheelchair

A fourteen-year-old fell far from a pecan tree; the family accepted the doctor’s diagnosis: Cecil Augustus Ivory would never again walk. After six months in bed, Ivory employed two cane chairs as crutches and walked again. His drive and determination led to a football scholarship, a divinity degree, a church in Rock Hill, South Carolina, … Read more