Detail the long and determined journey of the Catawba Nation toward federal recognition, emphasizing legal battles, community activism, and the significance of this milestone for tribal identity and rights.
An overview of the recognized tribes in South Carolina, the history of their state and federal recognition efforts, and the importance of official recognition for tribal sovereignty and cultural preservation.
Dolley Payne Todd Madison (1768-1849) was the first wife of a U.S. President to occupy the role of First Lady in the way that we understand it today. This lecture discusses the life, achievements, and impact of one of the most important and interesting First Ladies.
James Madison (1751-1836), Father of the U.S. Constitution and Fourth President, and his wife Dolley Payne Todd Madison (1768-1849), had a remarkable partnership. This lecture demonstrates how their complementary skills and abilities created the paradigm of the married couple that we still associate with a President and First Lady. This program is part of the … Read more
This story, long buried in old newspaper accounts, tells the forgotten saga of the six brave men who tried to stop the segregation laws from passing in South Carolina. For three months, six Black leaders of the Reconstruction era argued eloquently at the State Constitutional Convention in the face of vile threats, racial insults, and united opposition, … Read more
Primaries have been a significant factor in American politics for a good many years. They are in fact a uniquely American electoral institution, born in the Progressive Era. The role of primaries has changed to some degree in recent years as the public searches for ways to make politicians more responsive to their constituency.
America’s news media has undergone dramatic changes in recent years. Local newspapers are disappearing rapidly, television has not fulfilled its promise and social media feeds extremist views. As a public and nonprofit administrator Olin Sansbury frequently had to deal with probing journalists, but in his earlier life that was his job as a newspaper reporter … Read more
The end of the Cold War did not prove to be the “End of History” as some predicted. Not even the flourishing hyperbole of conservative triumphalism could obscure the fact that after the Cold War’s end the old American marriage of nationalism and liberalism has grown frayed, and maybe even strained. With the common ideological … Read more
Since even before America became an independent country, novelists have used their storytelling skills to help us understand our system of governance and our relationships with one another—sometimes with humor, sometimes with irony. Political novels have advocated causes or ideas, have recorded successes and issued warnings. They have revealed our flaws and trumpeted our strengths. … Read more
Covert Action is “an activity or activities of the US government to influence political, economic, or military conditions abroad, where it is intended that the role of the US government will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly.” Such actions have been taken frequently in modern American history and not always successfully. Olin Sansbury examines some … Read more
The complexities of America’s attitude towards firearms is examined from the viewpoint of its impact on US politics and public safety. Olin Sansbury reviews the history of the Second Amendment and compares America’s approach to firearms to that of other nations in today’s world. Presentation of 30-45 minutes with Power Point aids. Group discussion invited.
Olin Sansbury provides an analysis of Electoral College history and its impact on presidential elections. He weighs in on factors that make this unique American institution undemocratic and offers suggestions as to how it might be beneficially reformed. Presentation of 30-45 minutes with Power Point aids. Group discussion invited.
Many years before the production and sale of alcohol was banned in the United States by the Eighteenth Amendment, the forces of temperance waged political warfare with the purveyors of alcohol. Most Southern states went dry long before the rest of the country did, and as a result, had a ready-made pipeline of moonshine-makers and … Read more
Few Americans remember that FDR, besides leading our country through the Great Depression and World War II, was also the founder of the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis, better known as the March of Dimes. This charity fought the terrible scourge of polio with both assistance to the stricken and research to find a vaccine, … Read more
One of the first true “power couples,” the Roosevelts were leaders of tremendous influence in the twentieth century, leading America for 12 tumultuous years, from 1933 to 1945. Eleanor Roosevelt is usually credited with creating the role of the modern First Lady. However, their marriage was a difficult one, marked by betrayal, bitterness and anger—right … Read more
Marguerite A. LeHand worked for President Roosevelt for more than 20 years as his private secretary, counselor, confidante and friend. In this presentation, Smith wears period costume and speaks with Missy’s Boston accent about her time with FDR. Mid-talk, she removes Missy’s hat, tells “the rest of the story,” and takes questions from the audience … Read more
In the aftermath of a brutal Civil War, many southerners justified their sacrifice by creating a romanticized version of the War. Prominent people like South Carolina’s Wade Hampton and LaSalle Corbell Pickett, widow of the famed Confederate General, promoted a version of the War that justified the South’s secession, casting doubt on the real causes … Read more
A traveling display of Lincoln and Civil War memorabilia and artifacts is available as a separate program. It requires a dedicated classroom for the day and at least six folding or library size tables. One or more classes can be rotated through the exhibit during a period of perhaps four repetitions; commentary and historical explanation … Read more
Gerald Y. Pitts performs an original one-act play as Abraham Lincoln. You will hear Abe recount stories of his life from boyhood to presidency. Programs are available for any grade level and of any length.
Kate has always been interested in political commentary. She was a staff editorial cartoonist and nationally syndicated for several years, and her cartoons appeared both locally and nationally. She is now doing cartoons for a weekly paper, the Greenville Journal, and her latest book is a coloring book, 2016 Race for the White House: A Grownup Coloring … Read more
Even though President Lincoln had premonitions that he was going to be assassinated, he was sitting in the unguarded President’s Box at Ford’s Theatre when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth. Controversy erupted in 1907 when witnesses said that the man who was shot in the Garrett barn was not Booth and that he … Read more
After the election of President Andrew Jackson, the ladies of Washington were horrified by the dubious reputation of Peggy Eaton, the wife of the newly appointed secretary of war. After trying for 2 ½ years to have her included in the social life in Washington, Jackson fired his cabinet and destroyed Vice President John C. … Read more
Sherman’s brilliant campaign through Georgia and the Carolinas ended in political turmoil with public insinuations from President Andrew Johnson’s administration that Confederate President Jefferson Davis had bought his freedom from Sherman with gold from the Confederate treasury. Sherman was accused by high government officials of being “a common traitor and a public enemy” while subordinates … Read more
General William T. Sherman created a new form of physical, economic, and psychological “total warfare” against civilians and private property in Georgia and the Carolinas that he readily admitted would be violent and cruel. In addition to physical and economic assaults, he designed a massive psychological strategy of disinformation, deception, and blame designed to cripple … Read more
Perkins became the first female cabinet member, FDR’s Secretary of Labor, at the rock bottom of the Great Depression. She came with a “To Do List” – workman’s compensation, unemployment insurance, old age and health insurance; a minimum wage, a maximum work week, and the abolition of child labor. When she left office 12 years … Read more
An in-depth look at the relationship between political structures and musical movements. Depending upon the interests of the group, this talk can include Beethoven’s Musical Treatment from Napoleon to Hitler, Baroque Music and Absolutism, Mozart and the Enlightenment, Jim Crow and Jazz, or many others.
As we are bombarded daily by ever-coarsening political discourse, it is tempting to long for a gentler, perhaps more civil, age. Imagining a past similar to the worlds of Jane Austen novels, we sometimes project our wishes onto the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This talk will suggest that what we are experiencing in America today … Read more
The French and Indian War pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France, each side supported by military units from the parent country and by American Indian allies. Humphries discusses the experiences of this often-forgotten conflict and the outcome that caused the colonists to want to fight for independence from England.
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
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
