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Archives For November 30, 1999

The Ancestors’ Remains

By Julia Eichelberger
Posted on 14 August 2019 | 5:23 pm — 

After the remains of 36 African and African-descended people were discovered near the Gaillard Auditorium during renovations in 2013, The Gullah Society worked with city officials to study the remains and decide how they should be honorably reinterred. 

DNA and isotope analysis established that these individuals were all of African descent. This research, conducted with scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and C of C student Yemi Udowole, was supported by a National Geographic Society grant. 

Students in Nathaniel Walker’s Architecture of Memory course imagined designs for a memorial honoring the individuals in this burial ground.

The Center for the Study of Slavery was honored to support and participate in events in which research was discussed with community members and the students’ proposed designs were displayed.  One event, “Rise Up,” was held on campus in Randolph Hall on November 7, 2018.

Read the story in The College Today

Student Exhibit Explores Proposed Memorials to Honor Remains

More from The Post & Courier.
https://www.postandcourier.com/news/what-sort-of-monument-would-best-honor-african-americans-buried/article_c6a2ff54-f70b-11e8-a587-bf4780d4f3ac.html

 

The Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World  (CLAW) program hosted a three-part film series exploring links between Gullah people and the country of Sierra Leone, Africa. Simon Lewis, CSSC Executive Board member and director of the CLAW program, organized the series and the discussions that followed, including one with author Edward Ball (Slaves in the Family) and Thomalinda Polite, whose film “Priscilla’s Legacy” documents her reconnecting with her ancestors in Sierra Leone. Priscilla is the name of a child Edward Ball encountered in his research for Slaves in the Family, and he managed to identify some of her living descendants, including Polite. 

https://today.cofc.edu/2018/10/16/film-series-explores-links-between-gullah-communities-sierra-leone/
Poster for the film “Priscilla’s Legacy.”

 

Dr. Grant Gilmore, chair of the Historic Preservation and Community Planning program, and Dr. Julia Eichelberger, director of the Southern Studies program, represented the College at the Fall 2018 meeting of the consortium Universities Studying Slavery, held at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. They participated in 2.5 days of discussion at Tougalou College with representatives from dozens of universities. They also toured the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Medgar Evers House.

Dr. Grant Gilmore at the Medgar Evers House with Minnie Watson

Grant Gilmore in the carport of the Medgar Evers House discussing Evers’s murder with Minnie Watson, a docent at the house who knew the Evers family.

 

In 2018 when the College announced the formation of the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston, this op-ed was published reflecting on the need for all Charlestonians to understand our shared past, which is profoundly shaped by slavery.  The author, Julia Eichelberger, an English professor at the College, directs the program in Southern Studies and serves on CSSC’s Executive Board.Screenshot of op-ed in online Post & Courier

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/commentary/commentary-charleston-must-own-its-slavery-wrongs-if-it-hopes/article_38c27ffc-c02e-11e8-af57-3f508a89293e.html

Juneteenth with Dr. Anthony Greene

By Julia Eichelberger
Posted on 19 June 2019 | 12:30 pm — 

 

AAST professor Dr. Anthony Greene explains the history of Juneteenth.

African American Studies Professor Explains History of Juneteenth

 

CSSC Board member and director of the program in Historic Preservation and Commuity Planning, Dr. Grant Gilmore, worked with the African American Historic Settlement Community Historic Association and Mt. Pleasant officials to begin work on the relocation and preservation of Long Point Schoolhouse.

Long Point Schoolhouse – Photo via The Chronicle
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