November Timeline

1872
November 26, 1872

The S.C. General Assembly met in Columbia and named four African Americans to the seven-man governing board of the University of South Carolina: Samuel J. Lee, James A. Bowley (a relative of Harriet Tubman), Stephen A. Swails, and W.R. Jervey.

1874
November 24, 1874

After serving in the U.S. Congress, Robert B. Elliott was elected Speaker of the Lower House of the S.C. Legislature during the Reconstruction era.

1898
November 3, 1898

SC State College (University) is established.

1926
November 20, 1926

Nathaniel Jerome Frederick, a Columbia educator, journalist, and NAACP attorney, is hailed as the “bravest man in South Carolina” by the Palmetto Leader newspaper. Frederick was praised for defending the Lowmans, an African American family in Aiken County who had been accused of killing the local white sheriff.

1939
November 10, 1939

Twenty-nine representatives from branches around S.C. met in the library at Benedict College in Columbia and founded the South Carolina NAACP State Conference of Branches.

1944
November 8, 1944

Dr. Cleveland Sellers Jr. was born in Denmark, S.C. He was the only person convicted and jailed for events at the Orangeburg Massacre, a 1968 civil rights protest in which three students were killed by state highway patrol officers.

1947
November 21, 1947

Aided by the NAACP, John Wrighten sued to integrate the law school at the University of South Carolina. Rather than permit him to enroll, the state of S.C. funded the creation of a separate law school at segregated South Carolina State College.

1955
November 27, 1955

NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall spoke before an audience of 3000 people at Columbia’s Township Auditorium. He later spoke before 1500 people in Orangeburg on Claflin University’s campus.

1970
November 3, 1970

Herbert Fielding, I.S. Leevy Johnson, and James Felder were elected to the S.C. General Assembly, becoming the first African Americans since 1902.

1974
November 5, 1974

Juanita Willmon Goggins, a native of Pendleton and a longtime educator, became the first black woman elected to the S.C. General Assembly. She represented the Rock Hill area.

1983
November 4, 1983

Jesse L. Jackson, a native of Greenville and a graduate of Sterling High School, launched a campaign to be the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States.

1992
November 3, 1992

James E. Clyburn, a native of Sumter, was elected to the U.S. Congress, the first African American from S.C. to serve since the 1890s.