July Timeline

1863
July 18, 1863

Distinguished mathematician, essayist, and Howard University professor Dr. Kelly Miller was born in Winnsboro where he attended the Fairfield Institute.

1875
July 10, 1875

Educator, civic leader, and political advisor Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was born in Mayesville, S.C.

1910
July 3, 1910

Civil rights leader and businessman, Esau Jenkins was born on Johns Island, S.C.

1942
July 22, 1942

Columbia NAACP President Rev. E.A. Adams and other members of the state conference formed the Negro Citizens Committee of South Carolina (NCC) to rally support for a voting rights campaign.

1947
July 5, 1947

Camden, S.C. native, Larry Doby, was signed to the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first African American to play in the American League.

1960
July 16, 1960

A group of students, known as the “Greenville Eight” were arrested for disorderly conduct when they staged a sit-in at a Greenville library. The students, including Jesse L. Jackson, were counseled by the Rev. James S. Hall, the pastor of Greenville’s Springfield Baptist Church.

1963
July 10, 1963

Judge Robert Martin ordered all state parks to desegregate. Instead, the South Carolina Forestry Commission closed all state parks. Judge Martin also ordered the University of South Carolina to desegregate.

1964
July 2, 1964

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, banning segregation in public places and outlawing employment discrimination on the basis of race.

1965
July 4, 1965

Students working on the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Project SCOPE summer project near Charleston were arrested for trespassing at Edisto Beach State Park, which had been closed since 1956, when the S.C. General Assembly resisted legal campaigns for integration.

1966
July 20, 1966

S.C. State Parks were reopened as fully integrated facilities after being closed by the South Carolina Forestry Commission in response to Brown v. S.C. Forestry Commission.

1967
July 30, 1967

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the Charleston County Hall. He is joined by local leaders including Esau Jenkins, Septima P. Clark, Z. L. Grady, Daniel Martin, Herbert Fielding, and James E. Clyburn.

1979
July 5, 1979

Matthew J. Perry Jr., a graduate of the SC State Law School in Orangeburg, was nominated by President Jimmy Carter as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of S.C.

1992
July 1, 1992

Dr. Edward Sawyer Cooper, a native of Columbia and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, began his tenure as the first African American president of the American Heart Association.

2015
July 9, 2015

Following the death of 9 parishioners at Charleston’s Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church, public protest, and intense debates in the General Assembly, S.C. Governor Nikki Haley signed a bill to remove the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds.