History of civil rights and the Black experience is everywhere in Charleston

Charleston is an epicenter of African American history and culture. The components that make it so, however, are largely disconnected and far-flung.

Surely, Charleston could become the premier destination in the world for the study of the African American experience if these disparate venues somehow could find a way to come together.

And maybe they will, now that the International African American Museum is open to the public. The museum is an essential leg of a four-legged stool, and joins three others already well-established.

Charleston now has a public institution that draws visitors to a central location where they can immerse themselves in the Black experience. It has an academic pillar in the form of the College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center and the school’s Center for the Study of Slavery. It has historical sites, including former plantations, embedded in the landscape where much of the history unfolded. And it has a nonprofit and philanthropic sector that can help raise money and provide other kinds of support.

All the city needs now is a collaborative effort to create the top of the stool and set it firmly in place.

The Charleston metropolitan area already includes other important sites connected to the history of Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. The list is long. Here is but a sampling of venues and sites you can visit on the peninsula:

International African American Museum and Gadsden’s Wharf: In the few years before the transatlantic slave trade was banned on Jan. 1, 1808, tens of thousands of Africans were forced into the city at Gadsden’s Wharf and sold at auction. Now this area is the site of a new museum devoted to the Black experience.

Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture: This institution got its start in 1865 as the Avery Normal Institute, which educated Black students during the period of legal segregation. In 1985, it became part of the College of Charleston. You can schedule a guided tour and admire its history, collection, special exhibits and programming, and the important role it plays in Charleston today.

The Old Slave Mart Museum: This is a city-operated venue on historic Queen Street devoted to conveying details of the domestic slave trade. It first opened in 1856 as Ryan’s Mart after the city banned slave auctions near the Old Exchange Building. It changed hands, then closed in 1863 during Union bombardments of Charleston. The site once included a showroom, kitchen, infirmary, jail and slave pen. After the Civil War, the buildings served for a time as tenement housing for African Americans.

Anson Street Burial Ground: The remains of 36 enslaved people, some born in Africa, were discovered during construction of the Gaillard Center in 2013. The bones were exhumed, studied, then reinterred. A temporary plaque was installed on the site, but it will be replaced by a significant new monument designed by artist Stephen Hayes in late 2023 or early 2024.

The Cigar Factory: Now renovated and used as galleries, offices, retail stores and restaurants, this old structure started as a cotton manufacturing facility built in 1881. It survived the great earthquake of 1886 and acquired a new owner who leased the building in 1903 to the American Cigar Co. Its workers were racially segregated. Managers were White men. Black women stemmed the tobacco; White women rolled the cigars. The working conditions were poor. Abuse was common. Finally, in 1945, the workers decided to strike. The Black employees sang a song from Johns Island called “I Will Overcome.” Later, the lyrics of that hymn were modified by Pete Seeger, and the tune became an anthem of the civil rights movement.

There’s more.

See how the old Morris Street Business District, the commercial center of Black life on the peninsula, has changed. Visit Emanuel AME Church, where nine members were gunned down in 2015 during a Bible study.

Or stroll through Hampton Park, once the site of a horse racing course that became a graveyard for Union soldiers. Local African Americans excavated the mass grave in 1865 and reinterred the remains at the site with respect and gratitude. Today in Hampton Park, one can find a statue of Denmark Vesey, who allegedly organized a slave rebellion in 1822 and paid the ultimate price for his actions.

Stand anywhere in Charleston and you can be sure that something historical transpired nearby.

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