A publication of The Lincolnville Preservation and Historical Society Inc.
THE
SUMMER 2022 EDITION
Spotlight on John Henry McCray
Don’t Miss the Reading Corner
A Look At Charleston County School District #4
One Crazy Summer
Charleston County School District is the second largest school district in the State
By Rita Williams-Garcia
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Two Big Announcements for Lincolnville! On June 22, 2022, The Lincolnville Preservation and Historical Society (LPHS) hosted representatives from the National Park Service Reconstruction Era Network, The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, Office of Congressman James Clyburn and members of the community for its first Historical Lincolnville Bus Tour. The bus tour began at the Charles Ross Municipal Complex and made several stops at many of Lincolnville’s historical sites, including Ebenezer and Wesley Churches, Bible Sojourn Cemetery and the Old Jail located on Smith Street. The Historical Lincolnville Tour was the culmination of LPHS’s year-long initiative of hard work and dedication to Lincolnville’s remarkable history, which secured two monumental designations. The National Park Service announced the Town of Lincolnville has been added to the Reconstruction Era National Historic Era. Under the U.S. Department of Interior, the Reconstruction Era National Historic Era Network connects sites across the country that provides education, interpretation and research related to the Reconstruction Era (1861-1900) of the United States. “These sites tell critical stories related to the Reconstruction Era,” said Reconstruction Era National Historical Park Superintendent Scott Teodorski. Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, Executive Director, Victoria Smalls, announced LPHS is now an
Scott Teodorski, Victoria Smalls, and Pernessa Seele with Mayor Enock Dickerson
official partner of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. As a partner with LPHS, The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor will support events and efforts to preserve, share and interpret the history, traditional cultural practices of the Town of Lincolnville. Pernessa Seele, President/Founder, The Lincolnville Preservation & Historical Society states, “These pivotal partnerships will support the advancement of Lincolnville’s significant history being documented into the atlas of both South Carolina and the United States. Participants in the tour included: Dalton Tresvant, Deputy District Director, Office of Congressman James E. Clyburn; Nathan Betcher, Historian of
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Lincolnville’s Gullah Roots:
An Untold Story of the Early Settlers The history of Lincolnville, SC holds an untold story that encompasses the influences of the original settlers who migrated from the Sea Islands. In 1867, Rev. Richard H. Cain, Pastor of Emanuel AME Church and elected representative to the forty-third US House of Representatives, led seven men approximately twenty-miles west of Charleston to purchase 620 acres of land for $1000 from the South Carolina Railway Company. Here Rev. Cain designed a Negro town in a perfect circle around the railroad tracks. The original name of this stretch along the railroad was Pump Pond because it was a water and wood stop for the steam engine. After the purchase, Rev. Cain renamed the area Lincolnville in honor of President Abraham Lincoln. The early settlers included former enslaved persons from what is now known as the Gullah Geechee Corridor, which are the Sea Islands off the coast of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. As settlers migrated to Lincolnville from the Sea Islands, notably John’s and James Island, they brought their culture and traditions with them. Staple foods
Big Announcements
included rice and grits along with okra, field peas, and yams. Living off the land, the settlers planted crops rich with indigo, sassafras and other plants well-known in Gullah Geechee culture. They were self-sufficient raising livestock, and fishing the nearby waterways Born a slave on James Island, SC, of the Ashley Martha Seele migrated to Lincolnville River extension. in the late 1800’s with her husband Charles Seele. They are both buried in On weekends the Bible Sojourn Cemetery. settlers would travel back to the Sea Islands for shrimp, crabs and oysters. Not only did the practices of farming and fishing remain consistent with their Gullah Gechee heritage, the traditional art form of Quilting endured and was passed down from generation to generation.
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the Reconstruction Era, Senior Archaeologist/Vice President Ralph Bailey of Brockington Cultural Resources Consulting; Christine W. Hampton and Rosalee W. Washington, authors of The History of Lincolnville, SC and town council members James C. Hampton and Tyrone Aiken. At the conclusion of the tour, Mayor Enock Dickerson greeted the guests at the Charles Ross Municipal Building and shared his enthusiasm for what lies ahead for Lincolnville.
Standing with Mayor Dickerson and Pernessa Seele are National Park Service Rangers along with Rosalee Washington, Christine Hampton, and Deputy District Director Dalton Tresvant of the Office of Congressman James Clyburn.
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A Look At Charleston County School District #4 Children living in Lincolnville will begin the 2022-2023 School Year on Wednesday, August 17, 2022. Lincolnville’s children attend schools in Charleston County School District 4, which are: Ladson Elementary, Deer Park Middle and R. B. Stall High School. Students are also eligible, if they qualify, to apply to the School of the Arts (Grades 6-12), Academic Magnet (Grades 9-12), and Cooper River Center for Advanced Studies (9-12). Charleston County School District is the second largest school district in the State of South Carolina with an approximate 48,863 students. The district comprises 80 schools divided into seven districts: St. James Santee (District 1), Mt. Pleasant (District 2), James Island (District 3), North Charleston (District 4), James Island (District 10), West Ashley (District 20) and St. Paul’s (District 23). Charleston County also offers options for students to select a school that best suits their educational needs through the School Choice program. The vision of the Charleston County School District states the
These times require some of the community rules of Historical Lincolnville, which included: “It takes a village to raise a child.”
Get to know the people who are in charge of your child’s school:
following on their website: • Every child is supported in and out of school • Every child succeeds academically • Every child graduates from high school prepared for employment in the modern workforce or credential completion or postsecondary degree • Every student, teacher, principal, and staff member is valued and respected with opportunity to learn every day. Of course, safety is the number one concern of every school-age parent in the United States. At www. ccsdschool.com you can find an overview of Charleston County School District’s safety measures. As the school year begins, let’s come together as a community and support our children and parents.
Ladson Elementary School Principal: Janet Brown Phone: (843) 764-2225 Website: www.ccsdschools.com/ladson Deer Park Middle School Principal: Shanitra Deas Phone: (843) 990-5200 Website: www.ccsdschools.com/deerpark R.B. Stall High School Principal: Jerry Carrick Phone: (843)764-2200 Website: www.ccsdschools.com/stall School of the Arts Principal: Dr. Shannon Cook Phone: (843) 529-4990 Website: www.ccsdschools.com/soa Academic Magnet Principal: Jacob Perlmutter Phone: (843) 746-1300 Website: www.ccsdschools.com/Domain/9 Cooper River Center for Advance Studies Principal: Vanessa Brown, M.A.T.,M.Ed Phone: 843-953-3231 Website: www.ccsdschools.com/ Domain/2401
The Reading Corner:
One Crazy Summer By Rita Williams-Garcia Available on Amazon. About the Book: In this Newbery Honor novel, New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them.
This moving, funny novel won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Coretta Scott King Award and was a National Book Award Finalist. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern’s story continues in P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama. The Lincolnville » page 3
The Lincolnville Preservation & Historical Society Inc. aims to grasp and preserve the legacy of Black men and women who, during the era of reconstruction, brought and owned land so that Black families could be free to pursue and secure the blessings and rights of freedom for themselves and their posterity. The Lincolnville Preservation & Historical Society, a 501.c3, not-for-profit organization, works to enrich and preserve the cultural heritage and intangible attributes of Lincolnville, one of the oldest African American towns in the State of South Carolina. The organization offers community development activities designed to improve the health, economic and social determinates of residents living in Lincolnville today. I invite you to join and donate to The Lincolnville Preservation & Historical Society. If you grew up in Lincolnville or know someone who did, please share your stories, artifacts and photos at www. lincolnvillesc.org. Please support our work with a donation. Abiding Gratitude and Joy! Pernessa C. Seele President & Founder
ACTIVITIES ON-GOING Town Council Meeting 141 W. Broad Street, Lincolnville, SC The First Wednesday of Every Month
Church Services Ebenezer AME Church 124 E. Pinckney Street, Lincolnville, SC Worship Service: 10AM New Vision Cathedral Church 128 Hamilton Street, Lincolnville, SC
Worship Service: 10:30AM Wednesday Bible Study: 7PM Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church 360 Dunmeyer Hill Road, Lincolnville, SC Sunday School: 10AM Worship Service: 11AM Nazareth Holiness Church 805 W. Carolina Ave., Lincolnville, SC Wesley Church
Sunday Prayer: 9AM
736 W. Front Street, Lincolnville, SC
Sunday School: 9:30AM
Worship Service: 10AM The Lincolnville » page 4
Spotlight on John Henry McCray John Henry McCray has been in the news lately. McCray’s historical writings on civil rights is now a digital collection at the University of South Carolina’s South Caroliniana Library. He was inducted into SC Press Association Hall of Fame in 2021. “McCray’s influence was felt beyond the newsroom in breaking new political ground for black South Carolinians. As cofounder in 1944 of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), the first black Democratic Party in the South, McCray joined those who protested the national Democratic Party’s tolerance of unfair treatment of black South Carolinians”. — South Carolina Encyclopedia John H. McCray (August 25, 1910 – September 15, 1987) moved to Lincolnville, SC at the age of 6 with his parents Donald McCray and Rachel R. Montgomery (from Charleston). McCray graduated head of his class at Lincolnville (Williams) Graded School and was valedictorian of the class of 1931 at Avery Institute in Charleston, SC. In 1935, McCray earned a chemistry degree from Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama. Among McCray’s most noted accomplishments is the publication of the Lighthouse and Informer in 1941. With it’s motto, “Shedding Light for a Growing Race”, McCray’s publication provided news about Black people from across the United States and the World. By 1954, the Lighthouse and Informer was South Carolina’s largest and most political Black weekly. “I have no importance other than serving as the medium in a small way through which most of us S.C. Negroes can pass into some degree of civic and political freedom.” — John Henry McCray