MODJESKA MONTEITH SIMKINS
an ADVOCATE of the PEOPLE By Katharine Allen, Director of Research
RESIST examines the protracted legal and economic battle to end school desegregation. Historic Columbia collection
O Simkins objects to a rezoning plan that allowed middle-class white parents living near Lyon Street to move their children out of three predominantly Black schools at a Richland School District One meeting on March 9, 1976. One parent claimed that this change would allow them to be more active in school affairs, to which Simkins replied, “If they can do so much good in a middle-class school, they could do far more in a school needful of such contact.” Image courtesy The State Newspaper Photograph Archive, Richland Library
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HISTORIC COLUMBIA | NEWSLETTER
ver the last decade, Historic Columbia’s leadership and staff have taken bold steps to research and share new stories — ones that spotlight many unsung or previously maligned heroes while also refusing to gloss over people and systems that created and perpetrated injustice. The resulting reinterpretations at our sites often call into question the “truths” long held by many Americans: about the benevolence of enslavers, the incompetence of Black leadership, and the concept that Americans have always collectively sought to create a more equal and just nation. Although our work is always informed by scholarship and generally well-received, each new exhibit opening or tour brings with it some white visitors who want Historic Columbia to stop sharing “unpleasant” history, and most tellingly, who walk away upset that they were somehow tricked into attending “a Black history tour.” The common thread uniting these experiences, though, is not just apathy toward learning about people whose stories are historically underrepresented. It’s an unwillingness, often born of fear, to confront how white Americans have historically benefitted from, and thus continued to perpetuate, white supremacy. For doing so means questioning when, if ever, it ended.
