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1963 Our Story Matters

  1. April 1963

    April 30 , 2013 by Debbie Bloom

    In April 1963, U.S Attorney General Robert Kennedy arrived in Columbia to speak about the Kennedy administration’s concern about segregation and racial discrimination. While Kennedy praised South Carolina for the peaceful integration of Harvey Gantt into Clemson College he predicted that racial troubles will worsen “unless real progress is made”.

  2. March 1963

    March 7 , 2013 by Debbie Bloom

    Civil rights news moved away from Harvey Gantt and drifted back home to the midlands in March 1963. 

  3. Celebrate Black History Month

    February 14 , 2013

    Fifty years after the end of segregation, Columbia is taking a hard look back at its civil rights struggles and racial progress.

  4. Lugenia Hammond's crusade

    February 18 , 2013 by Debbie Bloom

    The Second Tennesee and First Rhode Island regiments arrived in Columbia in early November 1898 before heading off to the Spanish American War.  They were the first troops to be stationed at the new Camp Fornance located in the rural area north of Columbia.  The military camp lasted only a few months but the name still refers to the neighborhood on the other side of Elmwood Cemetery. 

  5. With Dignity, Honor, Courage

    January 24 , 2013 by Debbie Bloom



    The beginning of the 1963 New Year did not start out quietly in South Carolina.  Harvey Gantt and
    Clemson University dominated the headlines in Columbia’s The State and Columbia
    Record newspapers.