The Modjeska Simkins School is indebted to our guest presenters, past and present, who have been generous with their time and talent.<\/p>\n
The school’s primary staff consists of Brett Bursey<\/strong>, Executive Director of the\u00a0SC Progressive Network Education Fund,<\/p>\n and lead instructor Dr. Robert Greene II<\/strong>, who teaches at Claflin University. They are joined each session by seasoned writers, educators, organizers, and historians. Here is a roster of presenters to date.<\/p>\n \u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n Jack Bass<\/strong> (journalist; retired Associated Press bureau chief; award-winning author of “The Palmetto State” and “The Transformation of Southern Politics”<\/p>\n Fergus Bordewich<\/strong> (journalist and award-winning author of “The First Congress,” “Congress at War,” and “The Klan War”<\/p>\n Dr. Millicent Brown<\/strong> (political activist; educator; author; S.C. ACLU Board of Directors<\/p>\n W. Lewis Burke<\/strong> (attorney; professor emeritus, University of South Carolina School of Law; author of “At Freedom\u2019s Door: African American Founding Fathers and Lawyers in Reconstruction” and “Matthew J. Perry: The Man, His Times and His Legacy”<\/p>\n Brett Bursey<\/strong> (political activist; community organizer; co-founder of Grass Roots Organizing Workshop and the S.C. Progressive Network<\/p>\n Dr. Orville Vernon Burton<\/strong> (author of “The Age of Lincoln” and “Lincoln’s Unfinished Work”; professor at Clemson University and University of Illinois)<\/p>\n Cecil Cahoon<\/strong> (organizational specialist, National Education Association)<\/p>\n Jim Campbell<\/strong> (educator, civil rights leader, social justice activist) (d)<\/p>\n Mandy Carter<\/strong> (LGBTQ political activist; co-founder of National Black Justice Coalition)<\/p>\n S.C. Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter<\/strong> (political activist, educator, social work administrator, legislator)<\/p>\n John Crangle<\/strong> (attorney, journalist, former director of S.C. Common Cause)<\/p>\n Kyle Criminger<\/strong> (co-chair, S.C. Progressive Network Education Fund)<\/p>\n Beryl Dakers<\/strong> (journalist, producer at South Carolina Educational Television)<\/p>\n Armand Derfner<\/strong> (human and civil rights attorney; constitutional law professor; co-author of “Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court”)<\/p>\n Dr. Bobby Donaldson<\/strong> (professor and director, University of South Carolina Center for Civil Rights History and Research)<\/p>\n Graham Duncan<\/strong> (former executive director of the South Caroliniana Library)<\/p>\n Howard Duvall<\/strong> (executive director the South Carolina Municipal Association)<\/p>\n Dr. Justene Hill Edwards<\/strong> (author of “Unfree Markets”; professor at University of Virginia)<\/p>\n S.C. Sen. Mike Fanning<\/strong> (educator, executive director of the Olde English Consortium, legislator)<\/p>\n James Felder<\/strong> (civil rights activist; author of “Civil Rights in South Carolina”; former legislator)<\/p>\n Nikky Finney<\/strong> (progressive activist; award-winning poet; professor at University of Kentucky, Berea College, and University of South Carolina)<\/p>\n Bill Fletcher Jr.<\/strong> (labor organizer; political activist; co-author of “The Indispensible Ally” and “Solidarity Divided”)<\/p>\n Omari Fox<\/strong> (community organizer; artist; co-founder of Columbia chapter of Black Lives Matter)<\/p>\n Herb Frazier<\/strong> (journalist; co-author of “Sleeping with the Ancestors”)<\/p>\n Dr. Burnett Gallman<\/strong> (former chief of internal medicine; author; lecturer on medicine and African history and culture)<\/p>\n Dr. Erik Gellman<\/strong> (author of “Death Blow to Jim Crow” and co-author of “The Gospel of the Working Class”; labor studies professor at University of North Carolina)<\/p>\n Dr. Will Goins<\/strong> (educator; artist; former CEO of the Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois, and United Tribes of South Carolina) (d)<\/p>\n Kevin Alexander Gray<\/strong> (community organizer; political activist; author of “Waiting for Lightning to Strike”; former chair of S.C. ACLU) (d)<\/p>\n Dr. Robert Greene II<\/strong> (lead instructor, Modjeska Simkins School for Human Rights; professor at Claflin University; co-editor of “Invisible No More: The African American Experience at the University of South Carolina”; book review editor and blogger for the Society of U.S. Intellectual Historians)<\/p>\n Dr. Michelle Haberland<\/strong> (professor at Georgia Southern University; author of “Striking Beauties”)<\/p>\n Dr. Jon Hale<\/strong> (author and professor, College of Charleston and University of Illinois-Urbana Champagne)<\/p>\n Harriet Hancock<\/strong> (attorney; social justice activist; founder of Columbia chapter of PFLAG)<\/p>\n Harold Hatcher<\/strong> (Chief of the Waccamaw Tribal Council)<\/p>\n Kathy Howell<\/strong> (political activist, community organizer)<\/p>\n Chris Judge<\/strong> (professor at University of South Carolina-Lancaster; assistant director of the Native American Studies Center)<\/p>\n Meeghan Kane<\/strong> (former professor of African American studies and Southern history at Benedict College; editor of “Unsweetened Magazine”)<\/p>\n Sarah Leverette<\/strong> (educator and law librarian; former member of S.C. Workers Compensation Commission and S.C. Constitutional Revision Committee) (d)<\/p>\n T. Lilly Little Water<\/strong> (human rights activist; CEO of the S.C Indian Affairs Commission; founder of the Indigenous Womens Alliance Committee)<\/p>\n Dr. Ed Madden<\/strong> (author; professor and director of Women’s and Gender Studies at University of South Carolina) and his husband, Bert Easter<\/strong>, longtime LGBTQ+ activist<\/p>\n Kamau Marcharia<\/strong> (human rights activist; community organizer; )<\/p>\n Dr. Frank Martin II<\/strong> (professor of art history and theory at S.C. State University; curator of “The Orangeburg Massacre and America’s Fight for Freedom”)<\/p>\n Joseph McGill<\/strong> (History and Culture Coordinator at Magnolia Plantation; director of Slave Dwelling Project; author, “Sleeping with the Ancestors”)<\/p>\n Dr. Alison McLetchie<\/strong> (professor of sociology and cultural anthropology at S.C. State University; co-editor of “Contributions of HBCUs in the 20th Century”)<\/p>\n S.C. Rep. Joe Neal<\/strong> (pastor and social justice activist; legislator; co-founder of S.C. Progressive Network) (d)<\/p>\n Lewis Pitts<\/strong> (reformed attorney, and founder of Project on Corporations Law and Democracy)<\/p>\n Rob Richie<\/strong> (author and executive director of FairVote)<\/p>\n Becci Robbins<\/strong> (journalist; author of “Generation Know: Inside Columbia, South Carolina’s Radical Youth Movements 1968-1988,” “Modjeska Monteith Simkins: A South Carolina Revolutionary,” and three other books profiling South Carolina’s lesser-known history and heroes)<\/p>\n Dr. Todd Shaw<\/strong> (professor of political science and African American studies at University of South Carolina; former president of National Conference of Black Political Scientists)<\/p>\n Hoyt Wheeler<\/strong> (author; USC professor; and nationally recognized labor arbiter) (d)<\/p>\n Dr. Jennifer Whitmer Taylor<\/strong> (professor of public history at Duquesne University, author of “Reconstructing Memory”)<\/p>\n Dr. Kerry Taylor<\/strong> (professor of labor history at The Citadel; director of the Charleston Oral History Program; author of “American Labor and the Cold War”)<\/p>\n Tom Turnipseed<\/strong> (former legislator; community activist; former director of S.C. Association of Independent Schools) (d) and his wife, Judy Turnipseed<\/strong>, who managed his campaigns and law office<\/p>\n Karen Watson<\/strong> (political activist, community organizer)<\/p>\n Cecil Williams<\/strong> (civil rights photographer; curator of the South Carolina Civil Rights Museum; author of “Freedom and Justice: Four Decades of the Civil Rights Struggle as Seen by a Black Photographer of the Deep South”)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Modjeska Simkins School is indebted to our guest presenters, past and present, who have been generous with their time and talent. The school’s primary staff consists of Brett Bursey,<\/p>\n