Message from Cecil Cahoon to Network members and allies
I write to you on behalf of the Board of Directors of the SC Progressive Network Education Fund, on which I am honored to serve.
Because of your personal or professional association with Brett Bursey, your knowledge of him and his character, and of the work that you have done with him during his decades of public activism and leadership, we write to you with a very special request.
My fellow Directors and I wish to nominate our friend and Executive Director of the SC Progressive Network for the South Carolina Order of the Palmetto. We intend to submit this nomination to the Governor’s Office by Sept. 1, 2026. To include the required letters of support, we need them no later than Aug. 26.
The Order of the Palmetto is “the State of South Carolina’s highest honor. It is presented in recognition of a lifetime of ex traordinary achievement, service, and contributions on a national or statewide scale… it recognizes individuals who have selflessly given of their time, resources and goodwill through a variety of different causes and pursuits to the benefit of their neighbors, fellow citizens and the fabric and prosperity of South Carolina. Business, political or personal accomplishment may be important factors, but noble works for others mark the true purpose.”
We believe that Brett fills this bill on all counts. We suspect that YOU have some personal or professional knowledge of instances that exemplify Brett’s qualifications under these selection criteria.
Nomination applications are reviewed and screened by a committee selected by the Governor. Based on the information we submit, that committee determines whether to submit the nomination application to the Governor for consideration.
We, the Board of Directors, will complete the nomination form as required. We will submit a biographical summary. But we believe the body and substance of this nomination can come from you, and from others like you, who have worked with Brett and witnessed his commitment to social justice and equality first-hand.
You may know him from his earliest years of his activism as a young civil rights activist, traveling SC campuses for SSOC, or his opposition to the Vietnam War, which cost him nearly two years in prison for spray painting an antiwar slogan on the draft board wall.
Or you may know him from GROW, the activist hub in Columbia that he ran in the 1970s and ‘80s, managing a cafe, a print shop, and a cadre of grassroots organizers. Or from the Natural Guard he started in the late 70’s that played a significant role in the national anti-nuclear movement.
You may know him from POINT, the investigative newspaper that he co-produced for a decade on a shoestring budget that happily skewered the power elite in the Palmetto State.
Or you may know him from the SC Progressive Network, which he shepherded into existence in 1996 at historic Penn Center. You might have worked with him on one of the Network’s projects: publicly financed elections; the Healthy Democracy Road Show for Medicaid expansion; stopping the state’s photo ID law at pre-clearance; the Missing Voter Project; the Racial Justice Project; or the Healthy Democracy campaign.
Maybe you are one of nearly 500 graduates of the Modjeska Simkins School, which he helped launch in 2015 and named for his mentor, Columbia human rights icon Modjeska Monteith Simkins, the woman with whom he collaborated during the last 18 years of her life.
Or maybe you know him from the new GROW, the headquarters of the Network and the school. Brett put his home up to help secure the funding to buy the building next door to Ms. Simkins’ home. It is, as we say, the intersection of art, activism, and education. It is a unique, vibrant space that is knitting together a tight community.
Whether you have worked with him, rallied with him, marched with him, been arrested with him, or been inspired by him, we ask that you please submit a letter of recommendation in support of this nomination. A single page is adequate.
Because Brett’s record of activism has spanned six decades, has addressed so many issues of concern to ordinary South Car olinians, and has sought to connect so many individuals and organizations in civic engagement, we are inviting letters of recommendation from many friends and partners like you. Our secondary goal is to compile your letter with others’ letters in a bound volume as a gift to Brett.
The Governor’s Office has this specific requirement for your letter of recommendation: That you “attest to the nominee’s character, accomplishments, and contributions to the people of South Carolina.”
Your letter should be addressed to Governor Henry McMaster. Please print and sign your letter, and send it to our office at PO Box 8325, Columbia, SC, 29202. Printed letters only, please. Copies of these letters will be bound in a special volume as a gift to Brett.
To ensure that your letter is received in time for inclusion in our package to the Governor’s Office, please date and mail it to us by Aug. 26, 2026.
We thank you in advance.
Sincerely, and in solidarity,
Cecil Cahoon, S.C. Progressive Network Education Fund Director At Large
Cc: Kyle Criminger, S.C. Progressive Network Education Fund Co-Chair
Carol Singletary, S.C. Progressive Network Education Fund Co-Chair
Shannon Sylvester, S.C. Progressive Network Education Treasurer
Dr. Burnett Gallman, Director, Modjeska Simkins School for Human Rights
Dr. Robert Greene II, Director, Modjeska Simkins School for Human Rights
Bernadette Hampton, Director At Large
Nilanka Seneviratne, Director At Large