On Saturday, friends, allies, and alumni gathered to mark the 10-year anniversary of the Modjeska Simkins School, launched in 2015 to teach civics, organizing skills, and a people’s history of South Carolina. The school has not only survived but thrived, a tremendous feat for an under-funded nonprofit doing the Lord’s work in the belly of the beast. Considering the odds, it is something of a miracle.

So it should come as no surprise that the spirit of Modjeska Moneith Simkins was in the house on Saturday to celebrate the school that bears her name. She was no doubt watching to see if we have learned anything from her — about staying fearless and steadfast in the face of oppression, about claiming a seat at the table you’re not invited to, about understanding the strength of mass action and a united front, but also the power of a single person.

“Modjeska would have loved tonight,” said Brett Bursey, Simkins’ mentee and executive director of the SC Progressive Network, which created the school to teach students of all ages and backgrounds skills to be effective citizens and strategic community activists.

“Our school mirrors the leadership institute that she started in the ‘40s,” he said. “She would be gratified to know that her example continues to inform and inspire generations of South Carolinians.”

Columbia’s historic Big Apple was packed for the gala, which was attended by a handsome crowd of writers, activists, teachers, historians, graduates of the program, and esteemed guests, including Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann.

“I think it’s exciting to celebrate 10 years,” the mayor said. “I hope we can work together in the future, and that our collaborations continue to grow to keep and preserve this history.” (See his full remarks HERE.)

Dr. Robert Greene II, who teaches history at Claflin University and has served as the Modjeska School’s lead instructor since 2019, said, “It is a mistake to think of South Carolina as merely contributing bad ideas, bad men, and bad moments to history. Yes, we are the only state that began as a colony founded for the express purpose of slavery. But we are also a state that contains a rich history of radicalism and fighting for social justice. For every Ben Tillman we have produced, we have also produced a Septima Clark. For every Wade Hampton III, we have a Robert Smalls. And for every James Byrnes, we have a Modjeska Simkins. 

“Like so many other heroes and heroines of the struggle for freedom in South Carolina history, Ms. Simkins is a hidden diamond in the rough of misunderstood Palmetto State history. She was involved in the battle for civil rights; the crusade for free speech during the Cold War; the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War; the environmental movement; and the fight for a world free of nuclear weapons. If it involved freedom, she was there. If the battle was to be joined against the worst of hyper-capitalism, racism, and imperialism, she could be found on the firing line.”

As a professor at an HBCU, Dr. Greene knows better than most what is at stake in these perilous times. The Modjeska Simkins School’s role is more critical now than it was 10 years ago. Today, we are watching the unabashed assault on public education, the growing incidence of book bans and whitewashed history, and the fear and frustration of school teachers whose curriculums are increasingly being managed by corporate and religious interests. The political climate is so extreme that teaching true history is becoming not just unpopular, but illegal.

“The Modjeska Simkins School matters more now than ever,” said Nichel Dunlap-Thompson, who graduated from the school last spring. “You all see the attempts they are making to put chains around our necks. The Modjeska School is the breath of air needed for the history of this state to remain alive and presented properly and accurately.” (Watch her full remarks HERE.)

Nikky Finney was on hand for the occasion to share a few words about the school and to read a poem. She had just come from a memorial to mark a year since the passing of our mutual friend Marjorie Hammock, who served many years on the board of the SC Progressive Network and repeated the Modjeska School seven times. Finney asked that everyone say her name aloud, and for a moment the room echoed with a resounding MARJORIE! (Listen to Finney’s comments and poem HERE.)

The evening included recognition of Optus Bank, the latest iteration of Victory Savings, which was started Monteith family in 1921. Simkins worked there for many years, and met Bursey when he opened an account there for the Grass Roots Organizing Workshop. Optus’ marketing and communications manager Tereacy Pearson accepted a certificate of appreciation from the school for the bank’s support.

Dianna Freelon-Foster, chair of the Southern Partners Fund, sent words of encouragement from Mississippi. She said she learned about the school through fellow SPF board member Bursey, and her message underscored the importance of cultivating regional allies and teaching our shared history. “Without the undergirding of institutions like the Modjeska Simkins School that builds leaders armed with knowledge ready to do battle strategically and tactically,” she warned “many of our children and children’s children will suffer and pay a price. This requires serious study while simultaneously working to dismantle and rebuild local, state, and federal structures. The Modjeska Simkins School offers this as we move forward.”

Graduate Gabbi Zurlo, now on staff at the Network, said the school teaches “seeing our privilege, seeing outside ourselves to the long game, seeing that our comfort is never worth more than someone else’s dignity and human rights.” (See her full remarks HERE.)

SCPNEF board member Cecil Cahoon is an education expert and advocate. He said his work “has given me a perspective on the Network and the Modjeska School — an understanding of how unique they are, not only in the South but across the country.”

“The work started by people we never knew has passed through many hands over many generations and now is in ours. It’s an obligation, a commitment to do the work, to grow this connective tissue that now includes you — and the people you draw into it.

“You’re part of the muscle that goes all the way back to Robert Smalls and the Reconstruction legislature who established the promise of democracy in our state Constitution, where it had not existed before; through Modjeska Simkins and dozens of people like her that she trained; to all of the Modjeska alumni.”

“The work I’ve done in the South, and with educators’ allies in other organizations and communities — has grounded me, out of necessity, in principles of movement-building, principles of citizenship in action, principles of participatory democracy — the kind of democracy that’s available to everyone. Principles of movement-building, of citizenship in action, and of participatory democracy, are the bedrock and guiding principles of the Progressive Network and the Modjeska School. The lessons we teach all come down to the principle of practicing what we preach, and leading people to understand their power in a real democracy.

“That is heavy work. But it is worth investing in.”

Indeed it is.

The Network and the school are grateful to everyone who made the gala a night to remember. We thank the speakers and graduates for their testimonials, our hard-working staff and volunteers, chef Joe Turkaly for a beautiful and delicious spread, Big Apple owner Richard Durlach and his partner Breedlove for the dance demo and for being such a gracious hosts.

Big thanks to GROW’s house band, Justus, for bringing The Big Apple alive. They are: Ken Cheeks, Sara Williams, Joe Gourley, Chris Gardner, and Dionne Marie Preussner. You can see them every 1st and 3rd Thursday 8–10pm at GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave. For a taste, check them out on GROW’s YouTube playlist.

For more photos, see our Photo Album.

To support the school with a donation of any amount, click HERE or call the Network’s office at 803-354-6460. Contributions provide scholarship support for students and help cover travel costs for guest presenters.

If you are interested in attending the next session of the school, which begins March 1 and runs through June, you can find details and apply HERE.

The Modjeska Simkins School is preparing for its spring session, which begins March 1 and runs through June.

To help celebrate our 10th year, we wanted share what the school has meant to some of the students who completed the program.

• • •

Josh Dunn, 2024 graduate

As a graduate from the most recent session of the Modjeska Simkins School for Human Rights, I wanted to write a statement of appreciation for what Modjeska School has meant for me. Throughout the 14-week class, Dr. Robert Greene II and the many guest lecturers clarified what I had always felt as a South Carolinian but never knew how to articulate: this state has nearly always played an outsized role in the nation’s greatest injustices, but, just as consistently, it has been home to individuals and movements willing to take great personal risks for justice and human rights. 

Week after week, the Modjeska School provided me with a usable history. I was able to take practical lessons from the lives of people like Septima Clarke, Modjeska Simkins, and Capt. Howard Levy.

I saw more clearly how the problems we are facing today are rooted in South Carolina’s legacy of empire, enslavement, apartheid, class warfare and suppression of dissent.

I developed an analysis that helped me see how transforming South Carolina is transforming the world. And I found a community of shared values in my cohort, many of whom were already seasoned organizers.

All of this lit a fire. My excuses for sitting out didn’t feel very palatable anymore. I wanted to put my principles into action and join in the legacy of all of those that came before me. Drawing on what I learned through the school, I started seeing organizing not as a discrete act but as something to weave into the fabric of my life, finding ways to lend my skills and knowledge where I could.

Of course, it’s all still a work-in-progress, but I’m proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish with the help of a lot of new friends and co-conspirators. The more I step into organizing, the more I see how much more I have to learn. But the Modjeska School prepared me for this with a foundational history and the courage to join the long project of justice in South Carolina. So for that, I am very thankful.

The Modjeska Simkins School is gearing up for its next session, which begins March 1 and runs through June. To help celebrate our 10th year, we wanted share what the school has meant to some of the students who completed the program.

Tayler Simon, 2024 graduate

The Modjeska School was just what I needed to really begin to deepen my organizing work here in Columbia. From the very first lesson, I knew I was where I needed to be.

Dr. Greene’s lessons were taught with such knowledge and passion, and the curriculum curated by the SC Progressive Network staff was comprehensive. Each week as I sat through the lessons of the SC history I was never taught, I found my mind connecting to a million different things. I wrote more protest poetry and began solidifying the foundation I was building with my bookstore Liberation is Lit.

But what I took away the most was the community. I am connected to so many smart and passionate comrades (I refer to them to my friends outside of the School as my organizing comrades) who I continue to organize and learn from to this day.

Even the way I got connected to the Modjeska School was in a true grassroots way — a friend of a friend of a friend told me about it two days before the deadline to sign up.

I used to think social media was my best tool to organize for change; getting involved in the Modjeska School taught me that it’s the relationships you build offline (or via Zoom) in safe spaces to learn together.

Members and allies of the SC Progressive Network packed GROW on Nov. 20 to process the grim new reality after the latest election. They were joined by 35 folks on Zoom.

Dr. Robert Greene II, lead instructor at the Modjeska Simkins School, offered a historical perspective. Network Executive Director Brett Bursey offered an organizing perspective. Modjeska School graduate Josh Dunn and Network staffer Gabbi Zurlo facilitated break-out sessions.

The evening was surprisingly upbeat. While we lack political power, that is nothing new and we know that there is much we can do as a collective to support each other, being especially mindful of those who will bear the brunt of the harsh policies the new administration has promised.

The Network is committed to providing space for allies to meet, strategize, and grow our community, an extended family built on shared values and a vision of a more just South Carolina.

Dr. Robert Greene II

Once more, the American experiment in democracy finds itself in peril. Like numerous other times in our nation’s history, this peril is primarily from within. Once, it was forces such as the Confederacy, the Ku Klux Klan, or the radical opponents of the Civil Rights Movement. Now, Trumpism has scored another victory, and many Americans are puzzled about what to do next. 

Now is not the time to give into despair. History offers us something to hold on to—not a false hope that things will automatically get better, but that the hard work of building democracy has been done before. It can, therefore, be done again.

In another age of reaction and despair, Frederick Douglass counseled Black Americans to hold the line for freedom. His 1894 address, “Lessons of the Hour,” was given two years before the Plessy v. Ferguson decision enshrined Jim Crow segregation for decades. But he saw the writing on the wall, as Southern states wrote new constitutions to disenfranchise Black Americans, and Northern leaders simply did nothing in response. Wrote Douglass, “Put away your race prejudice. Banish the idea that one class must rule over another.”

Or, as W.E.B. Du Bois argued in 1946 at the Southern Negro Youth Congress’ convention in Columbia, South Carolina, “To rescue this land”—referring to the South—“in this way, calls for the Great Sacrifice; this is the thing you are called upon to do because it is the right thing to do.”

Like Douglass, Du Bois understood the uphill battle for freedom he and his colleagues faced in the South, across the U.S., and around the world. DuBois told the overflow crowd from across South Carolina and the region, that they were on the “firing line not simply for the emancipation of the American Negro…” but for “the emancipation of the white slaves of modern capitalist monopoly.”

Like both of those men, we face our own long, twilight struggle—but it is one that begins right here, in South Carolina. What we do here will impact millions across the country and around the world.

Now, we rest. Next, we strategize. But soon, very soon, we must organize and prepare ourselves to, once again, make a way out of no way.

• • •

Dr. Robert Greene II is an Assistant Professor of History at Claflin University. He is co-editor, along with Tyler D. Parry, of Invisible No More: The African American Experience at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Greene II is also the President of the African American Intellectual History Society, and Publications Chair for the Society of U.S. Intellectual Historians. He also serves as the Lead Instructor for the Modjeska Simkins School of Human Rights for the South Carolina Progressive Network. Dr. Greene II also co-hosts the podcast, Our New South, for the Next Chapter Podcast Network. He has also written for various publications, including The Nation, Dissent, Jacobin, and Oxford American. Currently, Dr. Greene II is working on his book, The Newest South: African Americans and the Democratic Party, 1964-1994, which details how the Southern leaders of the Democratic Party in the post-Civil Rights era crafted strategies to attract, and hold onto, the Black vote across the nation.

For the 16th year, the SC Progressive Network Education Fund is coordinating the Election Protection Coalition’s ground game in South Carolina by training volunteers and circulating the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline number that helps voters who experience problems at the polls.

Election Protection Coalition, the largest nonpartisan organization protecting the nation’s vote, is collaborating with nonprofits like ours to ensure that all eligible South Carolina voters are able to cast a ballot in the 2024 election.

Network staffer extraordinaire Gabbi Zurlo prepares boxes of Election Protection material to dispatch to NAACP allies in 46 SC counties.

“Calls to the hotline provide the only real-time, nonpartisan statewide audit of our election system,” said Network Executive Director Brett Bursey. “The hotline not only offers voters immediate help at the polls, reports to the hotline also helps us identify and address systemic problems.”

President John F. Kennedy anticipated the difficulty of getting the old Confederate states to comply with the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, so he asked the American Bar Association to form a pro-bono lawyers committee to offer legal aid to help insure all eligible voters’ ballots be counted.

In 2008, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights launched a toll-free number to provide immediate legal assistance to voters through the the Election Protection 866-OUR-VOTE hotline. Spanish speakers can call 1-888-Ve-Y-Vota (1-888-83-9-8682) for assistance.

By calling the hotline, voters can confirm their registration status, find their polling location, and ask about required identification at the polls. Voters are encouraged to report any problems so that any patterns of failure can allow for corrections before the next election.

The Network is partnering with the SC NAACP to distribute the number statewide and to post the hotline in polling sites in all 46 counties.

If you would like to help, you can print out the hotline sign and post it prominently. You can also pick up printed materials, yard signs, and magnetic car signs at our office. Call 803-808-3384 to make arrangements.