2023 Charleston County Council Resolution on Black History Month
Update about ASALH National Dues
Greetings Branch Member,
As you are aware, ASALH is providing an incentive to those who join or renew by December 31, 2022. Advance notices like this one have been sent to branch members to ensure all can take advantage of the benefit of paying the 2022 dues rate for 2023.
All branches are asked to contact former members, new members, and those who are not current members of your branch to share this offer with them. Use this incentive in the correspondence that you are using during the renewal period that began on October 1.
The new dues rates has been posted to the website for your reference. Dues paid through the website will be processed at the 2022 rate through December 31, 2022. If your branch collects national dues, please submit your payment to them as soon as possible. Branches have been requested to submit the payment for all members taking advantage of this incentive by December 19. Consider gifting a membership to a family member or friend. Share information about ASALH membership as you network with during the holiday season.
Here is the JOIN page on the ASALH website. Membership benefits, mail in membership enrollment forms and the link to purchase membership online can be found here.
The vision that Dr. Woodson had for our association in 1915 is as important now as it was then. Too many people do not know our rich history and its importance in shaping our communities and positively impacting our youth. Although through his efforts there is more information available, our role in being leaders in teaching and training remains important. Your membership in the ASALH family ensures that the work to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community will continue.
Author Talk: A Conversation with Dr. Maxine Smith-Every Thursday starting April 21 at 5:30 p.m.
Join us for a conversation with Dr. Maxine Smith on her book The Midnight Mayor of Charleston (The Henry Smith Story). Like the book and told in six chapters, this discussion series will take place at six different branches with each location mirroring a different chapter and featuring appearances from leaders and members of the community. Space will be limited. Call your branch to register for this event today!
Ukweli: Searching for Healing Truth
Ukweli is the Swahili word for truth. This book meets this moment in America as a healing truth to overcome the trauma of slavery and the decades of violence that followed it. The personal accounts and insights from forty-five writers and poets will educate White Americans about the systematic racial bias employed to stymie African American progress.
Ukweli provides insight into the struggles Black people have faced as they’ve made substantial contributions to America, and helped to define its soul. It shows a part of American history often overlooked or misunderstood. Inspired by a poetry, lecture, and dialogue series of the same name organized by poet Horace Mungin in 2020 at Charleston’s McLeod Plantation.
Ukweli, Searching for Healing Truth: Hakim Abdul-Ali • Marcus Amaker • Kim Nesta Archung • Steve Bailey • William P. Baldwin • Al Black • James M. Brailsford III • Millicent E. Brown • Vicki Callahan • Karen Chandler • Portia E. Cobb • Tim Conroy • Sara Makeba Daise • Heather L. Hodges • Damon Fordham • Adrienne Troy Frazier • Herb Frazier • Savannah J. Frierson • Shawn Halifax • Jonathan Haupt • Stephen G. Hoffius • Gloria Holmes • Josephine Humphreys • Gary Jackson • DeMett E. Jenkins • Marnishia Jenkins-Tate • Patricia Bligen Jones • Ed Madden • Susan Madison • Joseph McGill Jr. • Ray McManus • Karen Meadows • Kennae Miller • Horace Mungin • Porchia Moore • Yvette R. Murray • Hampton R. Olfus Jr. • Adam Parker • Bernard E. Powers Jr. • Elizabeth Robin • Aïda Rogers • Margaret Seidler • Teresa Speight • Jennie L. Stephens • Kieran “Kerry” Taylor • Ronda Taylor • LaTisha Vaughn • Marjory Wentworth • Ernest L. Wiggins • Treva Williams
Book talk and signing at The Citadel with Lahnice Hollister
Book talk and signing
Wednesday, March 2
6:30 p.m.
Daniel Library
Free, open to the public
Events honoring Black History Month continue with a book talk and signing on Wednesday, March 2.
The Citadel will host Lahnice McFall Hollister at 6:30 p.m. in Daniel Library.
Hollister, a genealogist and family historian, has published research in national genealogical journals and has received numerous awards for her publications.
Her book talk will focus on her most recent publication: “Resisting Jim Crow: The Autobiography of Dr. John McFall.” McFall was among Charleston’s early Black pharmacists and was the brother of Hollister’s grandfather. Hollister has received critical acclaim from scholars for uncovering this previously unknown manuscript by one of Charleston’s African American healthcare pioneers.
This event is open to all members of the campus community, but space is limited. To register, click here.
Charleston Area Branch of ASALH’s former president’s ancestors honored
In October 2021, Charleston Area Branch of ASALH members Julia-Ellen Davis and Vicki Davis Williams visited London, England, to commemorate the blue English Heritage plaque for William and Ellen Craft. During this visit, they were able to for the first time meet face-to-face their British cousins and this meeting is depicted in the image above. All of the individuals are the great, great grandchildren of Ellen and William Craft.
While in London, CBS News-CBS Saturday Morning and British Sky News interviewed Julia-Ellen and Vicki regarding their ancestors, Ellen and William Craft. The CBS Saturday Morning segment aired
in the United States on October 23rd. The interview with Julia-Ellen and her British cousin discussed the importance of London’s historic Blue plaque, which commemorated the work of William and Ellen as abolitionists in the 1800s in Great Britain.
London’s famous blue plaques link the people of the past with the buildings of the present. Now run by English Heritage, the London blue plaques was started in 1866 and is thought to be the oldest of its kind in the world.
You can find out more about the history of the Craft’s at the College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, where the family has an archival collection and/or view a selection of items digitally on the Lowcountry Digital Library (LCDL) . Additionally, you can read their autobiography, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, online here.
New Book Alert: 101 African Americans Who Shaped South Carolina edited by Dr. Bernard Powers
Dr. Bernard Powers talks his new book 101 African Americans Who Shaped South Carolina, the new International African American Museum, & spiked eggnog at library parties with Curtis Rogers for South Carolina State Library’s LibraryVoicesSC podcast!
🎙listen: bit.ly/3ginBsE
📖book: bit.ly/2GLXoFm
January 26, 2019: Membership Drive and Conference Update
Charleston Area Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History 