On Saturday, students from across the state gathered at GROW in Columbia to celebrate their graduation from the Modjeska Simkins School. It was a joyous occasion. After four months of intensive study together, it was clear that they had bonded and felt a sense of collective power.
A third of the 63 graduates this session attended the Monday night classes in-person at GROW. Another third joined the class on Zoom. And, for the first time, some of the students participated from our satellite sites in Sumter and at Penn Center.
The hybrid class model was so successful that the school is already working to replicate it in additional cities next session. SC Progressive Network Director Brett Bursey said, “Bringing activists together to participate as a group strengthens the local communities that are the heart of movement building. Those connections will last beyond the school, and beyond election cycles.”
The School’s lead instructor, Dr. Robert Greene II, reminded students that, “The state of South Carolina is about much more than John C. Calhoun, Ben Tillman, James Byrnes, and Lindsey Graham. This state is also about Robert Smalls and Modjeska Simpkins, Septima Clark and Robert Elliott, men and women who have fought tirelessly for civil and human rights since the founding of this state as a colony in the late 17th century. In a sense, by completing this class you are also a part of that long struggle for human rights in the Palmetto State.”
Penn Center Executive Director Dr. Robert Adams gave the commencement address. He opened his remarks by saying, “First and foremost, I understand from the time we spent together that we are the ones that we’ve been waiting for, that Modjeska Simpkins was not a solitary or singular eruption of the search for black freedom. She was a link in a long chain of freedom seekers.
“We have to make sure that we don’t allow that chain to be broken, that we continue the tradition…we are central to moving this battle forward. And so I really appreciate and honor each and every one of you, for all the brilliance, wonderful spirit, and sense of vision that you all have brought to this course.”
James L. Felder, a lifelong civil rights activist and one of the first three Black men elected to the SC House in 1970, facilitated the Sumter satellite site. He said, “We have a generation that do not know their history. We’ve lit a fire in Sumter. We really got folks excited over there.”
Student Candace Dore helped facilitate Penn Center’s satellite site. “I’ve learned so much throughout the course, and I definitely feel better equipped to be an agent of change for South Carolina,” she said. “Knowledge really is power, and it’s something that people can’t take away from you.”
Rhonda Grego said she attended an historically Black high school and taught history Benedict College. “I’ve had many opportunities to learn African American history. So what was it about the Modjeska School? It was bringing together all at one time this timeline and being confronted with it in a short, compressed amount of time. It’s a lot to process, indeed. But, boy, am I glad that I did it.”
Students are already busy working on projects together, and the school is preparing short courses and organizer trainings ahead of the Network’s fall conference at Penn Center Oct. 31 – Nov. 2. Stay tuned for details.
These are difficult times in America, but we are rising to meet the challenge in South Carolina. We need your help and involvement. You can support the school by making a donation HERE. We appreciate contributions of any amount, and promise to use those dollars to continue teaching truth and growing people power in the Palmetto State.
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See our graduation photo album and graduation video
