Civil Rights Era (1955-1969)

Everett drew on his experiences as a young African American growing up in Columbia in his first novel, Suder (1983), which received laudatory reviews across the United States.

In 1970 Fielding became one of the first three African Americans elected to the South Carolina General Assembly since 1900.

Fields was active in many organizations that focused on improving conditions and opportunities for African Americans.

Figg’s involvement with the S.C. Ports Authority continued for nearly thirty years. He served as its legal counsel and an adviser to its management.

South Carolina’s commercial film industry is almost as old as filmmaking itself. The first documented filmed images of South Carolina were in newsreels taken at the 1902 Charleston Exposition.

In 1974 Finlay was elected to the Columbia City Council, and in 1978 he was elected mayor, serving until 1986. During his service to the city, Finlay developed civic projects that greatly enhanced the appearance and quality of life in Columbia.

One of Finney’s most notable defenses was on behalf of nine students in Rock Hill in 1961 who staged one of the first sit-ins in South Carolina.

In 1997 Finney was promoted to the rank of associate professor at the University of Kentucky and also published a short-story cycle, Heartwood, which is about overcoming racial anger, fears, and prejudice in a small community by relying on the soundness of an individual’s duramen or “heartwood.”

With the arrival of Europeans, natives created the first commercial fisheries, trading seafood for firearms and clothing.

In addition to being his own librettist, Floyd has composed more than ten stage works, song cycles, music for orchestra and chorus, and music for piano.

Fox’s writing, both fiction and nonfiction, is characterized by his pervasive conviction that humor is a saving attitude and that traditional southern storytelling is a high art form.

A prolific author of women’s fiction, Frank is a disciplined writer who works daily at her craft. She spins yarns—full of southern wisdom and wit—about the beauty, magic, and charm of the Carolina lowcountry.

Named to the team as an alternate, Frazier got his chance when a hand injury forced Mathis to yield his position on the American team. Frazier defeated Hans Huber of Germany to win the gold medal.

Even Freed’s military service during World War I became a platform for his musical abilities. As an army sergeant, he continued composing and put on shows to entertain the soldiers.

Throughout the summer of 1961 CORE and other civil rights organizations coordinated additional Freedom Rides, including two well-publicized trips from Washington, D.C., through South Carolina.

From 1973 until 1986 Freeman participated in the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Poet-in-the-Schools program. She served as a poetry therapy consultant to the Gastonia, North Carolina, Mental Health Center from 1973 until 1975. Governor Richard Riley appointed Freeman poet laureate of South Carolina in 1985.

Interest in social concerns and women’s issues quickened in this period, and Frost, who never married, became actively involved in women’s club work and the women’s suffrage movement.

Fuller believed that he had been sanctified in 1895 after he retreated to a cornfield for a time of intense prayer.

Furchgott became known for his research in cardiac pharmacology, peripheral adrenergic mechanisms, the theory of drug-receptor mechanisms, and vascular pharmacology and physiology. In the 1950s he developed the helical strip of rabbit thoracic aorta as a model system for studies on drug receptor mechanisms that led to its use in laboratories worldwide.

Articulate yet soft spoken, Gantt assumed much of the responsibility for organizing and motivating peers to participate in protests against segregated public accommodations and local businesses that refused to serve and hire African Americans.