R

"Believe it or not, the Ripleys—Clements and Katharine—are Charleston’s most prolific and best known national authors,” asserted the Charleston Evening Post on September 5, 1949. Between 1923 and 1953 the couple published ten books—including novels and memoirs—and dozens of short stories and nonfiction pieces.

It was easier, faster, cheaper, and safer to move goods by water. In addition, since the colony often lacked resources to build and maintain roads, settlers from the earliest times sought to obtain land on waterways— the ocean, rivers, streams, or creeks—with either a private or a public landing that gave them access to the water road.

Riverbanks Zoo has repeatedly been recognized as one of America’s most successful zoological parks, with nearly one million annual visitors. The zoo and garden maintains 573 animal and 6,536 plant species. Riverbanks has garnered prestigious awards, twice wining the American Zoo and Aquarium Association’s highest conservation honor, the Edward H. Bean Award.

South Carolina has an abundance of rivers that originate from within the state or that enter from North Carolina and Georgia and drain land as far away as Virginia. These rivers flow generally from the northwest to the southeast, following the geography from high elevations in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont to the lower elevations of the coastal plain.

Failing to take the crossing at Broxton’s Bridge, Mower’s troops advanced upstream to Rivers Bridge, which was defended by a Confederate brigade under Colonel George P. Harrison.

In 1948 Rivers began operation of an FM radio station. In June 1953 he put WCSC-TV, South Carolina’s first VHF television station, on the air. He served as president and manager of the AM/FM radio stations and the TV property. Rivers’s company, WCSC, Inc., eventually became involved in background music, long distance and cellular telephones, security systems, and other enterprises.

Rivers was a conservative Democrat who was often at odds with his party. He frequently criticized American foreign policy, foreign aid, and the United Nations. He was a strong supporter of increased military spending and the establishment of a nuclear navy.

He was a representative at the 1868 constitutional convention and then represented Edgefield County in the state House of Representatives from 1868 to 1872. After Aiken County had been created in 1871, Rivers served as its representative in the House until 1874.

In 1825 the General Assembly enacted the first traffic regulations but left road maintenance and construction to local road commissioners. Local residents, or their slaves, were required to labor a set number of days each year on road construction or repair.

Originally intended as a private home for the Columbia merchant Ainsley Hall, the three-story mansion ultimately would serve solely in a public capacity. Equally ironic is that the building’s namesake, the Charlestonian Robert Mills, was an architect best known for public works, such as courthouses and jails, throughout South Carolina, rather than private structures.

Embarrassed by knowing nothing about how to run a meeting, Robert used this experience to begin collecting bits of information about parliamentary procedure that he scribbled on note cards and carried around with him for several years. Finally, in 1876, he put his notes together into a self-published manuscript titled Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies, better known by its short title, Robert’s Rules of Order.

Founding the law firm “Robertson & Blacklock” and building the grand Struan Estate in Asheville, his influence extended from elegant townhouses to large plantations.

Robertson was a respected and well-traveled journalist and war correspondent and the author of three books, including a memoir of his youth in the South Carolina upcountry.

In the Senate, Robertson served as chairman of the Committee on Manufactures. On the issues surrounding Reconstruction, his stance softened somewhat during his time in office.

In 1961 Robinson was chosen by Highlander and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to set up voter-registration workshops across the racially charged South. These workshops helped transform the political and economic status of thousands of disenfranchised blacks.

During his tenure in Buenos Aires, Robinson spent time in Brazil—time that eventually led to the material for his first book, Coal to Cream: A Black Man’s Journey beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race, published in 1999. The New York Times described the book as a model for discussions of race.

Rock Hill began in 1852 as a depot and watering station on the Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad. The name came from a notation on a construction supervisor’s map marking a spot where the road encountered a small, flinty knoll.

Led by the politically charged student body of Friendship Junior College, the Rock Hill movement signaled a major change in protest tactics by black Carolinians, supplementing traditional legal challenges with direct, large-scale demonstrations against segregation laws and customs.

South Carolina has been the birthplace of numerous rock music pioneers and nationally and internationally known acts. South Carolinians, particularly African American artists, were instrumental in the development of early rock and roll.

Rogers publicized his success in area newspapers and encouraged others to plant tobacco. He recruited young men from the North Carolina–Virginia tobacco belt to advise and instruct novice growers in cultivating and curing the new crop.