Women

Poet, educator. Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, on June 3, 1958, Wentworth is the daughter of John Heath and Mary Tully.…

Weston’s lifelong commitments to youth empowerment, literacy, and Black advancement mirrored those of Sigma Gamma Rho and Black Greek Letter Organizations more broadly.

Educator, legislator. Whipper was born in Charleston on June 6, 1928, the daughter of Joseph Simmons and Sarah Marie Washington.…

Legislator. Whipper was one of the most influential African American politicians in South Carolina’s Reconstruction government. He was born free…

Television personality. White was born Vanna Marie Rosich in Conway on February 18, 1957, the daughter of Miguel Angel Rosich…

Chronicler, letter writer. Born on February 7, 1757, on Yonge’s Island, St. Paul’s Parish, Eliza Wilkerson was the third child…

Social reformer, black women’s club leader. Wilkinson was born in Charleston on June 23, 1870, to Richard Birnie and Anna…

Naturalist. Not much has been recorded about Hannah English Williams’s early life. Her birth date, birthplace, and parents’ names are…

In Columbia, she attended Booker T. Washington in grade school and in 1933, she earned her teaching credentials from Allen University. After graduation, she taught mostly in rural South Carolina schools until 1971

In 1891 the General Assembly passed an act creating “The Winthrop Normal and Industrial College of South Carolina for the education of white girls.” Support came in the form of scholarships; each county was granted two. The act’s intent proclaimed that the college be “good enough for the richest and cheap enough for the poorest.”

Educator. Wofford was born on October 20, 1894, in Laurens, the eldest of ten children of John Albert Wofford and…

Although women constitute a majority of South Carolina’s population, they have had to overcome many of the same barriers to…

The South Carolina women’s club movement was a powerful force for social change. It challenged the landscape of the state’s…

The enfranchisement of women was first publicly discussed during the Reconstruction era in South Carolina. During the 1868 State Constitutional…

Restaurateur, author, businesswoman. Woods was born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 2, 1926, the only child of Van and…

Human relations activist. Born in Marion on March 12, 1902, Wright was the first child of the banker Samuel Wilkins…

Educator. Wright was born in Talbotton, Georgia, on April 3, 1872, the seventh of twenty-one children born to the African…

Educator. Born into slavery on August 11, 1862, in Spartanburg, Wright was the youngest of three daughters of Lott and…

Not only did Wylie bring new ideas into the medical community, by the mid1890s he had become interested in engineering and the process of converting water into electricity. Wylie partnered with James Buchanan Duke to create Duke Power Company, now Duke Energy Corporation.

Young’s career followed the pattern of many suffragists. After active participation in Baptist missionary societies, she joined the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1886. Suffrage appealed as an avenue to temperance goals.