World War II (1939-1945)

Moving to Charleston in 1952, McCottry joined her husband, who established a general practice with obstetrics and gynecology services. He became chief of staff at the McClennan-Banks Memorial Hospital. The couple were Charleston’s first African American team of physicians, and she was the city’s first black woman to practice gynecology and obstetrics.

Although she spent the bulk of her adult life thinking of herself as a teacher and social worker, McCray was aware that she loved to write. She wrote, in fact, throughout the years of her higher education and her two marriages and child rearing. She did not start to think of herself as a professional writer until she reached the age of seventy-three, at roughly the same time she took up residence in Columbia.

McCray’s influence was felt beyond the newsroom in breaking new political ground for black South Carolinians. As cofounder in 1944 of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), the first black Democratic Party in the South, McCray joined those who protested the national Democratic Party’s tolerance of unfair treatment of black South Carolinians.

McGowan’s commitment to education was reflected in her other activities in public life. She became involved with the Commission on Interracial Cooperation in 1922 and served as chair of the commission’s South Carolina chapter through much of the 1920s and 1930s.

When the University of South Carolina hired McGuire to be the head basketball coach in 1964, no one dreamed that he would change the face of basketball in the Palmetto State forever. His teams started playing in the old 3,200-seat field house, but part of the deal that brought McGuire to Columbia ensured that a new coliseum would be built. In four years the team moved into the 12,401-seat Carolina Coliseum, one of the finest facilities in the South and soon to be known as “the house that Frank built.”

In 1941 the Palmetto State Teachers’ Association commissioned McKaine to conduct a survey of the salary disparities between white teachers and black teachers. He was instrumental in devising the “Teachers’ Defense Fund,” which collected money to finance the subsequent equal pay litigation. McKaine also was deeply involved in consultations with Thurgood Marshall, the chief national legal counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In 1929 McKinney toured Europe as a cabaret performer, singing in major nightclubs in Paris and London

McKissick’s career in textiles began in 1899, when he began working as an engineer for the Pelzer Manufacturing Company, where his father-in-law served as president. In 1902 McKissick became president of Grendel Cotton Mills in Greenwood.

McKissick led the university through the tumultuous times of the Great Depression and World War II. With help through the New Deal, McKissick presided over the construction of a new library and five dormitories, as well as a general refurbishment of the campus. During World War II, McKissick guided the university into the war effort, establishing civilian pilot and laboratory technician training programs, adjusting the curriculum to include defense-oriented science and engineering courses, and establishing the nation’s first Red Cross nurse’s aide course.

Since beginning his coaching career at Summerville High School, McKissick’s teams have won thirteen lower state titles and ten state championships. He has compiled more than six hundred victories, which surpasses by far the victory totals of all other football coaches at any division or level.

McMillan’s tenure as chief highway commissioner was one of unparalleled growth. He created a division to oversee license examinations and the Highway Patrol; survived a struggle with Governor Strom Thurmond over converting the patrol into a state police organization; and created a public affairs office. In 1950 he successfully lobbied for a one-cent increase in the state gas tax to fund construction and maintenance of South Carolina’s burgeoning highway system.

Except for the tragedy at Orangeburg in February 1968, McNair saw the state peacefully through the stormy times without yielding on major policy issues. Settlement of the Charleston strike without union recognition in 1969 and keeping USC open in 1970 without serious injury to students were foremost among many public demonstrations in the state in which his moderate leadership was credited with minimizing violence.

From his leadership at Howard and through his prolific writings, Miller became a national figure in the debate on race in America.

Milliken has willingly discussed his company’s quality management with outsiders, but otherwise he protects both his personal and his company’s privacy with a hermitlike determination.

A good student, with a flair for languages (many of which he would teach himself later in life), Molloy had his plans for college dashed with his father’s death.

Moore performed with Bill Napier—formerly of the Stanley Brothers—as the Dixie Partners from 1960 until 1967. Napier was adept on banjo, lead guitar, and mandolin, while Charlie handled the singing.

She was appointed and reappointed by governors to the South Carolina Commission on Women from 1974 to 1985 and served as the commission’s chairperson. In this position she promoted the statewide project of Women’s History Week.

Mullis’s impact on the world of biotechnology has been described as no less than revolutionary. While employed at the Cetus Corporation in Emeryville, California, he conceived and developed the idea of PCR, polymerase chain reaction, in 1983.

When President Benner C. Turner was forced to retire in 1967 after lengthy student protests and a boycott of classes that spring, the newly integrated board of trustees named Nance interim president. Nance’s informal, open, and cooperative demeanor was a refreshing and sharp contrast to the seventeen years of autocratic leadership under Turner.

Set in the South Carolina environment she grew up in, Nelson’s writing typically recounts what life was like for ordinary African Americans of her community.