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History in black and white
A photographer’s labor of love is the only museum in South Carolina dedicated to the civil rights movement.
Photo by Tim Hanson
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Orangeburg photographer Cecil Williams was on the front lines of history documenting the 1960s civil rights movement in South Carolina. Now he’s sharing his story and his powerful black and white images in a new museum.
Photo by Tim Hanson
A day after the Ku Klux Klan terrorized an 84-year-old African American woman by burning a cross in front of her home in Elloree, South Carolina, photographer Cecil Williams snapped a photograph of her being consoled by civil rights activist Rev. Henry Parker.
“I remember that lady’s exact words,” says Williams. “She said, ‘The Klan come ’bout midnight, jest whoopin’ and hollerin’. They burned a cross and ran down on my fence.’”
This was in 1960 and Williams, 23 years old at the time, was the Orangeburg correspondent for Jet magazine, the national weekly publication for black Americans. That black-and-white image is one of thousands of photos taken by Williams throughout the 1950s and 1960s that document the struggle for civil rights in South Carolina. Today, it is included in a robust collection of photographs, exhibits and artifacts that make up The Cecil Williams Civil Rights Museum, which opened last year in Orangeburg.
“This is the only museum in South Carolina that celebrates the golden years of the civil rights movement,” says Williams.
Housed in a 3,400-square-foot building that Williams designed nearly 40 years ago, and which previously served as his studio, the photographer has created a space that scholars say helps preserve a period of history in South Carolina that has been largely overlooked by most non-academic books on the civil rights movement.
Many people photographed by Williams are easily recognizable—Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young—but others may not be quite as familiar. For example, there are photos of Harry Briggs, the namesake of the Briggs vs. Elliott lawsuit in nearby Clarendon County that was ultimately resolved in 1954 by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education ruling ending school segregation. The museum also displays photos of the Rev. J.A. DeLaine, the leader of the movement for equal rights in Clarendon County.
These men, as well as other African Americans who dared confront segregation, suffered swift reprisals. Many were fired from their jobs. Others were denied bank loans for their farms and businesses. Some received death threats. And at least one—the Rev. J.A. DeLaine—was eventually forced to leave the state.
In another part of the museum are Williams’s photos of the events leading up to and following the infamous 1968 Orangeburg Massacre, in which three African American students were killed and nearly 30 others injured after state troopers opened fire on a group of protesters at South Carolina State College. One famous photo shows a handful of spent shotgun shells that Williams picked up the morning after the shootings.
“The shells were confiscated from me by the FBI and used during the trial of the state troopers who fired on the students,” Williams says. “I’m now trying to get the shells returned for the museum.”
Also featured in the museum are photographs Williams took during the 1963 desegregation of Clemson University and the 1969 hospital workers’ strike in Charleston. In all, there are more than 500 photographs, many of which have appeared in photography books that Williams has published over the years.
“It is really a very powerful and moving experience to visit this museum and see these photographs,” says retired South Carolina State University professor William C. Hine. “Cecil has done an outstanding job.”
Williams is a lifelong resident of Orangeburg. His love of photography began at age 9, when he used a small, inexpensive camera to take photos of his family. Later, in high school, he earned money taking photos of weddings. Then, as the civil rights movement kicked into gear, he landed the correspondent position with Jet and began documenting an era in South Carolina that changed America forever.
“So many of the people involved in the movement here are now deceased,” Williams says. “I am very thankful to my maker for giving me the opportunity—through my photos and this museum—to tell their stories for them.”
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Get There
The Cecil Williams Civil Rights Museum is located at 1865 Lake Drive in Orangeburg.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The last visitors should arrive by 2:45 p.m. During the week, the museum is open by appointment only.
Admission: $20 per person. Children under age 6 are not admitted.
Details: (803) 531-1662; cecilwilliamsmuseum.com.