Civil rights in Columbia
Featured
The 1963 Project
Explore Civil Rights history at the City of Columbia's official site.
Photos: The Civil Rights Movement in Columbia
Photos from The State's archives taken during the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s.
Top Stories
-
Theater where African-Americans could go freely
-
Quiz: Civil rights in Columbia
-
1963 marked pivotal moment in integration of SC state parks
-
50 years ago: Malcolm X, RFK brought heated rhetoric of civil rights fight to Columbia
-
Capitol march cemented constitutional rights
-
Eastover woman was unsung heroine of civil rights era
-
Eckerds first, then marching on the Capitol: Recalling a rally
-
Remembering the story behind a 1960s photograph
Dick Miles sported black frame glasses and slicked-back hair in 1965. But he was most distinctive as one of a handful of white men working to register black South Carolinians for the vote.
-
Photos from the civil rights movement in Columbia: Were you there?
During the 1960s, The States photographers captured civil rights marchers in downtown Columbia as they demanded equal justice. 50 years later, many photographs only bear brief captions. Wed like to know more about the people in these photos.
Civil rights in Columbia
-
CIVIL RIGHTS IN COLUMBIA
Civil rights activist Lennie Glover stood for freedom and justice in the face of violence
It happened in the blink of an eye. A young black man sitting at a whites-only lunch counter in downtown Columbia was stabbed.
-
CIVIL RIGHTS IN COLUMBIA
Remembering the ‘sit-ins’: ‘The winds had to shift’
The protests in Columbia began in March 1960, a little over a month after four young men from North Carolina A&T sat down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., stirring college students to action throughout the South.
-
CIVIL RIGHTS IN COLUMBIA
Integration doomed Columbia hospital for blacks
When Benedict College student Lennie Glover was stabbed in 1961 in one of the few acts of violence during the Columbia lunch counter sit-ins, he was rushed to Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital for treatment.
-
CIVIL RIGHTS IN COLUMBIA
Landmark civil rights events, through the lens of the media
On March 15, 1960, six weeks after sit-in demonstrations started in Greensboro, N.C., to integrate lunch counters there, 425 people were arrested in Orangeburg in similar sit-in demonstrations.
-
CIVIL RIGHTS IN COLUMBIA
Zion was the hub. . . Zion was it
When Mayor Steve Benjamin today formally unveils Columbias part in a seven-city commemoration of the year 1963, he will step in front of Zion Baptist Church, a sanctuary that served as both the launch point and the conclusion of dozens of civil rights protests and demonstrations in the city.
-
CIVIL RIGHTS IN COLUMBIA
50 years after the end of segregation, Columbia ‘is on its way’
Mayor Steve Benjamin Thursday formally launched a commemoration of the year 1963, joining six other Southern cities in looking back at the civil rights struggle and assessing racial progress 50 years later.
-
CIVIL RIGHTS IN COLUMBIA
Columbia commemorates fall of segregation
The city of Columbia is joining six other Southern cities in commemorating the pivotal year of 1963, when segregations barriers finally began to fall amid protests and demonstrations, court battles and, in many places, unrestrained violence.
-
CIVIL RIGHTS IN COLUMBIA
Civil rights history forum set for May 15-16 in Columbia
The USC College of Education’s civil rights history forum opens its full day of sessions to discuss ways that community, state and national leaders can help preserve history, and integrate the historical materials into the curriculum, which will aid in improving students’ knowledge...
-
CIVIL RIGHTS IN COLUMBIA
Realtors’ association working to display historic lunch counter in Rock Hill
The lunch counter and seats at the former McCrory’s five-and-dime in Rock Hill, site of several civil rights protests, may soon be on public display again.
-
CIVIL RIGHTS IN COLUMBIA
Columbia man was ‘quietly powerful’ advocate for civil rights
The late Rev. C.J. Whitaker was a “political powerhouse” in the African-American community of the 1950s and 1960s, establishing an influential presence through his church and civic work, especially with the Richland County Democratic Party and the North Columbia Civic Club, which he...








