SC’s Charles Joyner, renowned Southern historian and author, dies

One of South Carolina’s and the country’s most distinguished historians, who shed light on Southern culture and the intersection of black and white heritage, will be remembered as an inspiration to his contemporaries, historians and storytellers to come behind him.

Charles Joyner, known has “Chaz” by many of those close to him, had a “generosity of spirit and warmth that allowed him to connect to people no matter who they were,” said his friend and contemporary Dan Carter.

Joyner, a longtime professor at Coastal Carolina University, died Tuesday at the age of 81 in Myrtle Beach.

Joyner is widely respected for his acclaimed book “Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community,” which chronicles slave life in the Lowcountry’s All Saints Parish community. Published in 1984, it is considered by some to be the finest and most intimate book ever written on slavery.

“You’ll think you’re reading a novel, it’s just so beautifully written,” said Carter, a longtime Southern history professor at Emory University who then taught and retired from the University of South Carolina. Their friendship dates to their years as USC students in the 1960s. “I think that ability to write really good history reflects, in part, his personality. He had this empathetic feeling for individuals.”

Faye Jensen, director of the South Carolina Historical Society, called Joyner’s work “groundbreaking.”

Joyner’s influence spanned far beyond “Down by the Riverside,” as he authored six books and numerous articles and essays, made documentary films, taught university classes and lectured nationally and internationally on Southern history and culture.

“He’s one of the most creative people I’ve ever known,” said Vernon Burton, a Clemson University history professor who knew Joyner as a friend and colleague for many years. “He was deeply passionate about understanding and learning.”

Born in 1935 and growing up mainly in the Pee Dee region of northeast South Carolina, Joyner came of age in the segregationist South and joined the Civil Rights crusade in early adulthood.

Those experiences, Burton said, must have motivated and inspired Joyner in his exploration of the intersections of African-American and white cultures and how they have flowed together through Southern history and heritage.

“He cared passionately about – this sounds almost cliched in the 21st century – about fairness,” Carter said. “It wasn’t just about Civil Rights. It was the whole notion of living and his concern about living in a society in which we did not have empathy for each other.”

With a passion and knack for telling history through the lens of day-to-day life, Joyner was as likely to describe himself as a folklorist as a historian, Carter said.

Joyner studied at Presbyterian College, the University of South Carolina and the University of Pennsylvania. He taught at multiple universities before serving for 27 years as a history professor at Coastal Carolina in Conway, where he was the Burroughs Distinguished Professor of Southern History and Culture.

His numerous honors and awards include the Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities from the South Carolina Humanities Council and serving as a president of the Southern Historical Association.

Joyner is survived by his wife, Jean, and his children, Hannah and Wesley.

This story was originally published September 16, 2016 at 6:27 PM with the headline "SC’s Charles Joyner, renowned Southern historian and author, dies."