Tour of African-American sites retraces routes of progression

African-American home, work and resting places across Columbia were just a bus stop away for dozens of tourists who stepped aboard Sunday afternoon for Historic Columbia’s African-American Heritage Sites Tour.

The 90-minute tour featured landmarks highlighting the labor, skills and vision of the city’s African-American population that helped transform the community from a predominately enslaved population to one that charted the course of the civil rights era.

Sunday’s tour covered nearly 40 sites and focused on various areas of African-American influence including architecture, education, women’s history and others.

“I think it gives a very comprehensive view of African-American history in Columbia,” said Dutch Fork High School history teacher Kelly Payne, who was among the roughly 20 participants on Sunday’s tour. “I love the fact that it’s a one-stop shop (to that history).

Here is a close-up look at of a few of Sunday’s site visits, with descriptions provided by Historic Columbia Foundation.

Mann-Simons Site

1401 Richland St.

For over 140 years, this property was associated with Celia Mann, a free-black midwife from Charleston whose descendants were part of Columbia’s vibrant African-American community from the antebellum period to current times. Erected following Mann’s death in 1867 by her daughter Agnes Jackson, the Reconstruction-era cottage became the cornerstone of a number of family-owned houses and businesses. Saved in 1970 from destruction, the building was transformed into a house museum and center of African-American culture in 1978.

Matthew J. Perry Jr. Federal Courthouse

901 Richland St.

Built in 2003, this recent addition to Arsenal Hill honors South Carolina’s most prominent civil rights lawyer and federal district court judge. A Columbia native, graduate of Booker T. Washington High School and veteran of World War II, Matthew James Perry was the state’s first African- American to be appointed to the U.S. District Court and the first African-American lawyer from the Deep South to have been appointed to a federal bench with the U.S. Military Court of Appeals. One of his most successful court cases as a lawyer involved the battle to integrate Clemson University in 1963.

Zion Baptist Church

801 Washington St.

Affectionately known as “Big Zion,” this circa-1916 landmark church replaced its congregation’s first, circa-1870 sanctuary, built only four years after members first assembled. Big Zion has been the host site for civil rights rallies during the course of the past 50 years, including gatherings during the tumultuous 1960s and more recently during efforts to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House dome.

This story was originally published February 1, 2015 at 8:03 PM with the headline "Tour of African-American sites retraces routes of progression."