Sanders surrogate to join Black History Month event celebrating 1867 SC legislature
A historic African American church in Fairfield County, started with the help of a Reconstruction-era legislator deemed radical by detractors of his time, will host a Black History Month celebration Thursday featuring a representative from a presidential campaign that critics also have called radical.
Moses Martin was a state senator from 1868-1872 and part of a black majority legislature during Reconstruction. He helped start the White Hall A.M.E. Church in Jenksinvsille, which is one of the oldest African American churches in the community.
On Thursday, descendants of Moses Martin will gather at the church for a Black History Month celebration, which will also function as a “Get Out the Black Vote Victory Rally,” featuring a representative from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign, according to Rick Martin, a descendant of Moses Martin.
In Martin’s time as a lawmaker, he was declared one of the radical legislators by detractors in South Carolina as he helped create a public education system, sought land reform, and wanted to shore up political access for African Americans, said Bobby Donaldson, a University of South Carolina history professor and director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research.
“In some ways, they thought differently for the future of the state,” Donaldson said. “They thought differently about their rights and opportunities of African Americans, that were largely disenfranchised in the decades before.”
Rick Martin, the great, great, great grandson of Moses Martin, said there are economic parallels from 1867 and 2020, citing wage stagnation. “The working class both black and white are suffering,” he said.
On Thursday, members of the church and Moses Martin’s family will celebrate the majority black legislature.
The event will feature keynote speaker Nina Turner, Sanders’ national campaign co-chair.
Organizers of the event are drawing parallels to presidential candidate Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist from Vermont, who has called for “Medicare for all” and other federal programs to help working- and middle-class Americans.
Some Democratic candidates running against Sanders have called him radical for his health care and other proposals.
“The black majority radical South Carolina legislature was an interracial democracy that fearlessly and heroically began America’s fight against the vast income inequality between the working class and the ruling class over 150 years ago,” Martin said in a flier promoting the event. “Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who has courageously and proudly continued that tradition today.”
To attend
What: Black History Month Celebration
When: 6 p.m. Thursday
Where: White Hall A.M.E. Church 8594 SC-215 Jenkinsville
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
