This image is the cover for the book True Stories of Black South Carolina

True Stories of Black South Carolina

From the Upstate to the Lowcountry, African Americans have had a gigantic impact on the Palmetto State. Unfortunately, their stories are often overshadowed.
Collected here for the first time, this selection of essays by historian Damon L. Fordham brings these stories to light. Rediscover the tales of Samuel Smalls, the James Island beggar who inspired DuBose Heyward�s Porgy, and Denmark Vesey, the architect of the great would-be slave rebellion of 1822. Learn about the blacks who lived and worked at what is now Mepkin Abbey, the Spartanburg
woman who took part in a sit-in at the age of eleven and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.�s visit to Charleston in 1967. These articles are well-researched and provide an enlightening glimpse at the overlooked contributors to South Carolina�s past.

Damon L. Fordham

Damon Fordham has been an Adjunct Professor of US History and African American Studies at the College of Charleston and a research associate at the Avery Research Center. An accomplished writer, he has been a book reviewer for the Post and Courier, a columnist for the Charleston Chronicle and the Charleston Coastal Times. In addition to numerous articles and papers, he also co-authored Born to Serve�History of the WEMBC with Marvin Dulaney (Avery Research Center Press, 2007), and contributed to The African American National Biography (Harvard University Press), The South Carolina Encyclopedia (USC Press, 2006) and The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore (University of Missouri Press, 2006).

The History Press