South Carolina from A to Z

“C” is for Clark, Septima Poinsette (1898-1987). Educator, civil rights activist.

“C” is for Clarendon County (607 square miles; 2020 population 33,415).

“C” is for Claflin University. Responding to the urgent need to educate former enslaved persons, northern Methodists established Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1869.

“C” is for Clemson (Pickens County; 2020 population 17,780).

“H” is for Horry County (1,134 square miles; 2020 population 365,449.

“C” is for Civil Rights Act (1964). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 addressed all spheres of public life--social, political, and economic.

“B” is for Board of Public Works. The national trend toward improving waterways and other public facilities led South Carolina to create the Board of Public Works in December 1819.

“B” is for BMW. BMW in Greer, SC, is the global producer for BMW X3, X4, X5, and X6 vehicles and coupes (and their variants) for more than 140 global markets.

“B” is for Bluffton Movement (1844). On July 31, 1844, under a large oak (the Secession Oak) in Bluffton SC, the first organized political movement with the express goal of South Carolina's independent secession from the United States was born.

“B” is for Bluffton (Beaufort County; 2020 population 28,230).

“B” is for Blues. A powerful form of secular African American musical and cultural expression, blues developed in the South around the turn of the twentieth century.

“W” is for Winnsboro (Fairfield County; 2020 population 3,130).

"S” is for Simpsonville (Greenville County; 2020 population 25,272).

“S” is for Simons and Lapham. The Charleston architectural firm of Simons and Lapham was formed in 1920 by Albert Simons (1890-1980) and Samuel Lapham (1892 to 1972).

“S” is for Simons, Katherine Drayton Mayrant (1890-1969). Poet, novelist, playwright, historian.

“S” is for Simms, William Gilmore (1806-1870). Poet, historian, novelist.

“R “is for Rosemond, James R. (1820 to 1902). Clergyman. Recognized as one of The pioneers of the Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina, James R. Rosemond was commonly referred to as Father Rosemond.

“P’ is for Pocotaligo, Battle of (October 22, 1862).

“P” is for plantations. In the seventeenth century the term “plantation,” which formerly referred to any colonial outpost, evolved to refer specifically to large agricultural estates whose land was farmed by a sizable number of workers, usually enslaved persons, for export crops.

“D” is for Dorn, William Jennings Bryan (1906-2005). Congressman.

“C” is for Chattooga River. For most of its forty miles, the Chattooga forms the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina.

“C” is for the Charleston Riot [1876]. As the crucial local, state, and national elections of 1876 approached, tensions between the races in South Carolina reached a boiling point.

“C” is for Charleston Renaissance (ca. 1915-1940). The Charleston Renaissance was a multifaceted cultural renewal that took place in the years between World Wars I and II.

“B” is for Bishopville (Lee County; 2020 population 2,994).

“P” is for Pinckney, Josephine Lyons Scott (1895-1957). Poet, novelist, civic leader.