South Carolina from A to Z

“B” is for Briggs v. Eliott (1954). Briggs v. Elliot was one of five cases, collectively entitled Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County Kansas, et al. , argued before the United States Supreme Court. The historic decision of Brown v. Board of Education rendered the doctrine of separate but equal public education unconstitutional and led to the movement to desegregate public...

“S” is for South Carolina Wildlife Federation. Founded in 1931 the South Carolina Wildlife Federation (SCWF) was established by outdoor enthusiasts concerned with protecting and preserving the natural heritage of their state. In partnership with the National Wildlife Federation, the nonprofit organization strives to facilitate cooperative efforts of sportsmen and conservationists to advocate sound...

“S” is for South Carolina State University. The institution was founded in 1896 in Orangeburg as the Colored Normal, Industrial, Agricultural and Mechanical College of South Carolina. During its early years the college was devoted to training Back youngsters to be teachers, farmers, homemakers, and skilled artisans. The institution offered agricultural subjects as well as traditional academic cour...

“S” is for South Carolina State Ports Authority. The South Carolina State Ports Authority is a state owned enterprise established by the General Assembly in 1942 to create and operate seaports in Charleston, Georgetown, and Port Royal. Charleston is South Carolina's principal seaport, with six terminals. As of 2026 Charleston ranked eighth in the United States for the number of containers handled...

“S” is for South Carolina State Museum. South Carolina's multidisciplinary State Museum opened in 1988. The development of a museum was initiated in 1973 when the state legislature formed the South Carolina Museum Commission and charged it with “the creation and operation of a state museum reflecting the history, fine arts and natural history and the scientific and industrial resources of the stat...

“S” is for South Carolina Railroad. In the early nineteenth century, Charleston sought to bolster its economy by attempting to attract trade from the west. One portion of this effort was the South Carolina Railroad. Construction began in 1830 and was completed in 1833. The road stretched for 136 miles, from Charleston to Summerville, Branchville, Blackville, Aiken, and ending in Hamburg. At the ti...

“S” is for South Carolina Public Service Authority. The South Carolina Public Service Authority (better known as Santee Cooper) was established by the General Assembly in 1934 with the power to provide for navigation and flood control on the Santee, Congaree, and Cooper Rivers; to generate electricity; to reclaim swampland; and to reforest the state’s watersheds. The federal government approved th...

“S” is for South Carolina-North Carolina border. In 1735 the two colonies appointed a joint boundary commission that agreed the boundary should begin at a point thirty miles south of the Cape Fear River. Because of surveying errors, South Carolina's northern boundary was eleven miles south of where it should have been. To correct this mistake, the boundary was extended seventeen miles north of the...

“S” is for South Carolina National Heritage Corridor. The South Carolina National Heritage Corridor is a grassroots-led heritage tourism initiative that brings together communities throughout a fourteen county region from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Oconee County to the Atlantic Ocean along Charleston and Colleton Counties. In 1996 Congress designated it as a “national heritage area.” The Heritage...

“P” is for Preservation Society of Charleston. Founded in 1920, the Preservation Society of Charleston is the oldest community-based historic preservation organization in the United States. Originally called the Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings, it was founded by Susan Pringle Frost and other individuals who were concerned about the future of the Joseph Manigault House. In 1931 the So...

“P” is for Presbyterian College. A liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Clinton, South Carolina, Presbyterian College was founded in 1880 by William Plumer Jacobs.  Originally known as Clinton College, the institution became the Presbyterian College of South Carolina in 1890. In 1923 the school gained full accreditation by the Southern Association of Co...

“P” is for Pratt, Nathaniel Alpheus (1834-1906). Chemist, engineer, inventor. A Georgia native, Pratt earned his M.D. from Savannah Medical College. During the Civil War he was named assistant chief of the Confederate States Nitre and Mining Bureau at Augusta, Georgia. Pratt moved to Charleston at the end of the war with plans to construct a chemical plant to manufacture fertilizers. He organized...

“P” is for Praise houses. Praise houses (sometimes called “prayer houses”) functioned on antebellum South Carolina plantations as both the epitome of slave culture and symbols of resistance to slaveholders’ version of Christianity. Generally simple, clapboard structures built by the slaves themselves, praise houses were erected with the knowledge--if not always the complete approval--of the master...

“M “is for Mullis, Kary Banks (1944-2011). Scientist.  Born in North Carolina, Mullis grew up Columbia, S.C. A graduate of Georgia Tech, he obtained his Ph. D. in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. While employed at Cetus Corporation, he conceived and developed the idea of PCR, polymerase chain reaction, in 1983. This technique amplifies DNA, enabling scientists to make a...

“M” is for Mullins (Marion County; 2020 population 4,026). Mullins did not exist when the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad arrived in 1854, but the town grew up around the railway station. The town was named for William Sydney Mullins.  In the 1890s bright leaf tobacco became a commercial crop in the area. In 1894 the first tobacco sales building in Mullins was completed and the first auction sa...

“C” is for Coogler, John Gordon (1865-1901). Poet. Coogler was born in Richland County near the town of Doko (now Blythewood) By the mid-1880s he was living in Colombia and printed at his own expense his first volume of poetry. Coogler and his poetry garnered attention of readers and reviewers from across the nation, who found his work entertaining, if not aesthetic. In 1897 Coogler published a on...

“C” is for Conway (Horry County; 2020 population 24,849). Conway, originally named Kingston Village, was established on a bluff of the Waccamaw River about 1735. It became the seat of Kingston County (later renamed was renamed Horry--in honor of Peter Horry, a Revolutionary War hero). At the same time the village’s name was changed to Conwayborough. In 1883 the General Assembly shortened the name...

“C” is for Converse College. Converse College was founded in 1889 by a group of Spartanburg leaders to provide for the education of young middle-class women. The institution was named to honor its founder Dexter Edgar Converse. The college opened its doors in 1890 with 117 students. Unlike many southern women's colleges, Converse offered students a course of study roughly equivalent to that offere...

“B” is for Brewton, Miles (1731-1775). Merchant, legislator. Born in Charleston, Brewton traveled to England to finish his education and establish commercial ties. Through his marriage, numerous land grants, and purchases, he accumulated a large quantity of real estate. However, he made his fortune principally as a merchant rather than as a planter, becoming one of the wealthiest men in South Caro...

“B” is for Brawley, Edward McKnight (1851-1923). Missionary, educator. Brawley was born in Charleston to free African American parents. In 1861 his parents sent him to Philadelphia to further his education. In 1870 he became the first full time theology student at Howard University in Washington, DC. He later transferred to Bucknell University and became that institution's first African American s...

“S” is for South Carolina Land Commission. In 1869 the General Assembly established the South Carolina Land Commission. The commission’s goal was to purchase land for sale in plots of between twenty-five  and one hundred acres, which would then be sold to landless African Americans on favorable terms. From the beginning the Commission was plagued by organizational and other problems. In addition t...

“S” is for South Carolina Jockey Club. The earliest record of horse racing in South Carolina is February 1734. During the next two decades the sport increased in popularity in the colony, but it became organized with the founding of the South Carolina Jockey Club in 1750. By the turn of the nineteenth century, the club ushered in what would be called the “golden age of racing.” The club’s annual r...

“S” is for South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance. The South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance (SCMA), a powerful networking, information, and lobbying group for the state's varied manufacturing industries, began as an organization for cotton mill owners in 1902. The group's first paid lobbyist was hired in the late 1920s, and the association eventually became a visible and powerful voice for the tex...

“S” is for South Carolina Lunatic Asylum / State Hospital. The South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, located on Bull Street in Columbia, was established by the General Assembly in 1821 but did not open until 1828. It is the third oldest state mental institution in the United States. In 1896 the institution was renamed the South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane and it gradually adopted a custodial f...

“S” is for Sinclair, Bennie Lee (1939-2000). Novelist, poet. A native of Greenville, Sinclair was a graduate of Furman University. In 1986 she was appointed the fifth poet laureate of South Carolina. Sinclair taught writing at Furman and gave workshops at the University of Notre Dame, Western Carolina University, and Brevard College. Her commitment to teaching poetry included a twenty-eight-year c...