Charleston School of Law celebrates of Black History Month.

“We cannot change the past,” said Debra Gammons, Director of the Office of Diversity Initiatives. “We can engage in positive actions today to create a better society. Recognizing the work and the struggles of Black people in our country is understanding and appreciating our country’s history.”

Gammons encouraged the law community to read about the “courageous trailblazers and fighters-for-freedom” who risked their lives to positively change our country. The list included historical profiles of:

• Esau Jenkins and Janie B. Jenkins (Fought for education for Black children
• Harry Briggs (One of the twenty parents who filed the lawsuit, Briggs v. Elliott, challenging the constitutionality of segregation in public schools (this case was consolidated with Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas)
• Philip Simmons (Ironworks Artist)
• Robert Smalls (Former enslaved person; Civil War Hero)
• Anna DeCosta Banks (Nursing Pioneer and Instructor)
• Jonathan Jasper Wright (First Black Attorney in South Carolina; first to sit on an Appellate Court)
• Lucille Simmons Whipper – First Black female to serve as elected official in South Carolina
• Septima Poinsette Clark (Helped establish Citizenship Schools)
• Cassandra Maxwell (First Black female admitted to the South Carolina Bar