This week we are exploring public humanities resources with the theme of courage and resilience. Two members of the SC Humanities Advisory Board have joined us in observing this week's theme. Courtney L. Tollison, a history professor at Furman University, has offered a fascinating snippet of her most recent research on the women's suffrage movement in South Carolina. Jonathan Haupt, the Executive Director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, has graciously offered a book recommendation.
Poems of Hope and Resilience
As we continue to celebrate National Poetry Month, we invite you to explore the Poetry Foundation's collection of Poems of Hope and Resilience . The collection includes dozens of poems about finding hope amid uncertainty, conflict, and loss.
Carolina Stories: Jail, No Bail
Jail, No Bail  tells the story of the “Friendship Nine,” a group of college students from Rock Hill, SC who staged a nonviolent protest against the segregationist practice of not serving African-Americans at a local five-and-dime lunch counter on January 31, 1961. Educational materials are available via KnowItAll.org . SC Humanities supported this documentary with a Major Grant in 2009.
Fine Line: Mental Health/Mental Illness
The "Fine Line" exhibit  was on display in Columbia in 2019 as part of a larger event that was supported by SC Humanities, the “Get Psyched with MTC” Conference at Midlands Technical College.
Food Rationing and Temporary Wartime Prohibition
SC Humanities supported the World War I Symposium at Lander University in 2019. Watch a short clip with Dr. Angela Jill Cooley discussing the reasons behind food rationing and the temporary wartime prohibition during World War I.
South Carolina Suffragists with Courtney L. Tollison
2020 is the 100-year commemoration of women’s suffrage in the United States, and the history of this campaign among South Carolinians is more rich than the state legislature’s denial of the 19th Amendment ratification in 1920 would suggest. The history began as early as the 1830s with Sarah and Angelina Grimke and includes white and African American women and men, such as the Rollins sisters and Robert Hemphill. Supporters organized chapters of the SC Equal Rights Association, SC Equal Suffrage League, and National Women’s Party in places as large as Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville, and as small as Chitty and Frogmore. The movement was punctuated by visits from national movement leaders Susan B. Anthony, who visited Columbia in 1895, and Alice Pual, who spoke in Charleston in 1915. Women in South Carolina won the right to vote on August 26, 1920, though Jim Crow segregation kept African American women from exercising that right for several decades. In anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, the state legislature ceremoniously ratified the 19th Amendment in 1969. 
Courtney L. Tollison, Ph.D.
Distinguished University Public Historian and Scholar
History Department at Furman University
Photo : Women's suffragists demonstrate in February 1913. The triangular pennants read "VOTES FOR WOMEN".
Book Drop with Jonathan Haupt
The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton 
Thank heavens (and, more aptly, Clinton & Clinton and Simon & Schuster) for  The Book of Gutsy Women ! Through its profiles of nearly 150 female trailblazers and world-changers, the book, published in October 2019, rewards readers with a treasure trove of empowering stories, presented in a smartly sustained dialogue between mother and daughter. The senior and junior Clinton each bring their generational and experiential vantage points to championing why these women merit commemoration and how their lives and accomplishments continue to embolden and motivate future generations. From the immediately recognizable to the comparative unknown, and from the historical to the contemporary, the subjects selected cover a vast spectrum of achievements—from exploration and conservation to literature and education, sciences and healthcare, activism and politics, athletics and pop culture, and women’s and human rights. In honoring the lives and lessons of Helen Keller, Julliette Gordon Low, Mary McLeod Bethune, Greta Thunberg, Sally Ride, Hedy Lamar, Venus and Serena Williams, Maya Angelou, America Ferrera, Shirley Chisholm, Sally Yates, Rosa Parks, Manal al-Sharif, and so many more, the Clintons have gifted us with a welcome reminder that resolute leadership, moral courage, and heroic self-sacrifice can—and so often do—transform our world for the better. May there always be gutsy women to guide us all.

Jonathan Haupt 
Executive Director
Pat Conroy Literary Center
Join us on Facebook for a lecture with Dr. Margaret J. Oakes!
Dr. Margaret J. Oakes, Professor of English at Furman University, will host a brief lecture on Shakespeare on the SC Humanities Facebook page on Thursday, April 23 at 12:00 PM.

The expression “The Bard” does Shakespeare and playgoers a huge disservice. The guy with the ruff and the beard is “too highbrow,” “out of touch,” and “stuffy.” Sometimes, however, Shakespeare is raunchy, extraordinarily violent, and witty, as reflected in numerous phrases and concepts in our language.

South Carolina Humanities