“When you make the education system equal, it might be predominantly or disproportionately Black.” Before historically Black colleges were recognized, The University of South Carolina was an institution with a 90% Black student body. Today, the university is predominantly white and Michael Harriot explains how it got that way.
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[00:00:00] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network, Black Culture Amplified.
Michael Harriot [00:00:05] And welcome back to theGrio Daily. If you’ve been watching any of the previous episodes, you know, or you just live in America, you know, it’s Black History Month and this Black History Month, we’re going to be talking about South Carolina specifically, not just about South Carolina. But we’re going to be looking at the world through South Carolina and talking about issues that still affect us today. And for the past few episodes, we’ve been talking about education in South Carolina, and we’re going to continue with that theme today. So I want to welcome you to theGrio Daily, the only podcast that will tell you the history of The Whitest HBCU Ever.
Michael Harriot [00:00:54] So if you remember where we left off with Reconstruction, basically we were going through kind of the history of South Carolina in the education system specifically, and we left off and reconstruction. And the thing that is important to remember, if you didn’t catch up with the last episode, is that South Carolina was a majority Black state after the Civil War. Well, for most of its existence, it was a majority Black state. That’s how many enslaved people they imported to the Carolina territory that eventually became the state known as South Carolina. So after the Civil War, when, you know, we kind of ended the hopes of white people building a white supremacist nation. South Carolina was a majority Black state. They passed the 13th and 14th and the 15th Amendment, which gave people citizenship rights the right to vote. And, you know, it ended the most common form of slavery.
Michael Harriot [00:02:02] After that as it relates to education, remember South Carolina in this majority Black state, the legislature became majority Black because, of course, Black people gained the right to vote. And when they reformed the state constitution. We talked earlier about them creating America’s first constitutionally mandated public education system. Well we usually think of that in terms of K-through-12 education, but what that legislature did and what that constitution did is also mandate that public universities or colleges include everyone who was in that state. Of course, it only seems fair, right? Black people pay taxes. So it’s only right that they should have access to the largest and the best state funded education system in that state at the time. That was the University of South Carolina. Well. When that constitution passed, Black people could go to the University of South Carolina and. Of course, that scared white people, right? They didn’t want that to happen, so they pushed back against it. And so they passed the law that only 100 students could attend the university at a time. And, of course, that excluded Black people because, one, the university, you know, cost money to get there. And the other thing that happened is that there were a bunch of white kids. You know, this is one of the things that we never talk about when you talk about universities and education.
Michael Harriot [00:04:01] Most of the white kids that were attending were going there for free. There were family members of people who were on the board of trustees. There were people who had connections to politicians. And, you know, there’s a study by Harvard University that shows that most of the people accepted there, you know, the easiest way to get in is if you have a connection to someone who works there or if you are an athlete. Back then, there was no college football playoff championships, so they didn’t have a lot of African-American football players. I don’t know if you know the history of African American football, these Black legislatures like, okay, we’re going to fix that. On October 7th, 1873, which is my birthday. I wasn’t born in 1873, but October 7th is my birthday. The first Black student, Henry Hayne, enrolled at the University of South Carolina. And he was not like a kid who had gotten out of high school and said, I want to test this new constitutional provision. He was literally the secretary of State. That’s how much power Black people had in South Carolina. A Black secretary of state was the first Black student. But. What happened was a bunch of white people started leaving. They raised the tuition. So that Black legislature said, okay, we’ll fix that because they were trying everything. And so they made it free for Black students to attend the University of South Carolina.
Michael Harriot [00:05:45] And in a couple of years, 90% of the students at the University of South Carolina were Black. And many of them were women because, you know. Educators and officials like or William Howard, who Howard University was named after recruited Black teachers and preachers from northern states to come down there and educate a new class of teachers to teach Black students. So the normal college was predominantly Black women? That’s right. It was a Black college. And this was before, you know, the Moral Land Grant Act had created many of the institutions that we know as HBCUs today. So the University of South Carolina, a predominantly white school, now, was actually a historically Black college. And, of course it wouldn’t last. Well, what happened was, of course, white terrorists, some called the Silver Shirts, some called the Red Shirts, enacted a campaign of terror. And part of that terror was based on that notion that all these Confederate generals and all of these learned white men who had attended the University of South Carolina wanted their school back and that they were they were fighting what they said was against Negro rule. And this campaign of terror worked. They shut down the university, kicked out all of the Black students, and on October 5th, 1880. Two days before my birthday. I wasn’t born in 1880 either. They reopened as the South Carolina College of Agricultural and Mechanics Arts. Right. And they first they only had like nine students because they thought the Black students were going to come back. But the campaign of terror worked. And the University of South Carolina eventually became. A all white or predominantly white or what I call historically white HBCU.
Michael Harriot [00:08:22] But it is important to remember that. Period in time when the University of South Carolina was predominantly Black, because here the important points, they didn’t lower the admissions standards. They didn’t increase the scores that you needed to get in, and they didn’t make it more difficult to get in. They just gave Black people access in a state where for a brief period of time, educational opportunities were equal. And when that happened Black people had access to education. So don’t ever let them fool you that Black people don’t value education, that we don’t want to go to college, that we can’t get into their schools. You know, when you talk about those phenomenons or that phenomena that exist today, what you’re talking about is something that is closely tied to the inequality in K-through-12 education. It’s also closely tied to economics. It’s also closely tied with the access to even knowing that you can attend college. And when you take all of that away. And make the education system equal. We might not just have an equal education system. It might be. Predominantly or disproportionately Black. Because all things being equal, you’ve got to think about this. Like these were students who, until they changed that constitution, were living in the state. We are reading and writing was illegal for enslaved people. Those children made it to college. While they were raised with parents for a large swath of that community who were illiterate and their parents stressed to them that education was so important that they overwhelmed and overflowed the white institutions that offered them opportunities.
Michael Harriot [00:10:47] And that’s why you have to watch a podcast like this. That’s why you have to subscribe and listen. That’s why you have to download that Grio streaming service. And that’s why we always leave you with the saying from Black America. And today’s saying is they don’t be knowing. They think they know, but they don’t know. If you like what you heard, please give us a five star review. Download theGrio app. Subscribe to the show and share it with everyone you know. Please email all questions, suggestions and compliments to podcasts at theGrio.com.
Panama Jackson [00:11:31] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast network. Black Culture Amplified. Coming this February. The Grio Black Podcast Network presents Dear Culture: Tru’ish Black Stories.
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