♪ Welcome to a special of This Week in South Carolina.

I'm Gavin Jackson.

60 years ago, here at the University of South Carolina, three African-American students enrolled here.

And now they're being honored with a monument here on the Horseshoe.

Basil Watson> Being the one tasked with the responsibility of creating the monument that honors the three courageous students who were the point of the spear that broke the unjust traditions that rejected admission to institutions based on race and the color of their skin.

So, to James Solomon Jr., Robert Anderson, Henrie Monteith, I salute you.

It has been a long journey, two years working with various stakeholders and partners that came together to create this monument that will stand for generations, heralding the achievements of those who came and sacrificed before us.

It was our team that brought them together on that day, the 11th of September 1963, and it will be teamwork that will propel us into a better tomorrow.

In the monument, I aim to demonstrate the profound and solemn nature of that moment when an institution forced by a court injunction broke with this unjust traditions of segregation and opened its doors to people of all races and backgrounds and allowed them to benefit and to contribute to what it had to offer.

The columns, incomplete and broken as they are represent the institution and its history and its way forward.

The three Black students look and step ahead as they enter the institution that is built on the foundation of knowledge.

And this is represented by the books in the steps as they look ahead, armed with their papers that represent their passport to the university and their passport to the world of knowledge.

It's a new beginning, and I hail the University of South Carolina for taking the steps to acknowledge the importance of this seismic moment in the nation's history.

And I must say that I really love what I do.

I meet people from all walks of life, from homeless to princes.

And here are some of the most courageous and accomplished achievers who have given so much to the building of this country, building of a more equitable and just society, especially the building of a community that I am a part of.

It was a labor of love and I would like to say that when we invest in art, it is an investment in the promotion of our values and the opening of our mind... of the minds, especially the minds of our young.

Michael Amiridis> Other campuses before us had followed their own path to desegregation before USC.

We have all seen images of violent resistance at other campuses with National Guardsmen blocking doorways and federal troops pulled in to provide safe escort to Black students who were entering university buildings.

Here at the University of South Carolina were spared such images that morning, but that does not mean the transition was easy.

It had its roots in Reconstruction, as you heard, when the university made a brief first attempt at desegregation, opening its doors to Black students only to painfully shut them again a few years later.

Another century would pass before we made the change permanent.

The transition certainly was not easy for the first three students we honor today, nor for many who joined them soon thereafter.

But as an Henrie Monteith- Treadwell told us herself when we gathered on this same site last September and she repeated it today, she and James Solomon and Robert Anderson were not afraid.

They knew they were the leaders and past students who would access to education for all.

They took those bold steps because, again, in Dr. Treadwell's optimistic words, we were leading to a future that we hoped for, for all in our state and in our nation.

One image stands out as the iconic depiction of our 1963 desegregation.

A black and white photograph of these three students on the steps of Osborne.

I asked for it, but we cannot confirm the exact identity of the photographer.

He was one of three, stayed photographers who were assigned to cover this event.

But whoever he was, he captured that bright peppermint moment and his photograph inspired the statue we'll unveil this morning.

USC is a historic university, but it's also a modern university.

Our relevance depends on our ability to look forward and to move forward.

To do this, we must shoulder the truths of our past.

Today we do this by welcoming a long awaited moment to celebrate and honor the irresistible ones, and to thank them for their continuing gift of paving the pathway to education for the tens of thousands of students who have followed them and will continue to follow them here on our campus.

Today, we celebrate and honor the irresistible ones who changed our history.

(applause) (applause) Gavin> Before the unveiling of the monument, I sat down with one of the honorees, Dr. Henrie Monteith Treadwell, and USC professor Dr. Bobby Donaldson, to talk about USC's history with de-segregation and what this monument means going forward.

Dr. Henrie Monteith Treadwell, Dr. Bobby Donaldson, thank you all for joining us today on this monumental day.

I want to have a conversation about the history and what's going on with this statue unveiling.

But first, Dr. Donaldson, I want to get some context about what life was like back in 1963 when this historic event took place.

Set the scene for us.

This was nine years after Brown v Board of Education, as well as Briggs v. Ell... Briggs v. Elliot, the Supreme Court ruling, the landmark decision there for school integration.

This happened nine years after that decision happened.

Trace for us how that went from grade school level up to higher education and the integration of the University of South Carolina.

Dr. Donaldson> So when Dr. Treadwell was a young woman, she and her family were well aware of the landmark Supreme Court decision on May 17th of 1954, in the case of Brown versus Elliott Brown v. Board, Briggs v. Elliott And on that day, the United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, declared that segregation in public schools was indeed unconstitutional.

Now, what's ironic about that date in that moment is that African-Americans around this country were fully aware that if the United States Supreme Court declared segregation unconstitutional in public schools, in elementary and secondary public schools, then what are the implications of that?

Here now, the courts have affirmed that segregation is unconstitutional in public schools.

Well, maybe it's unconstitutional at lunch counters, in theaters, in hotels.

Maybe it's unconstitutional on busses.

So what you begin to see between 1954 and the early 60s is consistent and persistent litigation.

Some of that litigation and some of those movements in South Carolina, ironically, were organized by the Monteith's Dr. Treadwell's family, who were actively involved in shaping the post World War Two Civil Rights movement in this...in this state.

So, by September the 11th of 1963, Dr. Treadwell, her family are fully mindful of what has transpired in Mississippi, in Georgia, in Alabama.

And they're also fully mindful what happened at Clemson College on January 28th of 1963, when Harvey Gantt walked through the doors of Clemson challenging traditions and opening the doors for African-Americans in higher education in South Carolina.

Gavin> And it's interesting, too, because we're talking about higher education institutions in South Carolina.

Clemson, you just mentioned.

University of South Carolina, we're here talking about this one, but when you look at other institutions like the College of Charleston, they didn't fully integrate until, I think, 1967, years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

So there were still a lot of pushback even after we got these big steps occurring at other institutions.

Dr. Donaldson> Well, the other thing to be mindful about is a week before Dr. Treadwell enters the University of South Carolina, there's also a group of students in Charleston who are entering the schools for the first time, including a woman named Dr. Millicent Brown, whose father was the president of the Charleston NAACP.

And so, Clemson, the University of South Carolina and the public schools of South Carolina are being integrated almost a decade after the Supreme Court had declared such education to be unconstitutional.

Gavin> And it took even years to get even more fully integrated, too.

But Dr. Treadwell, I want to ask you about your journey.

Walk us through that time and what it took for you to become one of the first Black students to enroll at the University of South Carolina, along with Robert Anderson and James Solomon Jr. What was...what was that time like?

Tell me about your experience at University of South Carolina.

Dr. Treadwell> I walked onto a campus that was really in some ways muted in its response.

We did not have the uprising, the uproar that many other institutions had when these steps toward integration and actual integration occurred.

I was...

I think, I often say, holding my breath to see what would happen next.

But the day went smoothly.

And the thing that I have to emphasize all the time is that while we talk about the role of African-Americans in integrating the institutions, there were lots of Whites who...who were also supportive and to my pleasure, even as I was enrolling that first day, there were some people who smiled at me, some faculty, and I couldn't really believe that they were smiling at me.

And later they told me, Yes, we wanted you to feel welcome.

Gavin> And that must have been pretty encouraging, too.

I mean, I'm wondering what it was like.

You attended for three years when you graduated and what was it like day in, day out in the classrooms?

Was it always would you get some of those moments or were there also plenty of moments of just hard, hard days?

Dr. Treadwell> Most of the moments were isolating.

The classrooms were not places where I made friends.

There were a few people who would come along and walk with me to a class.

But essentially, it was isolating.

I'm not indicating that it was negative.

It was just, that's just the way it was.

And I believe that a message that I would deliver to people who even today enter institutions or environments where they are the only one or one of very few, accept it and learn from it and help it to build your character, so that you are never alone and you're always able to move forward.

So I really, in reflecting on all of this, know that it was valuable to me.

Do I think people should have to continue to go through that?

No, I don't.

But I think it should be one of those little character traits that you just put away for the times when needed so that you don't just back out and walk away.

Gavin> Dr. Treadwell, can you tell us, what made you want to subject yourself to that, to become one of the first people to enroll at the University of South Carolina, when you have historically Black colleges and universities across the state?

I know that's not the same thing in this situation, but what made you decide to say, Hey, USC not Allen or Benedict or South Carolina State?

Dr. Treadwell> Well, I graduated here after two years.

I came to the university with a large number of honors credits.

So I wasn't here that... three year period, you know.

It was, it was a time of...

I built skills.

And I don't necessarily respond to everything you ask, but I, as I reflect on it, I really want to talk, think about the things that it gave me.

It gave me love of music, love of language, love of art and... it really opened my eyes to other opportunities, other things that I could do with my life.

But I have a friend here today who was a USC student, happens to be White, and we've been friends ever since Carolina days, and she's come up from Charleston to be with me.

And she was actually in my wedding.

So you see, it's a mixed story, when goes one goes back into those days.

Why did I subject myself to it?

My family was so immersed in the civil rights actions across the state until in some ways I was born into it.

You know, they would talk about it constantly.

The steps that were being taken, the people who were being involved, the people in Clarendon County that we helped to sustain themselves.

I was involved in when canned goods came in or clothing came in.

I was one of the ones sitting on the floor, very small, but trying to organize and separate things.

So I was born into it and really there was no walking away.

In fact, you just knew that you had a place.

And when my turn came, I took it.

>>I definitely want to talk more about your family because it is so interesting to talk about that.

But you brought up, you know, the reason you went to Carolina.

I want to ask you what your aspirations were at that time and where did your education take you through life?

Dr. Treadwell> I thought that I would go to medical school.

I...one of my uncles, Dr. Henry Monteith, actually, as I had graduated, came up to me and presented me with a letter of admission to medical school, but by that time, I was more interested in the broader issues of public health and of social welfare and well-being, not welfare, but well-being overall.

And of course, I was influenced by my Aunt Modjeska, who had worked across the state in public health activities.

So I began to see a larger story.

I have to say that I also thought that I would focus my time and energies on efforts related to women.

But and I did for some time.

But ultimately it expanded into looking at the issues of men and family construct.

So, to bring it back to my family, we would sit around, they would sit around talking, and we youngsters would sit around on the floor listening.

And my Aunt Modjeska would have... exemplary figures, Thurgood Marshall, Roy White, many others to come to her home.

So, on Sunday afternoons after church, we were sitting on the steps eating cookies and watching these really important individuals come through.

And it impressed us.

Gavin> And I was kind of go into my next question, talk about your family history here.

Your ancestors are so important, including your Aunt Modjeska who helped hire a lawyer for this...for this case that you were part of at University of South Carolina.

And she also did the same for Sarah Mae Fleming, who was assaulted and kicked off a bus here in Columbia in June 22nd, 1954, for refusing to get up for a White passenger.

That was a full year before Rosa Parks in Alabama and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the segregation on that bus was unconstitutional.

So, just really steeped in history.

What did you take from your family that... did you feel them on your shoulders in a sense, were you standing on their shoulders when you were going through the doors here at Carolina?

Dr. Treadwell> Without a doubt.

My grandmother, Rachel Monteith, established the school for African-American children because they were not allowed into the schools in the county.

And the education was not always what was to be expected.

She started that school out there on the properties that we used to own, and the school now is in Eau Claire.

We...my mother taught in that school and I... remember just being there at that time, too young to go to school there.

But in the classroom, those things impress you.

You see it and you like to imitate what you have seen.

My grandmother's...daughter, Modjeska Simpkins, was extremely active in civil rights.

She was a teacher.

She married.

She was not allowed to be a teacher any longer.

She worked in public health efforts in South Carolina, and there's no better way to sensitize yourself to the needs of people than to look across health and public health.

There are just enormous disparities that continue today, and that's one of the reasons I moved my work over also into men's health, because we look at the policy issues.

All of this is embedded in the policy not being able to come to the University of South Carolina.

There was a policy decision that Dr. (Donaldson) mentioned had to be overturned.

There are still policy decisions that deter equal health access to all in our nation.

And so I've spent my time working on that while at the Kellogg Foundation.

I was able to make grants in many places around the world, quite frankly, and began to really look at family issues.

And I hope that we'll do more of that.

I sometimes think I'm here.

I'm a woman.

I want women to see that they can lead change.

But I also want people to understand that it doesn't have to be a big start.

It can just... once you see a thing, you should respond affirmatively and you can't just say, look at those poor people over there.

You have to decide how do you insinuate yourself, yourself into problem solving and solutions building?

So I think that is what my family gave to me.

My uncle Henry Monteith was very instrumental in the Victory Savings Bank.

All of these efforts tied together because when teachers were being fired in Clarendon County and elsewhere, some economic aid was given to them.

They had access to capital through the Victory Savings Bank, which they did not get through regular banks.

And that bank still lives as a part of Optus here in Columbia.

So they've built my family, really built a framework, and they worked in that framework.

They did not just say this is what should happen over there.

They thought about it.

They strategized.

They developed tactics, and they did it.

Gavin> Very well said, ma'am.

Dr. Donaldson, I want to take you back to higher ed integration back in 1963, a lot went on behind the scenes.

We're talking about what we saw in front of the cameras, those big moments of folks walking through the doors of these universities.

Integration efforts in South Carolina were peaceful at the higher education level for the most part, from what we saw, Harvey Gantt, the first Black student to enroll at Clemson University, also had to sue to get in there with Matthew Perry, the lawyer.

But why wasn't that?

Why wasn't that precedent honored at USC?

And it was, when it was at Clemson because he appealed to the federal court.

He got granted access to enroll.

How come that didn't carry over here?

And then maybe if you can tell us some back story about this integration with dignity Dr. Donaldson>I think it's that they would say.

a reminder of the reluctance.

So courts were already affirming the rights of students like Dr. Treadwell to enter institutions of higher education and it took place at Ole Miss, It had already taken place at Georgia.

And yet there was a persistent reluctance on behalf of South Carolina to follow the dictates of the law.

So, by the time of January 28th of 1963, when Harvey Gantt, a native of Charleston enters Clemson College, most Black people in South Carolina knew what that meant, that, you know, the domino was about to fall.

Even those at our university knew that.

So when you look at the records of our board of trustees, you look at some of the communications, President Tom Jones was already communicating with other college presidents.

He said, "The time is coming.

"It's just a matter of when, "and a matter of who will be that person, "but unfortunate to be sitting next "to that person today, who pushed the envelope in ways "that radically transformed our institution."

So by the fall of 1963, lunch counters, theaters, some hotels, all were integrated in some parts of South Carolina.

Now, that as a result of what Dr. Treadwell just mentioned, they were building on a legacy.

This was a movement, a movement of ideas, a movement of people, a movement of institutions, a movement of young people across this state who dared to believe that change was possible.

And so what we saw on September the 11th of 63 was in some ways the culmination of persistent struggle among many parts.

When Dr. Treadwell mentioned when she came to campus, there was a quiet there was a steady, calm on campus.

Some of that was well orchestrated.

The university did not want to have a national news story that would carry... carry negative connotations.

So there were scripts created.

There were plans devised.

Law enforcement were told what to do.

Certain members of the community were told not to come on campus.

So it was a well orchestrated moment.

But on campus, there was mixed emotions.

So when you look at the Daily Gamecock and you look at some of the local news footage, some students were like, "This cannot happen."

"This will be the end of the university."

"The university should close."

But there were others who said, "It's about time."

And I was surprised when I read those comments.

There were young White students, 17, 18 and 19, 20 year old, years old, who said this is the right thing to do.

And I think that is and part of why you saw what was a most unusual response on the campus, because there were indeed some students and many faculty who said it's about time.

This university represents all the citizens of South Carolina.

Gavin> And Dr. Donaldson, we have a few minutes left.

You've been integral in getting monuments erected across the state, specifically here in Columbia, to these big moments, to these civil rights movements and these...these moments that we don't see monuments to as much as we've seen some other controversial monuments around town and across the state.

But I want to ask you just about the need to have these out there.

What's the importance of having a monument for them, for other folks to see?

And what's the power of monuments, in your opinion?

Dr. Donaldson> I think this is an ongoing effort of... of public memorials and public history and public art that is critically needed to tell a full and complete story, to tell a correct story about those who transformed, those who built particularly the University of South Carolina.

When Dr. Treadwell was applying, was...applied for admission, and there was litigation going forward.

There were some students in the Daily Gamecock who said, "we don't... "we don't need any symbols on this campus."

She wrote a letter to the Daily Gamecock.

She said she recounted her life story.

She said, I am more than a symbol and I will not be a symbol.

And I think this monument is an affirmation of that.

These are...this is a monument of three individuals, but is really a monument of a struggle.

It is a monument of a longer story.

So you walk in our Horseshoe now, or walk across our campus, you will see McKissick and Pettigrew, Ellicott and Lieber and the Caroliniana.

You will see the names of those people who are believed to have built this campus generations ago.

But this monument is a reminder of individuals who rebuilt this campus, who reconstructed this campus, and who opened the doors for people like me to be teaching at the University of South Carolina.

Gavin> Dr. Treadwell, I want to give you the last question here with about a minute left.

What do you hope this monument of you, Robert Anderson and James Solomon Jr, what do you hope it does?

Dr. Treadwell> My hope is that it will remind people of where we have come from, but it's not over.

It's a story that continues.

And I would like for young people, particularly, but all to look at it and see and think through what could I do?

We're not there yet.

We're really not there.

And we somehow have to come together, get up...get up and stand up for the issues, for the rights of all humans to have access to equal treatment and to equal opportunity.

And that was one of the things that we did here, equal opportunity for all who would come Gavin> Dr. Treadwell, Dr. Donaldson, thank you so much for this time.

Dr. Treadwell> Thank you.

♪ Gavin> To keep you updated throughout the week, check out the South Carolina Lede, It's a podcast that I host on Tuesdays and Saturdays that you can find on South Carolina Public Radio.org or wherever you find podcasts.

For South Carolina ETV, I'm Gavin Jackson.

Be well, South Carolina.

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