Title: Oral history interview with Modjeska Simkins, July 28, 1976
Description: This is the second interview in a series of two with Modjeska Simkins, an African American activist from South Carolina. In the first interview (G-0056-1), Simkins briefly described her family background, her childhood, and spoke about her work with the South Carolina Interracial Commission, primarily during the 1920s and 1930s. Here, she elaborates on her family background and upbringing before describing in great detail her work with the NAACP and the Richland County Citizens' Committee. Simkins begins by describing her childhood, spent primarily in Columbia, South Carolina, although there were times when her father's reputation as an accomplished bricklayer led them to other areas in the South, including Huntsville, Alabama. Simkins explains that her family was prosperous, and she emphasizes that her parents imbued her with a sense of responsibility to help those less advantaged. Simkins attended Benedict College for her primary through post-secondary education. Following her graduation with a bachelor's degree in 1921, Simkins taught at Benedict for a year before accepting a position teaching at Booker Washington High School in Columbia. She taught at Booker until 1929. Over the course of the 1920s, Simkins became more involved in social causes, primarily via her membership in the South Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation and the NAACP. She continued this work into the 1930s, during which time she was employed by the South Carolina Tuberculosis Association. Until 1942, Simkins worked for the TB Association, helping to educate people about health-related issues. Increasingly, however, Simkins lamented not being able to focus more explicitly on what she saw as more pressing issues for African Americans. In 1942, she took a position with the NAACP and served as the state secretary until 1956. Simkins describes in detail her role in the NAACP's shift towards direct legal action in taking on school segregation. In addition, she describes how she helped to organize a boycott in Orangeburg County around 1956 following the Brown decision and a white backlash against it in that community. Despite her support for the NAACP's legal work, however, Simkins was becoming alienated from the NAACP by the mid-1950s. She left the NAACP to become the public relations director for the Richland County Citizens' Committee. At the time of the interview, Simkins was still serving in this capacity. She spends the final portion of the interview describing her work with the Richland County Citizens' Committee, focusing on their involvement in state politics, their role in efforts to desegregate the Palmetto State Hospital in 1965, and with the integration of Columbia public schools. Throughout the interview, Simkins offers telling anecdotes about the nature of racial tensions and its consequences, the inner workings of civil rights organizations like the NAACP and the Richland County Citizens' Committee, and relationships between leaders of the movement and their related organizations.
Subjects: Interviews, African American women civil rights workers, Civil rights movements, African Americans, Civil rights, Race relations, School integration, Social life and customs, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. South Carolina State Conference, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Richland County Citizens' Committee (Richland County, S.C.)
Places: South Carolina, Columbia
People: Modjeska Monteith Simkins (1899-1992)