The Desegregation Garden
STOP #2
After the Civil War, South Carolina College closed in 1861 due to the lack of students. The institution reopened as the University of South Carolina in 1866 and not long after that started their path towards integration. In 1869, the Republican General Assembly elected the first African American trustees to the board. In the following years after that monumental decision, many of the state’s conservative white officials and faculty left the university. During the climax of this time, the university gained its first black students and professor. Specifically, In 1873, Richard T. Greener became the first African American professor at the University (he was also the first African American to graduate from Harvard). During the years of 1873-1877, the University of South Carolina was the only southern state institution to admit and grant degrees to African American students during this time period. Although this showed a lot of progress, many of the state’s white elite were not pleased with the decisions to integrate and increase diversity at the institution. Due to the lack of funds and staffing, the university decided to close its doors in 1877 and reopened in 1888 as an all-white agricultural college. It took nearly a century before the university tried to reopen its doors to African American students. On September 11, 1963, Henrie Monteith Treadwell, Robert Anderson, and James Solomon were the first African American students to enroll at the University in the 20th century. Dr. Treadwell became the first to graduate in 1965. She recently came back to the University last year to speak to current students about her testimony. In 2014, former President Harris Pastides founded the desegregation garden in honor of these three individuals and their contributions to the university.
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