Modjeska Monteith Simkins
She was named for her aunt Mary and for a Polish actress, Helena Modjeska,
but she spent her life fighting for equality in the American South. Born in Columbia, South
Carolina on December 5, 1899, Mary Modjeska Monteith Simkins outshown her namesakes during a
long and productive life. By the time she died in 1992, Simkins
had achieved national recognition as a civil rights leader and political
activist who stood up for what she believed and who did not hesitate to
challenge the establishment.
The future civil rights leader was the first of eight children of a
prosperous builder and a school teacher. The explanation for her activism and
her outrage over injustice can be found in her early socialization. Her parents
were determined that their children would have every opportunity and that they
would grow up in a "safe" environment, so although they were city
people, they built a home outside of town on a farm where they could raise
their children in a fairly isolated setting. They taught their children to be
independent, growing much of their own food and selling the surplus. The
children were raised with a strong work ethic and as the eldest, Modjeska was expected
to help her mother look after the younger children while her father traveled
and made a living. A devout family with a strong religious tradition, the Monteiths believed it was important to help those who were
less fortunate. Modjeska's parents also gave her a sense of racial pride,
decorating their home with hard to find pictures of African-American leaders.
From her father, she learned to stand up for herself and not to be afraid of
anyone. She related in an interview an account of an
incident that occurred early in her life when her family was in Huntsville, Alabama.
There had been a lynching. Her father, who she described as "...a fearless
man..." later told his family that one of the lynchers
came in and showed him the finger of the black victim, "...to intimidate
him, I guess..." But Henry Monteith was not to
be intimidated. "...he offered to fight them with his trowel and hammer.
They didn't bother him anymore..." (Hall, 1976).
From her mother and her aunts she learned that community service was
important. Modjeska's mother taught Sunday school at local churches. Modjeska's
mother and aunts were active in the women's auxilliary
of the Masons, where they helped organize medical care for black tubercular
patients. They were also members of the NAACP. Modjeska's mother Rachel had
been active in the Niagara movement and had
often read to her children from its journal. The Niagara movement was organized
by W.E.B. DuBois in 1905, and while it did not have a
great political impact by itself, it laid out many of the demands for
desegregation and civil rights which were adopted several years later by the
NAACP at its founding.
The parents stressed the importance of education. Modjeska's father was the
son of a white lawyer, Walter Monteith, and his family's
black nursemaid, Mary Dobbins. As a child, he was sent to live and work on a
white family's plantation near Columbia.
He was treated well, but he did not have the opportunity to go beyond the third
grade and trained as a brick-mason. In a 1977 interview, Modjeska recalled that
her father deeply regretted his lack of educational opportunity. Apparently
Walter Monteith gave Henry's mother money for his
education, but she spent it on other things (Aba-Mecha,
1978). Henry was determined that his children would have an education.
Modjeska's mother, the descendent of slaves, was an educated woman and a
role model at a time when even most whites did not have a high school
education. Rachel Hull and her sisters had attended Howard
Free School,
the first public secondary school for African-Americans in South Carolina and had become teachers.
Rachel had taught school before Modjeska was born, but was able to afford to
stay at home while her children were small. Modjeska learned to read at home
before she was old enough to go to school. Her mother made sure that Modjeska
and her siblings had a realistic picture of the world outside. She read Bible
stories and fairy tales to the children as well as newspaper stories, including
both good and bad news.
Educational opportunities for African-Americans were very limited in the
early 1900s, so Modjeska attended the "practice school" at Benedict College from elementary school through
her own college years. A practice school was a college that provided hands-on
training for teachers. Many white northerners had come South
to teach at Benedict, and Modjeska later recalled that she received an
excellent grounding there in the humanities. Modjeska was already so
well-prepared for school that she began her formal education as a second
grader.
After graduating from college in 1921, Modjeska taught for a year at Benedict College where she had the opportunity to
share one of her loves, medieval history, with her students. In 1922 she was
employed at Booker T. Washington High School as a teacher. Although she loved
math, there were no openings in that field so she taught for a year in the
elementary education department. Here, as a young woman, she began to show the
willingness to challenge authority and to stand up for her beliefs that would
characterize her entire life. She refused to teach South
Carolina history because she had no respect for the text, entitled
Some History of South Carolina.
The next year a position in mathematics became available. She subsequently
taught math until her marriage in 1929 to businessman Andrew Whitfield Simkins. Modjeska soon was forced to leave her position,
because the school system refused to employ married women. Modjeska once
commented that the school system was probably glad to see her go, because she
never hesitated to speak up at faculty meetings or make her views known (Hall,
1976).
Fortunately for the future of the civil rights movement, Modjeska Simkins had what was certainly an unusual marriage for that
day. Somewhat older than his wife, Andrew Simkins was
in the real estate business. A prominent member of the African-American
community, he had taught wheelwrighting
at South Carolina
State and had sold life
insurance in the past. He was also a good carpenter who laid new floors in
their home, and who had been married and widowed twice before he met Modjeska.
On the surface he would seem to be a traditional man, but he was supportive of
her decision to have a career even as their family grew. He even used his
connections to recommend her for the job she assumed with the S.C. Tuberculosis
Association in 1931. Over the years, they had three children of their own in
addition to caring for the five children of his previous marriages, who
initially lived with relatives rather than with the couple. A relative who had
cared for some of the children moved in and continued to care for them. They
hired household help to look after their home. The energetic Mrs. Simkins was not content with the traditional role of wife
and mother that was the norm for those women of the day who could afford not to
work outside the home. She helped Andrew in his business before going back to
paid employment. In an interview, Mrs. Simkins once
commented: "I never ironed a dress shirt for my husband in my life"
(Hall, 1976). That was the housekeeper's job. Andrew favored change and stood
by his wife but he was not an activist himself.
He did not object to the travels which took her away from home, but he was a
social man who loved to be around people. Modjeska recounted that she often
came home from her trips to find company in the house. He "felt
indebted" to the many people who helped her on the road - in those days,
there were no hotels in the South that would provide rooms for black people. He
did not forget their friends (Hall, 1976).
Modjeska's skills were never needed more than during the 1930s. The
Depression was a difficult period for people throughout the United States.
But it was especially hard for South
Carolina's African-American population, who saw the
businesses where they worked close and competition for jobs increase. As whites
lost jobs, they moved into positions that had traditionally been held by
blacks. In the first nine months of 1930 alone, jobs for South Carolina's African-Americans dropped
by nearly 35% (Lofton, "The Columbia Black Community..."). Federal
jobs provided through the New Deal helped, but in most places in South Carolina whites
received preference. Although the WPA, a federal relief agency, did not
discriminate in terms of salary, the better jobs in all the relief programs
almost always went to whites. In 1935, Modjeska Simkins
and other black leaders attended a meeting called by WPA officials concerning
prospective jobs. Learning that the WPA officials planned to offer blacks only
low-skilled manual labor positions, Modjeska and another leader, Dr. Robert Mance, demanded better jobs for African-Americans. The
result was that the WPA hired black teachers for the schools and black
professionals for a state history project and an anti-tuberculosis project in Columbia. These reforms
were unique.
The 1930s was also a time when equal rights for African-Americans came onto
the national agenda. Congress began to discuss passing an anti-lynching bill in
1935. In South Carolina,
Modjeska Simkins and other African-American leaders
responded with the formation of a pressure group, the State Negro Citizens
Committee. Modjeska Simkins was secretary of the
organization and Dr. Mance was president. The
organization lobbied for the bill, contacting President and Mrs. Roosevelt, the
vice president, and both of South
Carolina's senators, who opposed the bill. The bill
failed, as did another introduced two years later, but the debate helped to
energize black leaders, who had rarely challenged any actions of the white
establishment in South Carolina. Black college students began to organize to
protest lynchings by the late 1930s, and black
leaders organized the Columbia Civic Welfare League, which was protesting
police brutality and a variety of discriminatory practises.
Modjeska served as secretary for the organization.
During the same period when she became a political activist, Modjeska Simkins resumed her paid employment. Modjeska assumed the
position of Director of Negro Work at the SC Tuberculosis Association in 1931,
a job she held for the next eleven years. It required a great deal of
fundraising and opened her eyes to the extreme poverty and lack of political
power of most of South Carolina's
African-Americans. This was a period when most South Carolina African-Americans
earned their living farming, generally as tenant farmers. Black men in
the state earned only about 58% of what white men made, and black women earned
only 40% of what white women earned. The death rate for blacks was much higher
than that for whites. Typically both urban and rural blacks lived in poorly
constructed homes without running water or indoor bathrooms. Black
neighborhoods lacked sewers and paved streets (Hemmingway, 1976). Modjeska
traveled around the state at a time when most of the poor knew little of good
health practises, supervising clinics and educating
people about immunizations, maternity and child care and sanitation. She also
published a newsletter and worked with black teachers and black physicians. She
taught health education courses in the summer at S.C. State College aimed at
teachers, midwives, and ministers. In the summer of 1937, the Association sent
her to Michigan
for advanced training. During these same years she became heavily involved in
volunteer work with the NAACP.
Modjeska's involvement with the NAACP began in her teens when she
accompanied her mother and her aunts to meetings of the Columbia branch. With only three local
chapters at the beginning of the 1930s, the organization rarely challenged the
status quo, but that began to change in the mid-1930s. In 1939 she became
involved in the organization of a state branch of the NAACP. At the urging of
Levi Byrd, a member from Cheraw, the local chapters, which had grown to eight, decided to join together. She was already a member of
the board of the Columbia
chapter, the largest in the state, and became one of only two women to serve on
the state board. The first president and secretary did not live in Columbia. It soon became
apparent that the organization needed local people in these positions. James M.
Hinton, a minister and independent insurance agent, was asked to serve as
president. He and Modjeska would work as a team. In 1941 she was elected state
secretary when Mattie Robinson, a key figure in the founding of the state
organization, asked her to assume that post. She was known to be a good speaker
and she also served as a member of the Speakers' Bureau. In 1941, Modjeska also
began her career as a journalist, writing for a black newspaper, The
Lighthouse and Informer, published by John McCray. This publication
presented the issues and views of the state NAACP. In the following years she
worked on civil rights issues with Osceola McKaine,
who became a close friend and an employee of her husband as well as associate
editor. In 1942 she took on the responsibility for the NAACP's publicity
committee as well, sending out publicity notices and reports of NAACP meetings
to local newspapers. She helped to organize other local chapters of the NAACP
and worked on civil rights litigation. Often she was the only woman or one of
only a few women in a leadership position in the organization. Her years with
the SC Tuberculosis Association had given her organizational experience. In
assessing her contributions, historian Charles W. Joyner writes: "The
importance of Mrs. Simkins in the history of the
South Carolina NAACP - and in the pursuit of equal justice in South Carolina - would be difficult to
overstate" (Joyner, 1981).
However, her political activism did not sit well with the white leaders of
the SC Tuberculosis Association. When she refused to drop her association with
the NAACP, the Tuberculosis Association decided to cut the funds to employ her,
and they parted company in 1942. She continued her work as a volunteer for the
NAACP until 1955. Fortunately, her husband made a good living, and losing her
paid employment was not an economic hardship.
One early NAACP project involved teacher salaries. Black teachers generally
were paid a lower salary than white teachers. The NAACP had to file separate
lawsuits in each school district. Many teachers were afraid to participate in
the suits. Modjeska was heavily involved in the NAACP-sponsored lawsuits that
won equal salaries for black teachers. In 1943 she became secretary of
the Teachers' Defense Fund, a committee established to raise money for the
lawsuit. She helped to pressure the Palmetto State Teachers' Association, the
organization of black teachers, into providing financial support. She worked
closely with the Columbia
teachers. She organized meetings, wrote letters, and wrote articles that were
published in black newspapers. In 1944 black teachers in Charleston
won their lawsuit and the following year, black teachers in Columbia were successful. After the NAACP won
the second lawsuit, school districts around the state began to equalize
salaries. The NAACP had won a victory, but the battle was far from over.
The alarmed white establishment began to impose economic reprisals. State
employees who became involved with NAACP litigation risked losing their jobs.
Many teachers were afraid to become involved with anything that smacked of
civil rights. They did not join or provide support for the NAACP as a result.
The organization decided to form the South Carolina Citizens' Committee as a front for the NAACP. Modjeska wrote the
organization's charter. The same people held the same offices as in the NAACP,
and contributions to the SCCC would end up in the coffers of the NAACP. The
organization remained in place until the battle over the white primary was
over, although some local chapters still existed long after, such as the
Richland County Citizens' Committee. The work would continue.
The next major project for the NAACP was the elimination of the white
primary, a project dear to the hearts of the state members. A court decision in
a 1944 Texas
case had declared political parties to be state organizations rather than
private clubs. Determined to stop blacks from voting, the S.C. state
legislature dropped all its primary voting laws so that the party would would qualify as a private
club outside of state control. Efforts by members of the NAACP, including
Modjeska Simkins, to register to vote in the
Democratic primary were unsuccessful until George Elmore, a taxidriver
with a light skin color, walked in and registered. Soon he became a plaintiff
in a lawsuit charging that skin color determined whether one could register and
the battle was on. Modjeska Simkins, who was
financially independent, was a financial supporter of
George Elmore. Although he won his lawsuit in 1947, the state NAACP had
to file a second lawsuit in order to secure the right for blacks to vote. They
won that suit in 1948. Modjeska, although not a lawyer, was quite familiar with
the issues in the cases. She helped to plan the legal strategy and even
attended the trials in both Columbia and in Washington, D.C.
Afterwards, she was one of many in the NAACP involved
in educating African-Americans across the state about their "new"
rights. This was necessary because South
Carolina changed its registration laws to make
registration and voting as difficult as possible for blacks.
In 1947 the NAACP sponsored a lawsuit designed to force the state to provide
bus transportation for black as well as white students. The suit arose in Clarendon County and was initially thrown out of
court on a technicality. By 1950 the case had evolved to a more general lawsuit
challenging segregation. The district court judge, J. Waties
Waring, was sympathetic and had ties with the
national NAACP. He was anxious to take on the "separate but equal
doctrine" that had ruled since an 1896 Supreme Court decision, Plessy v. Ferguson.
In 1950, at a national NAACP meeting, the organization agreed to change its
legal strategy from one of seeking equal education to eliminating segregation
altogether. With the support of the national NAACP, the state chapter decided
to pursue these broader goals. However, twenty people would have to be enlisted
as plaintiffs, a difficult task in one of the poorest counties in the state.
The farmer who had filed the initial lawsuit, Levi Pearson, found himself
without credit and thus unable to farm. Modjeska Simkins
helped to find the funds to enable the man to continue to make a living during
this difficult period. Much of the groundwork for the court case was done in
her home at her dining room table. Thurgood Marshall,
the NAACP lawyer who would argue the case, was a friend, and he stayed at her
home when he was in town. Other lawyers and staff members would stay nearby and
then meet at her house to work. With Rev. Joseph DeLaine,
a chapter president in Clarendon
County, Modjeska wrote
the statement that was used in the court case. As soon as twenty names were
obtained for the lawsuit, DeLaine and others involved
lost their jobs. But the NAACP went ahead and filed the case of Briggs v. Elliot. The case later became one of
the five desegregation suits grouped together by the Supreme Court and decided
as the historic Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
During this period life was very difficult for the brave individuals who
challenged the status quo. Segregationists formed a white Citizens Council in
1955 after black parents petitioned for school integration. The parents found
themselves jobless, without credit, and often homeless. Fourteen of seventeen
petitioners asked to have their names removed from the petition, claiming that
they hadn't understood what they were signing. Modjeska Simkins
was involved in helping to provide economic support for for
these people, who lived in Clarendon and Elloree
counties. Her brother Henry Monteith was president of
the Victory Savings Bank in Columbia.
The two sent out letters under the auspices of the state NAACP asking both
black and white organizations to deposit funds in the bank so they could make
loans to the victims of discrimination. Modjeska brought a trailer filled with
donated goods to Elloree to help the beleaguered
families there, some of whom lacked the most basic items of food and clothing.
She wrote articles for black newspapers publicizing what was happening and
which white businesses were withholding essential items from black businesses.
She wrote an article that was published in Jet Magazine that stimulated
contributions from all over the U.S.
and abroad. She received many small donations. Typical of the responses are the
following handwritten letters, both dated October 15, 1955: "Dear
Mrs. Simkins, Here is a small donation. Please take
it to help those people in Clarendon
County. Yours truly, Amston
Stokes." "Dear Mrs. Simkins,
My wife and I just read of the Citizen Council's inhuman attitude toward South
Carolina Negroes in Jet Magazine. May God help the suppressed colored
people in your state and elsewhere in the sleeping South...Sincerely,
Mr. and Mrs. William Stewart."
Mrs. Simkins continued her work with the NAACP.
But as the end of segregation approached, black organizations such as the NAACP
and black activists were often attacked and labeled as "Communists."
As the Cold War heated up in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Mrs. Simkins came to the attention of the U.S. House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC), which maintained a
file on her. Her friends included some leaders of the American Communist Party.
She would not turn her back on them. She publicly supported W.E.B. DuBois, who was tried in court for failing to register as a
Communist, and she campaigned for a Communist who ran for public office.
She belonged to a number of organizations that were watched by HUAC. These
included the Southern Negro Youth Congress and the Southern Conference for
Human Welfare. In 1952 she became the vice-president of the Southern Conference
Educational Fund, an offshoot of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare.
Several leaders of the American Communist Party belonged to those
organizations, which were labeled as Communist fronts. National NAACP officials
were not happy with Modjeska's Communist affiliations.
The South Carolina legislature asked the U.S. government
to put the NAACP on the "subversive list" in 1956. The 1957 meeting
of the South Carolina Conference of the NAACP marked the end of Modjeska's Simkins' formal association with the organization. She was
not asked to serve again as secretary, a position she had held for sixteen
years, but was replaced by the Rev. I. D. Newman. The parting of the ways was
not amicable and may have resulted in part from the Communist taint. Some
historians have suggested that the white establishment used the fear of Communism to pressure black organizations into removing the
most effective leaders (Aba-Mecha, 1978). NAACP
leaders were aware of the negative press that Mrs. Simkins
had received for her associations, and in 1954, the South Carolina press had publicized her
participation in a rally for a convicted Communist who was her friend. However,
in a 1977 interview, Mrs. Simkins attributed her
ouster to pressure by the white establishment on state president James Hinton
and felt that he had grown tired of fighting them (Aba-Mecha,
1977). Certainly, all of the leaders of the state NAACP had faced
intimidation. Some had lost their jobs, some had been imprisoned, and some,
like Hinton and Simkins, had shots fired into their
homes. Even the white judge who had helped to get the school desegregation
lawsuit started, Waties Waring,
had retired and moved to New York.
In a memo to the officers and members of local branches, Mrs. Simkins responded to a news release issued by the NAACP,
which stated tactfully that she had "declined re-election" as state
secretary. Never one to mince words, she stated: "...I
did not! This deliberate untruth naturally could have lead
my hundreds of friends and acquaintances throughout the Nation to believe that
I had turned my back on my people and our cause in this needy time. Without
exception, however, those who have talked with me since have refused to accept
the inference of the ulterior assertion that I 'declined re-election.' " (Simkins, Memo...) She
retained her membership in the NAACP, but from that time on, focused on
volunteer work at the local level and on paid employment.
Her enemies continued to wave the red flag of Communism over the years. In
1966, when Mrs. Simkins agreed to speak at a dinner
for Dr. Herbert Aptheker, Director of the Institute of Marxist Studies
in New York City,
Governor McNair and other leaders of the state Democratic Party demanded that
she leave the party. At that time she was running for the state House of
Representatives and was also engaged in a political battle with McNair and
other Democratic leaders who she accused of "...foot-dragging on
desegregation, especially in mental health institutions" ("Mrs. Simkins Asked to Leave..."). Her response was they
could leave, but she was staying, and that she had seen Aptheker
just once since she had met him during World War II, but considered him a
"scholar and gentleman..." ("Mrs. Simkins
Asked to Leave..."). On a copy of a newspaper article about the conflict
that she had clipped, she noted: "The fact is that I do not give a half a damn about all three
[public officials demanding her ouster] put together." In a later
interview, Modjeska Simkins stated that she had never
belonged to the Communist Party, but that she had joined a lot of groups that
were called Communist fronts "so that I've been Red-smeared up and down
South Carolina" (Hall, 1976).
In 1956 Modjeska Simkins once again took a
salaried job, as public-relations director at Victory Savings Bank, where her
brother was president. In an interview conducted in 1977, Mrs. Simkins stated that she took the job at the request of her
mother, who wanted at least one family member to remain active in the bank. At
that time, her brother was not well (Aba-Mecha,
1977). She remained with the bank until 1982, heading the bookkeeping
department and then managing a branch. A full-time job took up much of her
time, and the primary focus of her civic activities became local.
Throughout her life Modjeska Simkins was a
community activist. Her name comes up again and again, whenever an organization
is formed or efforts are made to alleviate conditions for African-Americans in South Carolina through
much of the twentieth century. She was involved with the South Carolina
Committee of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, a bi-racial
organization that attempted to improve black-white relations. She participated
in the Durham Conference, a meeting of black leaders in 1942 that led to the
formation of the Southern Regional Council. In the 1940s she served as
public relations officer for the Columbia Town Hall Congress, an interracial
organization which provided intellectual and moral support to enlisted
servicemen and for the Columbia Women's Council, a black women's organization
whose goal was to encourage black citizens to register and vote. She also
served as vice president of the Richland County Division of the Southern
Regional Council. She worked with the Southern Conference for Human Welfare as
it sought to bring about integration. She directed a campaign to renovate Good
Samaritan Hospital, a black-owned hospital and the only facility in the area
that served blacks. In the 1950s she was the South Carolina liaison for the Civil Rights
Congress and the United Negro and Allied
Veterans of America, an organization that provided support services for
veterans returning from the war. She was director of the Richland County
Citizens' Committee through much of this period, an organization involved in
community affairs and a black activist group. Through this organization she
worked to desegregate city recreation facilities and to integrate the South Carolina Mental Hospital. In the early 1960s the
group was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to desegregate city schools. She
continued her work with this group through the 1970s.
Mrs. Simkins understood the importance of
participating in the electoral process. She knew that it would take more than
just registering and voting to bring about change. She ran for political office
four times herself, running for City Council in 1966 and 1983, for the school
board, and for the State House of Representatives. She never won any elected
office.
She was active in both the Republican and Democratic parties, but then
became disillusioned about each. However, she never tied herself down to one
party. Initially she was a Republican at a time when the Democratic Party in
the South had no place for blacks. She was a delegate to the Republican
National Convention in 1944. She also supported the Progressive Democratic
Party, originally the Colored Democratic Party, formed by Osceola McKaine and John McCray in 1944, writing, planning and
organizing. Despite her connections to the Republicans, she worked for McKaine in his unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate that
year. In 1948 she supported the third party candidacy of National Progressive
Party candidate Henry Wallace. Years later she was involved with another third
party, the United Citizens' Party, and served as its chair.
She left the Republican Party after the national Democrat Party became associated
with civil rights in the late 1940s. Segregationist white Democrats in the
South began to shift their allegiance to the Republicans, so the party was no
longer a comfortable place for a black activist. They were "looking funny
at me...Well, they looked like they had crawled out of some cracks from
somewhere..." (Hall, 1976). She left the
Republican Party for good in 1952. In a public statement in October 1952, she
explained that she was voting for Democratic presidential candidate Adlai
Stevenson because Republican candidate Dwight Eisenhower, "a man of good
intentions - though often ill-advised..." had come to South Carolina and
associated with "bad company..." which was "...not only opposed
to the fuller life of my people, they are a blighting influence upon the state
of South Carolina..." (Simkins, "I Shall
Vote...").
The Democrats, in turn, failed to bring about the change she desired. In a
1981 letter to the chair of the state Democratic Party, she said:
"Frankly, I owe no allegiance to the State Democratic Party, due to its
historical and traditional treatment of my people by denying the constitutional
liberties guaranteed to native born Americans for centuries, and more recently
rights given under constitutional amendments. Additionally, the state party
employed and still uses various and vicious subterfuges to deny Negroes the
full right to vote effectively...I consider myself a National Democrat, of
which there are very, very few in South
Carolina. Being independent in political philosophy,
I am not married to any party..." (Letter to W.J. Bryan Dorn)
The often ascerbic Mrs. Simkins
understood that to bring about political change required constant pressure. To
the establishment, satisfied with the status quo and accustomed to dictating to
minorities who felt powerless to bring about change, she must have seemed like
a mosquito that never stopped its buzzing. As she commented in an interview
conducted when she was 78, "You know, I was always afflicted with nose
trouble - I could never keep my nose out of
other people's business..." (Marsh). In mid-life,
she fought for civil rights and for better government. She spoke at city
council and school board meetings, demanding integration. She ran for political
office on a progressive, clean up government platform. She founded and held a
leadership role in the Richland County Citizens' Council, a grassroots
organization that focused on honesty in government and voter registration. In
her later years, at a time of life when most people would have been content to
sit in a rocking chair by the fire, dozing and dreaming about the past,
Modjeska Simkins remained an activist. Speaking to a
group of college students when she was 90 years old, Mrs. Simkins
told the students they must vote if they wished to bring about change. She
said: "The vote is the thing that makes a difference between a free man
and a slave" (Ellison, 1990).
As a civil rights activist who grew up when there were few opportunities for
African-Americans, Mrs. Simkins was somewhat
skeptical about the complaints of those who found integration difficult to
swallow. In a 1986 interview, she commented: "Today you hear a lot about
busing. Well, there never was a whimper when white children were being bused
and black children were walking...When they start busing black children, then
comes this bellyaching about busing. As late as 1934 there were a number of
black schools in this state running only four months...The Negro parents would
get together and have fish fries or some kind of activity to raise some money
and get this $50 to pay this teacher another month. When it got up to $75, it
was just like going to heaven without dying. You see, that's the separate but
equal they were talking about..." (Moniz, "I've always been...")
In her lifetime Mrs. Simkins was recognized for
her contributions with a number of honors and awards. She received the Order of
the Palmetto from the state of South
Carolina. The Columbia
branch of the NAACP named a scholarship in her honor, and
in 1980 an endowment that bestowed funds on small nonprofit
organizations was named for her. Benedict
College honored her by
giving her name to its research archives. A portrait painted by South Carolina artist
Larry Lebby hangs in the South Carolina Statehouse.
In 1996 a community group began to raise funds to preserve Modjeska Simkins' house, which had been empty since her death.
The house, which is over 100 years old, was purchased by the Simkins in 1932 and was the nerve center for the planning
for much civil rights strategy. Because the house was in poor condition, the
city of Columbia
had planned to demolish it despite its listing on the National Register of
Historic Places. Under the leadership of a community group, the Collaborative
for Community Trust, about $60,000 of the needed $325,000 was raised within a
year. By late 2002, the restoration had been completed. The house has been
restored as nearly as possible to the way it was in Modjeska Simkins' time. Fund-raising continued in order to restore
and preserve furniture and other antiques that were donated. As of late 2007,
the Historic Columbia Foundation had assumed responsibility for management of
the Simkins house. More information is available by
calling 803-929-7742 or at their website.
Those who knew her remember Modjeska Simkins as an
outspoken woman who never hesitated to say what was on her mind. When she saw
something that was wrong, she tried to make it right. Judge Matthew Perry said
of her: "I think she probably will be remembered as a woman who challenged
everyone. She challenged the white political leadership of the state to do what
was fair and equitable among all people. And she challenged black citizens to
stand up and demand their rightful place in the state and the nation" (Krell, 1992). George Murphy, Jr., who first met Modjeska in
1927 and who worked with her in the 1940s when he was adjutant general of the
United Negro and Allied Veterans, described her as "one of the great black
women of the South" and said she had "...a sense of mission with the
poor..." at a time when blacks were very poor and the races were separated
(Murphy). She took on such establishment figures as Senators Hollings and
Thurmond, and expressed her scorn at the failure of religious leaders and
organized religion to play a strong role in solving social problems.
Although she spent her life fighting for civil rights for
African-Americans, Modjeska Simkins' concerns and
compassion extended to all of society's downtrodden.
In an interview she once said: "I don't want to see anybody suffer, and I
will fight for anybody who is suffering...You know we are all a part of
humanity, and when one of us loses, we all lose. When one human being dies,
each of us dies a little bit too" ("Remembering Modjeska;"
Marsh).
Carol Sears Botsch, USC
Aiken
[email protected]
The Modjeska Monteith Simkins
papers are held by the South Caroliniana Library at
the University of South Carolina, Columbia,
South Carolina, in the Modern Political
Collections.
A documentary produced by SCETV
entitled Makin' A Way Out of No
Way: Modjeska Monteith Simkins,
may be of interest to readers of this web site. Contact South Carolina ETV
for further information on availability.
Sources:
"A Heroine in Her Own Time," Palmetto Post (February 28,
1985), n.p. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Aba-Mecha, Barbara W. "South Carolina
Conference of NAACP: Origin and Major Accomplishments, 1939-1954," Proceedings
of the South Carolina Historical Association (1981), pp.1-21.
Bedenbaugh, Amy. "Seek 'audacious power' for
equality fight, Columbia
civil rights leader tells blacks." The Gamecock (April 18, 1984), n.p. Modjeska Monteith
Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana
Library, University
of South Carolina.
Billington, Thomas. "Area Negro Schools
Inferior to White, Committee Charges," Columbia
Record (May 12, 1965), n.p.
Modjeska Monteith Simkins
Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina
Bolton, Warren.
"Portrait in South Carolina House honors civil rights pioneer Simkins," The State (April 26, 1995), n.p. Modjeska Monteith
Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana
Library, University
of South Carolina
Bursey,
Brett. "Modjeska," Point (May 1992), p.10. Reprinted as
"Remembering Modjeska," Point (January 1995), p.6. Modjeska Monteith Simkins
Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Burton,
Orville Vernon. untitled paper on Modjeska Simkins. Modjeska Monteith
Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana
Library, University
of South Carolina.
"Citizens' Group Endorses Chase for County
Sheriff," Columbia
Record (October 7, 1976), n.p.
Modjeska Monteith Simkins
Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
"Civil Rights Group Proposes Abolition of Full-Slate Law," Columbia
Record (December 15, 1969), p.1B. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
The Columbia
College Afro-American
Club. "A Portrait of the Columbia Black Woman:
1800s-Present." video. 1982.
Davis, Marianna (editor). Contributions of Black Women to America
Volume II (Columbia, S.C.: Kenday
Press, 1982), pp.103-105.
Davis, Michelle R. "Artist paints portrait of former state
justice," Augusta Chronicle (February 27, 1998),
http://augustachronicle.com/stories/022798/met_124-1050.shtml (June 30, 1999)
"Do Not Wish Booker Washington High School Moved," The Palmetto
Leader (June 20, 1966), p.1. Modjeska Monteith
Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana
Library, University
of South Carolina.
Eichel, Henry. "Civil rights pioneer Simkins lauded as mother of S.C. efforts," The
Charlotte Observer (April 10, 1992), 1A, 5A.
Ellison, Soyia. "Activist
Urges Student Involvement." The Daily Tar Heel
(November 13, 1990), p.1, 7. Modjeska Monteith
Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana
Library, University
of South Carolina
Hall, Jacqueline.
Interview with Modjeska Simkins.
July 28-31, 1976. History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection of
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana
Library, University
of South Carolina.
Hemmingway, Theodore. Beneath the Yoke of Bondage: A History of Black
Folks in South Carolina,
1900 - 1940 (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University
Microfilms International, 1976).
Hinshaw, Dawn. "Preservation of home allows
civil rights legacy to live on." The State (May
26, 1997), p.A1, A8.
"House a Living Legacy of Civil Rights Struggle," The State
(February 3, 1999), p.B1.
Joyner, Charles W. "Commentaries," The
Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association (1981), pp.23-27.
"Keller H. Bumgardner, First Recipient of the
Modjeska Simkins Prize." The
Chronicle (April 17, 1982), p.5B. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Krell, G. Kent. "Modjeska Simkins
raised hell among the peckerwoods." The State (April 8, 1992), A12.
Lester, Will. "Modjeska: A Veteran in the fight for Civil and Human
Rights." The State (June 28, 1981), n.p. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana
Library, University
of South Carolina.
Lofton, Paul S. Jr. "Calm and Exemplary: Desegregation in Columbia, South
Carolina," in Southern Businessmen and
Desegregation (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982)
Lofton, Paul. "The Columbia Black Community in the
1930s," The Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association
(1984), pp.86-95.
Marsh, Marian. "Modjeska Simkins. Activist. Banker.Warrior. Teacher.
Philosopher. Humanist." Antie
Bellum (Summer-Fall, 1977), pp.2-4. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Moniz, Dave. "I've always been an independent thinker," The
State (March 9, 1986), 48-51.
"Mrs. Simpkins [sic] Asked to Leave Democratic Party," Columbia
Record (April 15, 1966), n.p.
Modjeska Monteith Simkins
Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina
Murphy, George Jr. Interview conducted at office of Afro-American Newspaper,
September 2, 1976. Modjeska Monteith
Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana
Library, University
of South Carolina.
O'Shea, Margaret N. "Committee Demands Hospital Accounting," The
State (May 3, 1973), n.p. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina.
Price, H.D. The Negro and Southern Politics (New York: New York
University Press, 1957)
Rantin, Bertram. "Group plans to restore Simkins' house." The State (May 22, 1996), A1,
A10.
"The Richland
County Citizens Committee
Stays on the Firing Line." Memo, n.d.
Modjeska Monteith Simkins
Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
"Services for Mrs. Simkins
Thursday at 1," the State (April 8, 1992), 4B.
Simkins, Modjeska Monteith.
Letter to Mr. W.J. Bryan Dorn. April 16, 1981. Modjeska Monteith Simkins
Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Simkins,
Modjeska M. "An Appeal." n.d. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana
Library, University
of South Carolina.
Simkins, Modjeska. Draft of article submitted to Norfolk, Va.
Journal and Guide, August 1947. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Simkins, Modjeska. "I Shall Vote for Adlai
Stevenson." Written announcement. October 22,
1952. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana
Library, University
of South Carolina.
Simkins, Modjeska. untitled
campaign paper of February 24, 1966. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Simkins, Modjeska. Letter to the
State newspaper. May 18, 1981. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Simkins, Modjeska. Press
release. 1984 campaign. Modjeska
Monteith Simkins Papers,
South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Simkins, Modjeska. "S.C.
Race Relations Mostly Cosmetic." The Charleston Chronicle
(June 6, 1981). n.p.
Modjeska Monteith Simkins
Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Simkins, Modjeska. Memo to
officers and members of local branches of NAACP. n.d. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana
Library, University
of South Carolina.
Simkins, Modjeska. Transcript of
broadcast for Richland County Citizens' Council. February 27, 1976. Modjeska Monteith Simkins
Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Simkins, Modjeska. Transcript of
broadcast for Richland County Citizens' Council. May 5, 1976. Modjeska Monteith Simkins
Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Sloan, Eugene B. "Freeman Declared Winner: Mrs. Simkins
Gives Protest," The State (March 5, 1966), p. 1B. Modjeska Monteith Simkins
Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Southern, David W. "Beyond Jim Crow Liberalism: Judge Waring's Fight Against Segregation in South Carolina,
1942-52," The Journal of Negro History LXVI
(Fall 1981), pp.209-227.
Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. William. Letter
to Modjeska Simkins. October 15, 1955. Modjeska Monteith Simkins
Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Stokes, Amston. Letter to Modjeska Simkins.
October 15, 1955. Modjeska Monteith
Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana
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"Testimonial for a Communist." The Columbia
Record (April 12, 1966), p. 10A. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
"Un-American Activity Group Exhibits List Mrs. Simkins." The News and Courier (October
23, 1953), n.p. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South
Carolina.
Wickenberg, Charles H. Jr. "Simkins leaves legacy of civil rights victories," The
State (April 6, 1992), pp.1A, 5A.
Woods, Barbara. "Mary Modjeska Monteith
Simkins (1899-1992)" in Black Women in
America (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Carlson Publishing Company, 1993), pp.1032-1035.
Woods, Barbara. "Modjeska Simkins
(1899- )," in Notable Black American Women (Detroit: Gale Research,
Inc., 1992), pp.1011-1015.
Woods, Barbara A. "Modjeska Simkins and the
South Carolina Conference of the NAACP, 1939-1957" in Women in the
Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941-1965 (Black
Women in United States History series). (Brooklyn, N.Y.:
Carlson Publishing Company, 1990), pp.99-120.
Research for this project was supported by a
Faculty Exchange grant from the University
of South Carolina.
last
updated 12/14/2007
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