“First Black USC Graduate Returns To Campus”

The State, April 25, 1981
Modjeska Simpkins Papers, 1909-1992
University of South Carolina, South Carolina Political Collections

50th Anniversary of Desegregation of the University of South Carolina
http://www.sc.edu/desegregation/

Long Integration

Although African-American men attended the University of South Carolina briefly during Reconstruction (1863-1877), non-white students were otherwise not allowed until the middle of the twentieth century. In 1952, “Lily” Wen-pei Li from Taiwan became the first Asian woman to attend UofSC. She took graduate courses in English, wishing to then return home to teach. By 1955, many students from China were admitted to graduate programs. Ten years later, the Chinese Student Club sponsored a series of stories in The Gamecock to better other students’ understanding of Asian culture. 

In September 1963, following a class-action lawsuit over the University’s rejection of applicants due to race, three African Americans enrolled, the first to do so since the 1870s. They included Robert G. Anderson, James L. Solomon, and Columbia native Henrie Monteith, who came from a family of civil rights activists. “My mother and Aunt Modjeska [Simpkins] instilled in me an understanding that something needed to be done.” Therefore, joining the fight to desegregate the institution “was a natural decision. In a sense, I was raised for that moment. It was my turn.” 

With a similarly determined spirit, many other students worked to diversify UofSC over the following decades. Presently, the undergraduate population is 1.5% Asian, 4% Hispanic, 10.2% African American, and 54% female. More work still has to be done, and students continue to lead the charge. On June 19, 2020, or Juneteenth, a proposal titled Revision 2020 was presented to the University administration requesting that the leadership and Board of Trustees take a definitive stance to right the inequities facing marginalized students.