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Friday, January 13th
10 — 10:30 a.m.
Historical Marker Unveiling - The Horseshoe at USC
The Horseshoe at USC : 900 Sumter St., Columbia, SC 29201
Representatives from the University of South Carolina (USC), the USC Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Historic Columbia will dedicate a South Carolina Historical Marker at the USC Horseshoe in honor of USC during Reconstruction. The media and the public are invited to attend.
South Carolina Historical Markers, a program of the State Historic Preservation Office, mark and interpret places important to an understanding of South Carolina's past, either as the sites of significant events, or at historic properties such as buildings, sites, structures or other resources significant for their design. The USC Horseshoe historical marker will recognize USC during Reconstruction. People of African descent have been integral to USC since its founding. In the early days of the university enslaved people lived and worked on campus. After the Civil War a new state constitution required that “public schools, colleges, and universities be free and open to all...without regard to race.” In 1869, the S.C. legislature appointed two African Americans, Benjamin Boseman and Francis Cardozo, to the board of trustees.
In 1873, Henry E. Hayne was the first African American student admitted to USC In the same year the school hired Richard T. Greener as its first African American faculty member. In the years 1873-77 USC was the only public university in the South to desegregate. After Reconstruction the state legislature closed USC from 1877-80. It reopened as an all-white institution. Not until 1963 did USC again admit Black students.