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Thursday, February 15th
5:30 — 7:30 p.m.
Columbia Conversations | Injustice in Focus: The Civil Rights Photography of Cecil Williams
Boyd Horticultural Center : 1615 Blanding Street, Columbia, SC 29201
Join Historic Columbia and the South Carolina State Museum for an engaging discussion and book signing event with award-winning journalist and author Claudia Smith Brinson in conversation with Civil Rights photographer, Cecil Williams. In the new biography on Cecil Williams, Brinson delves into the life and perspective of Williams, documenting his involvement in the South Carolina Civil Rights Movement from the 1940s through the 1960s behind the camera lens. Connected with the rich research and history of the movement by Brinson are over 80 photographs taken by Williams of protests, marches, and individuals involved in the South Carolina Civil Rights Movement.
Light refreshments will be served following the event.
Books are available for purchase onsite from USC Press beginning at 5:00 p.m.
About Cecil Williams
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Orangeburg native Cecil Williams started photographing the cultural and social changes in his hometown and around the state at the age of nine. Today, he owns the largest collection of images reflecting racial change in America. After publishing four documentaries over the past three decades, he rejoices joining with Claudia Brinson to create Injustice in Focus. In 2019, he and his family founded the Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum, the only one of its kind in this state.
Recently, in addition to over two hundred awards and citations, he earned the Governor’s Award for the Humanities, the Order of the Palmetto, and The Times and Democrat’s 2018 Person of the Year. “Any success I have can be attributed to so many people whose shoulders I stand on, then and now,” Williams said.
About Claudia Smith Brinson
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Claudia Smith Brinson has worked at newspapers in Greece, Florida, and South Carolina for more than 30 years. She spent most of her career with Knight Ridder at The State newspaper, working as a senior writer, national writing coach, columnist, and associate editor for the editorial page. She has published essays in women’s magazines, and her short fiction awards include the O. Henry, given for “Einstein’s Daughter,” as well as recognition by the National League of Pen Women and “Iowa Woman” literary journal. In 2020, the University of South Carolina Press published Stories of Struggle: The Clash Over Civil Rights in South Carolina, which tells the stories of participants in Briggs v. Elliott, the first of five lawsuits in Brown v. Board; student sit-ins and nonviolent protests; and the 1969 Charleston Hospital Strike through her interviews with more than 150 civil rights activists.
