August is Back to School Month

As you prepare for the new school year, the South Carolina State Library is a valuable resource offering an extensive collection of books to aid and assist your learning journey - such as our selection below focused on education and the history of school integration.

From engaging novels and essential textbooks to comprehensive study guides and educational tools, the library's collection meets the diverse needs of learners across the state. Whether you're a student seeking inspiration, a teacher looking for innovative classroom materials, or a parent aiming to support your child's education, the South Carolina State Library has a rich array of essential books to explore for the school year.

 

Cover of Historical Black Colleges and Universities

Historical Black Colleges and Universities in a Globalizing World: The Past, Present, and Future

Alem Hailu

This book examines the unique contribution of HBCUs, arguing that through their distinct public education, engagement, and activism, they have been at the forefront of leading global transformations. The book also argues that HBCUs can do more by paying more attention to the issue of enrollment, leadership, finances, and graduation standards.

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Cover of Annabell’s Best Fall Ever

Annabell’s Best Fall Ever

Rhonda Askins Leonard

As the days grow shorter and the leaves change colors, Annabelle and her friends get ready to go back to school and enjoy the best fall ever! From gathering school supplies and getting a checkup from her doctor and dentist, to dancing, bobbing for apples and riding in a hot air balloon, each day is full of colorful adventures. Join Annabelle, Mingo Rose the Elephant, Leonard the Lion, Rico the Cheetah, Glory the Zebra and Gazzie the Gazelle as they learn shapes, colors and numbers, and share in their fun at the annual Fall Festival. Annabelle is a colorful giraffe whose optimism is as bright as her spots. She's the star of the Annabelle's Best Ever series by author and illustrator Rhonda Atkins Leonard. Annabelle always looks for the silver lining. She wants to make every day the best ever, and she encourages her eclectic group of friends to do the same. Together, they are preparing for a lifetime of adventures and teach lessons along the way to their young fans - to love their friends, for instance, or that it is normal to be scared. These beautiful watercolor illustrations and magnificent stories are sure to bring a smile to every child and to spark their imagination.

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Cover of South Carolina

South Carolina

Rhonda Askins Leonard

Describes the geography, plants and animals, history, economy, language, religions, culture, sports and arts, and people of the state of South Carolina.

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Cover of Invisible No More

Invisible No More: The African American Experience at the University of South Carolina

Robert Green II and Tyler D. Parry

Invisible No More details the long and complex history of people of African descent at South Carolina's flagship university. Essays by twelve scholars explore a broad range of topics, from an examination of the lives of the enslaved men and women who lived and worked on the campus, to the first desegregation during the Reconstruction era, and continuing through the famous 1963 desegregation of the school and its long aftermath. This is the first single volume to examine the presence of Black people at a state university during the eras of slavery, Reconstruction, Civil Rights, Black Power, and Black Lives Matter.A foreword is provided by Valinda W. Littlefield, associate professor of history and African American studies at the University of South Carolina. Henrie Monteith Treadwell, research professor of community health and preventative medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine and one of the first three African American students to attend the university in the twentieth century, provides an afterword"

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Cover of Struggling to Learn

Struggling to Learn An Intimate History of School Desegregation in South Carolina

June Manning Thomas

Author June Manning Thomas offers an intimate history of her experiences in Orangeburg, South Carolina during the 1960s. Thomas was among the plaintiffs in the court case Adams v. School Dist. No. 5, Orangeburg County (1964) and as a result was part of the first group of African American students to attend racially integrated public schools in Orangeburg. Thomas discusses her experiences with a sense of emotion and intimacy that helps readers to better comprehend the complexity of this moment. An academic by training, having received a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning and holding a distinguished professorship at the University of Michigan, Thomas overlays her own memories with archival research and secondary literature. This results in a historically minded memoir that deftly weaves broad historical context with a keen sense of personal experience. Thomas again brings a unique insight that builds upon the position of her family in the struggle for desegregation. Thomas' father was H.V. Manning, who served as president of Claflin University (1956-1984). This gave Thomas a unique position from which to view events in South Carolina, and especially in Orangeburg. Even in the sections of the manuscript that are more focused on historical framing, Thomas suffuses the text with her personal experiences and insights. Chapter 2, for instance, discusses her father's role in working for greater educational access for African Americans students. Chapter 5 then talks about economic boycotts in Orangeburg as a mechanism of protest. It also offers a first-hand account of the Orangeburg Movement. The heart of the book, however, comes in chapters 7-9, where Thomas discusses her own experiences as one of the first generation of African American students in South Carolina to attend desegregated schools, first in Orangeburg and then at Furman University in Greenville. Thomas' narrative is rich and complex. It highlights the ambiguities and internal tensions of the struggle for school desegregation and this period of South Carolina's history more generally"

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Cover of College in Black and White

College in Black and White: African American Students in Predominantly White and in Historically Black Public Universities

Walter Recharde Allen

Orienting perspectives to the study of Black students in U.S. higher education -- The undergraduate years: empirical research findings -- The graduate and professional years: empirical research findings -- Practical issues in the higher education of Black Americans.

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Cover of Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education: Its Impact on Public Education, 1954-2004

Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund

The ruling that changed America / Juan Williams -- I: Its impact on law -- 1. Crumbs from the table of plenty: Brown and the ongoing struggle from educational equity in American schools / Gloria J. Browne-Marshall -- 2. Implications of the 1993 Brown III case on Topeka public schools / Judith Lynne McConnell, Blythe Hinitz & Gloria A. Dye -- 3. South Carolina: winning the battle over De Jure segregation, losing the war over De Facto segregation / Jackie R. Booker -- 4. Brown and gender discrimination / Elizabeth Davenport -- The jurisprudential impact of Brown v. Board of education / Kevin H. Smith -- II: Its impact on historically black colleges and universities -- 6. Trapped in the back of the bus: black colleges, the courts and desegregation rulings / Saran Donahoo & Denise O. Green -- 7. An examination of the struggle for equity in higher education: litigation in the Ayers v. Fordice case in Mississippi / Andrew Ann Dinkins Lee -- 8. The impact of Brown v. Board of education on black colleges: the tragedy of a dream deferred / Amiri Yasin Al-Hadid -- 9. The impact of the Brown decision on public HBCUs / Mickey L. Burnim -- 10. The Brown decision in local context: race and public education in Norfolk, Virginia / Jeffrey Lynn Littlejohn -- 11. Leveling the playing field: the challenge of preparing globally competent African-American college graduates / Roberta J. Wilburn.

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You Need a Schoolhouse

You Need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South

Stephanie Deutsch

Prologue, May 1911 -- "No white man -- could do better" -- Peddler's son -- A lucky chance, a daunting task -- "You need a schoolhouse" -- An American citizen -- Lunch at the Blackstone -- Between Chicago and Tuskegee -- Swing low, sweet chariot -- A school in every county -- Rosenwald and Main: sweet home.

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Cover of Tri-County Technical College

Tri-County Technical College: Five Decades of Distinction

Lisa Garrett

Tri-County was founded in 1962 when the tri-county leaders pooled their resources to plan the College after Act 323, Section 23, of the South Carolina General Assembly established the State Commission for Technical Education and provided for the establishment of regional centers. This book is a celebration of the 50 years (1962-2012).

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Upcoming Event

Photo of Michael Williams

Speaker at the Center: Author Michael G. Williams and Arcane Carolinas Volume 2

December 12, 2024, 6:00 PM

Join us at our next Speaker at the Center series on Thursday, December 12th, at 6 p.m. for an author talk featuring author and podcast co-host Michael G. Williams. Michael will discuss Arcane Carolinas Volume 2 while also exploring some South Carolina holiday-themed ghost tales.

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