African Americans on Tour, History People and Places of Summerville, South Carolina
By Linda Saylor Marchant
March 2022- Now Available
African Americans on tour, History and Places of Summerville, SC by Linda Saymor Marchant, contains history, color photos, a table of contents, an index ,and directory highlighting a sample of local businesses. It’s a look at the small, often romanticized, Town of Summerville, SC from inside from the view of it’s black residents.
Image, Left, Linda Saylor Marchant (Center) working as leader of the Dorchester Unit of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit in downtown Summerville on March 2, 2022. To her right 1969 MUSC Hospital Strike Veteran Louise Brown. To her right, her Mother, also a civil rights leader.
This intensely close and personal view of the lives of black residents of Summerville and their white allies over the past century and a half since the end of the Civil War drills down to the intimate level of family and social connections to show how the often marginalized and now struggling African American community of Brownsville has survived into the 21st. Century and how it is struggling to survive against the powers of gentrification today. Brownsville is found on the East Side of the railroad tracks dividing Summerville and connecting it to Lincolnville, Ladson, N. Charleston and Charleston. Brownsville was, in the view of some, the wrong side of the tracks in Summerville a division which supported discrimination but also preserved an independent sense of community and identity.
Brownsville is within walking distance of the historically African American Town of Lincolnville and these two communities have stood together against white supremacy and segregation since gaining freedom during reconstruction. The book touches on life in both communities and the surrounding area.
Marchant has worked hard to recover the images or Summerville’s past which might otherwise have been lost in the future. It includes a 1972 photo of the First African American State Trooper Tillman Millhouse escorting the late Congressman John Louis, young “Whip” Clyburn is also pictured. Millhouse Drive in Summerville is named in his honor. Millhouse, a highly respected national figure and resident of Summerville has a relative that played musical instruments for President Roosevelt during his visit to the Pinehurst Tea Farm. This is also
documented in the book.
Much of the book is like that, an intensely personal look at the enduring connections that bind together black communities and connect them to their friends across the tracks.
The book is available for purchase from the Author, who is available for book signings upon request. An online release is planned shortly.
For more information contact the author, Linda Saylor Marchant at lindasaylor1963@gmail.com
(843) 873-2436
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