White PrimaryParty primary elections were introduced in the nineteenth century. They were touted as a more democratic means of nominating candidates…
White, Joshua DanielMusician. White was born in Greenville on February 11, 1914. A sophisticated guitarist and singer, Broadway actor, and favorite of…
Whittaker, Johnson ChesnutSlave, West Point cadet, lawyer, educator. Whittaker was born on August 23, 1858, on the Camden plantation of James Chesnut,…
Whittaker, Miller FultonArchitect, college president. Whittaker was born on December 30, 1892, in Sumter, the son of Johnson Chesnut Whittaker and Page…
Wigg, JamesLegislator. Wigg was born a slave in Beaufort County around 1850. As a young boy during the Union occupation of…
Wilkinson, Marion BirnieSocial reformer, black women’s club leader. Wilkinson was born in Charleston on June 23, 1870, to Richard Birnie and Anna…
Wilkinson, Robert ShawCollege president. Wilkinson was born on February 18, 1865, in Charleston, the son of Charles Henry Wilkinson and Lavinia Smith…
Williamsburg County(937 sq. miles; 2010 pop. 34,423). Williamsburg County, located in the outer coastal plain and in the southern tip of…
Wilson, John LydeGovernor. Wilson was born in Cheraw District in May 1784 to John Wilson and Mary Lyde. He studied law in…
Wofford, Kate VixonEducator. Wofford was born on October 20, 1894, in Laurens, the eldest of ten children of John Albert Wofford and…
WomenAlthough women constitute a majority of South Carolina’s population, they have had to overcome many of the same barriers to…
Women's SuffrageThe enfranchisement of women was first publicly discussed during the Reconstruction era in South Carolina. During the 1868 State Constitutional…
Woods, Sylvia PressleyRestaurateur, author, businesswoman. Woods was born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 2, 1926, the only child of Van and…
Woodward, Isaac, beating of(February 1946). Isaac Woodward was discharged on February 12, 1946, after four years of active army service. A native of…
World War IWhen Congress declared war on Germany in April 1917, part of South Carolina was already on a war footing. Charleston…
World War IIPrior to the entry of the United States into World War II, the depressed South Carolina economy had already started…
Wright, Alice Buck Norwood SpearmanHuman relations activist. Born in Marion on March 12, 1902, Wright was the first child of the banker Samuel Wilkins…
Wright, Elizabeth EvelynEducator. Wright was born in Talbotton, Georgia, on April 3, 1872, the seventh of twenty-one children born to the African…
Wright, Jonathan JasperWright’s prominent role in the state constitutional convention won him wide praise. After narrowly losing the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor at the party’s 1868 convention, Wright was elected to the state Senate from Beaufort County, making him among the state’s first African American legislators.
Wright, Mary Honor FarrowEducator. Born into slavery on August 11, 1862, in Spartanburg, Wright was the youngest of three daughters of Lott and…
