In celebration of women’s history month, we’re highlighting some of the many women in Charleston’s history who made the Holy City better. From civil rights pioneers to suffragettes to artists, these women paved the way for others in Charleston and are recognized for their legacies locally, nationally and across the globe.
Jennet Robinson Alterman, a Charleston native who has been involved in women’s rights advocacy across the state for the last three decades, said women leading the charge for change has been a pattern in our city’s history.
“There are so many women in our past and present that have taken on the tough issues in our community. Women have been and are the truth tellers, truth seekers and truth advocates.”
A revolutionary educator and civil rights icon
A pioneer in grassroots citizenship education, Septima Poinsette Clark was called the ‘‘mother of the Civil Rights Movement’’ by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Clark was born in Charleston in 1898, the daughter of a laundry woman and a former slave. She became a teacher on Johns Island and leader of workshops at Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. In the Jim Crow South, she was a key founder of “citizenship schools,” which educated and enfranchised Black voters.
Clark was known for her belief in developing local community leaders — women leaders, like Bernice Robinson, a beautician-turned-citizenship school teacher, and Rosa Parks, who attended one of Clark’s seminars just months before the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955.
College of Charleston professor Valerie Frazier, who was involved in creating the college’s February 2023 exhibition and mural on Clark’s life, said Clark is remembered for her “indomitable strength and determination to champion causes such as voting rights, literacy and educational opportunity, equal pay and accessible health care.
“In large part due to her work with the Highlander Folk School, nearly 2 million more Black voters were registered by 1970 than had been registered in 1955. Education was key. In her own words: ‘Literacy means liberation.’ ”
Charleston’s suffragettes
The three Pollitzer sisters are responsible for making education more accessible to women in Charleston: The oldest sister Carrie Pollitzer established the city’s first free kindergarten program and worked for admittance of women to the College of Charleston, which was granted in September 1918. Middle sister Mabel taught for more than 40 years at Memminger High School, where she began the school’s first sex education programs. She also helped to establish the first public library. Youngest sister Anita Pollitzer, a radical feminist of her day, was the most directly engaged of the three with national efforts to gain the vote for women — she played a pivotal role in the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment, which allowed women to vote. Find a marker of their legacy at the sisters’ house, 5 Pitt St. For more suffrage history in Charleston, learn about the Grimke Sisters, two early and prominent activists for abolition and women’s rights.
From left to right: Anita, Carrie and Mabel Pollitzer | Photos courtesy College of Charleston Special Collections
Strike leader for better pay
In March 1969, Medical College Hospital (now MUSC) workers began a 113-day strike to demand better pay and an end to racial discrimination in the hospital. Mary Moultrie was a Charleston native and Burke High School graduate who, while working as a nurse at MUSC, was among the first employees to speak out against the unfair treatment of Black workers at the hospital. Her organizing efforts were key to the formation of a hospital employee union. Historian Kerry Taylor said it is fundamental to understand that Moultrie’s legacy was her ability to bring people together and give voice to a collective struggle.
“She would use her friendships in the hospital, going from floor to floor, talking to them, listening to the issues that they were facing on the job. Her very real strength was in developing these relationships. She was the convener, a kind of moral force in the room,” Taylor said.
While directing the St. Julian Devine Center, Moultrie also helped to organize Charleston sanitation workers for better wages and conditions in 2008.
“She never gave up on the idea of organizing and was doing that until the day she died,” Taylor said.
Charleston’s longtime preservationist
Charleston is known for its distinct character in no small part due to our preservation of historical sites and buildings. That’s why the legacy of Susan Pringle Frost is so important.
Frost was born to a prominent Charleston family in 1873 and was among the early proponents of historic preservation in Charleston, founding the Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings (now called the Preservation Society of Charleston [PSC]) in April 1920. Frost called the first meeting of the preservation society to develop a solution to save the then-threatened Joseph Manigault House as well as long-term strategies to protect Charleston’s historic architecture.
Frost’s advocacy helped lead Charleston to adopt the nation’s first historic zoning ordinance in 1931. In addition to her advocacy, Frost also worked as the city’s first female real estate agent by buying, holding, rehabilitating and reselling historic properties to like-minded buyers. Fun fact: Frost is who decided to paint the properties along East Bay, now known as “Rainbow Row,” in their iconic pastel colors.
Courtney Theis, the PSC’s director of advance, said Frost was also a radical pioneer of the women’s suffrage movement.
“She was also the first woman to drive a car in downtown Charleston and the first to occupy her own real estate office on Broad Street,” she said. “Frost’s activism reminds us that preservation and progress go hand in hand.”
Female artists elevated Lowcountry culture
You’ve likely heard of the Charleston Renaissance, a period between the First and Second World Wars in which the city experienced a boom in the arts, helping to spur the tourist industry. But did you know three of its four leading figures are women?
Left to right: Alice Ravenel Huger Smith and Anna Heyward Taylor | Photos courtesy Middleton Place/South Carolina Library, USC
Artists Elizabeth O’Neill Verner, Anna Heyward Taylor and Alice Ravenel Huger Smith made stunning works that elevated Charleston’s art scene and brought visitors. And in fact, those artists were following in the footsteps of Charlestionian Henrietta Johnston, widely considered the first professional woman artist in the United States. Director of curatorial affairs at the Gibbes, Sara Arnold, said Johnston “set a precedent” for women artists to come.
“Because her exceptional talents were recognized during her lifetime, Johnston were able to help support her family through commissioned portraits. Her contributions to her family’s income are well documented. The discovery of Johnston’s trailblazing story no doubt influenced generations of women artists — art could be a vocation for a woman, she could expect to be paid for her artwork.”
LEADING LADIES: Some of Charleston’s current movers and shakers
The trailblazers from the past set the stage for a plethora of vibrant, active women leaders throughout business, arts and education in today’s Charleston area. Consider these important leaders who are making a difference today (in alphabetical order):
LaVanda Brown is the executive director of the YWCA Greater Charleston.
Dr. Tamara Butler leads the Avery Research Center.
Kenya Dunn is the founder of women’s leadership group The POWER Tribe.
Sharon Graci is a co-founder and artistic director of PURE Theatre.
Rhoda A. Green directs the Barbados and the Carolinas Connection.
Helen Hill is the CEO of Explore Charleston and chairman of the Charleston County Aviation Authority.
Artist Mary Jackson, a descendant of generations of Gullah basket weavers, received the MacArthur Fellowship in 2008 for “pushing the tradition in stunning new directions.”
Faith Rivers James is the executive director at the Coastal Conservation League.
Germaine Jenkins is a co-founder and the Chief Farm Officer at Fresh Future Farm.
Dr. Reshma Khan is the founder of the Shifa Free Clinic.
Philanthropist Linda Ketner, co-founder of the LGBTQ advocacy group Alliance for Full Acceptance.
Angela Mack leads the charge at the Gibbes Museum.
Dr. Kameelah Martin is the dean of graduate studies at the College of Charleston.
Dr. Tonya Matthews is the president and CEO of the International African American Museum.
Nonprofit leader Madeleine McGee is the CEO of Together SC.
Barbara Melvin is the president and CEO of South Carolina Ports.
Darla Moore is a noted philanthropist who is a driver behind the Charleston Parks Conservancy.
S.C. Sen. Sandy Senn is recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for her leadership to protect women’s health choices.
Mary Thornley is the president of Trident Technical College.
Michelle Weaver is the executive chef of The Charleston Grill.
Anita Zucker is a well-known philanthropist and leader who backs major civic projects.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Which female leaders should we talk about next time? Email chloe@charlestoncitypaper.com.
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