Gloria Swindler Boutte. Ph.D.
Gloria Swindler Boutte, Ph.D. is a Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina. Her scholarship focuses on equity pedagogies.
About Project CHAANGE
The Institute is framed using the theme of Change- borrowing from Bob Dylan’s 1964 classic song, the times, they are a-changin’. The song, released during the Civil Rights movement, focuses on addressing social injustices. Under the context of exploring African American national and global activism, Institute instructors and guest lecturers will guide teachers in developing critical inquiry instructional plans that teach about freedom movements in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Project CHAANGE is funded by a grant from the South Carolina Department of Education.
Institute Directors
Toby Jenkins, Ph.D.
Toby Jenkins is an Associate Professor of Curriculum Studies and former Director of the Museum of Education at the University of South Carolina. Her work focuses on the use of culture as a politic of social survival, a tool of social change, and a transformative space of creative and critical pedagogy. She is also interested in the ways in which culture influences activist minded leadership.
Speakers, Presenters and Scholars
Evelyn Bethune, Ph.D.
Evelyn Bethune is the granddaughter of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune and CEO of The Bethune Publishing House, Inc. She is also the founder of MMB Institute, a mentoring and instructional foundation for young people of all ages. She is a published author, lecturer and motivational speaker working to expand knowledge of Mary McLeod Bethune and to ensure the continuation, growth and development of her legacy by encouraging and promoting education and community service in a variety of platforms. Bethune Publishing publishes books that are motivating, educational and visionary.
LaGarrett J. King, Ph.D.
LaGarrett J. King is an Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at Clemson University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin after an eight- year teaching career in Georgia and Texas. His primary research interest examines how Black history is interpreted and taught in schools and society. He also researches critical theories of race, teacher education, and curriculum history.
Bobby Donaldson, Ph.D.
Bobby Donaldson is an Associate Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. A scholar of southern history and African American life and culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Donaldson’s research and writings explore African American intellectual thought, print culture, education and religion. Additionally, he has served as a consultant for museum exhibitions, archival collections, oral history initiatives, documentary films, and historic preservation projects, including the renovation of the Booker T. Washington High School in downtown Columbia. In 2008, the Historic Columbia Foundation awarded Donaldson and his students the Helen Kohn Hennig Prize for their documentary project on the Ward One community in downtown Columbia. Currently, Donaldson leads the Center for Civil Rights History and Research, housed in the Hollings Special Collections Library. He also serves as the lead scholar for Columbia SC 63: Our Story Matters, a documentary history initiative that chronicles the struggle for civil rights and social justice in Columbia.
Dawn Dawson-House
Dawn Dawson-House is Director of Corporate Communications for the SC Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism (SCPRT). She is the agency's corporate communications director and spokesperson, helping to shape and deliver SCPRT's positions, tone and voice on parks, recreation and tourism matters. She publishes the monthly e-newsletter, South Carolina Tourism Today, which communicates key metrics on tourism’s impact on the South Carolina economy and general news about SCPRT. She also organizes special media events, public speaking appearances and press conferences.
John Hale, Ph.D.
Jon Hale's research focuses on the history of student and teacher activism, grassroots educational programs, and segregated high schools during the civil rights movement. His award-winning book, The Freedom Schools: A History of Student Activists on the Frontlines of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement (Columbia University Press, 2016) examines the role of educational activism during the Civil Rights Movement. He is a co-editor of The Freedom School Newspapers: Writings, Essays and Reports from Student Activists During the Civil Rights Movement, (University Press of Mississippi, 2015). His current book projects focus on the history of southern black high school student activism after the Second World War and the history of the school choice reform movement. His research has been published in history and education journals, including the Journal of African American History, the History of Education Quarterly, The Journal of Southern History, South Carolina Historical Magazine, and the Journal of Social Studies Research. He has also published editorials and commentary pieces in The Atlantic, CNN, Education Week, the African American Intellectual History Series, and Process: A Blog for American. His research was also referenced in interviews with The New Yorker, CNN, the Associated Press, “This Morning” (ABC), PBS, and California and South Carolina Public Radio. Hale has worked with PBS as a consultant for Stanley Nelson’s documentary, Freedom Summer, as well as the Grammy-nominated Two Trains Runnin’, which was produced by award-winning author and filmmaker Benjamin Hedin. Hale currently serves as an advisory board member of the Charleston Freedom School, co-director of the Quality Education Project, co-director and co-founder of the Charleston Civil Rights Film Fest, and a board member of the Southern Initiative of the Algebra Project.
Cecil J. Williams
Cecil J. Williams is an American photographer, publisher, author and inventor best known for his photography documenting the civil rights movement in South Carolina beginning in the 1950s. His work has been published in hundreds of books, newspapers and television documentaries. His photography and art has been exhibited in galleries in the Southeast. Williams has photographed significant desegregation efforts in South Carolina since the 1950s. Some of his most notable pictures are of the activity during the Briggs v. Elliott case in Summerton, South Carolina. It was the first of five desegregation cases pushing to integrate public schools in the United States. The five cases combined into Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that declared that "separate but equal" public schools for whites and blacks was unconstitutional. He also documented Harvey Gantt’s desegregation of Clemson University in 1963, the 1969 Charleston hospital workers’ strike and the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre. The massacre involved the South Carolina Highway Patrol shooting and killing three African American males and injuring 27 other South Carolina State University students. He worked as the official photographer for the South Carolina branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, South Carolina State University, Claflin University and National Conference of Black Mayors, Inc. for more than 20 years, beginning in the 1960s. His work has been exhibited at many institutions and museums, such as Claflin University, University of South Carolina, Columbia Museum of Art, Clemson University, Columbia College, Furman University, Rice Museum in Georgetown, South Carolina State University, Museum of the New South in Charlotte.
Carol Singletary
Carol Singletary is a faith-based initiative coordinator for the S.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. She has decades of experience in the area of social services, including state director for youth programs at the South Carolina Department of Social Services, and case manager at Richland and Florence counties’ Departments of Social Services. She is Executive Director of Francis Burns Methodist Church Freedom School.
Books and Resources
- Freedom and Justice: Four Decades of the Civil Rights Struggle as Seen by a Black Photographer of the Deep South(1995)
- Out-of-the-Box in Dixie: Cecil Williams’ Photography of the South Carolina Events that Changed America(2006)
- Orangeburg 1968…: A Place and Time Remembered, co-written with Sonny Dubose (2008)
- Unforgettable All the Memories We Left Behind: The Art, Design, and Photography of Cecil Williams, 1950–2013(2016)
- "Painter Showcase: A Gallery of Modern Portraiture, Beyond the Camera's Capability(2013)
- "Calhoun County,"co-written with two other authors, published by Arcadia Publishing (2012)
Goals and Smart Objectives for Project CHAANGE
GOAL 1: To increase 5th, 7th, and 8th grade teachers content knowledge and preparation
in teaching about African American Freedom movements.
Objectives
- By the end of the CHAANGE Institute, participants will submit at least one complete, approved (by organizers) inquiry-based instructional plan on the African American Freedom Movement that is aligned with SC Academic Social Studies Standards for their respective grade level(s).
- By the end of the CHAANGE Institute, participants will submit an annotated list of at least 5 resources (e.g., books, experts, primary sources, films, exhibits) on African American culture that is appropriate for their grade level.
- On the last day of the CHAANGE institute, participants will complete an exam on African American Freedom Movements (addressed during the institute) with 80% accuracy.
GOAL 2: To provide knowledge and experiences on selected historic sites in the upstate, midlands, and low- country regions of South Carolina. To engage participants in intensive experiences and field trips which provides a strong knowledge base on the history of African American freedom movements and culture.
Objectives
- By the end of the CHAANGE Institute, participants will submit at least one complete, approved (by organizers) lesson that is aligned with SC Academic Social Studies Standards for their respective grade levels for a field trip related to content covered in the institute.
- By the end of the CHAANGE Institute, participants will have visited at least 5 historical sites.