The Modjeska Simkins School of Human Rights is now accepting applications to its spring 2023 session. Classes will be held Monday evenings March 5 through June 26 online and at the SC Progressive Network’s newly renovated HQ at 1340 Elmwood Ave. in Columbia, next to Simkins’ historic home.
Launched in 2015 and named after the famed South Carolina human rights advocate Modjeska Monteith Simkins, the school teaches the true and uncensored history of South Carolina, and provides tools for effective citizenship.
Claflin University assistant professor Dr. Robert Greene II has served as the Modjeska School’s lead instructor since 2019. “The school continues a long and storied tradition of linking civics, political action, and life-long learning,” Greene said. “Such a history does emphasize the nature of oppression in the Palmetto State’s history, but the school equally teaches the spirit of justice, freedom, and equality that so many in South Carolina have fought for through the centuries. In an age like ours where teaching true history is under attack, the Modjeska Simkins School represents a different path for teaching and learning history.”
Dr. Greene has published more than 350 articles in publications ranging from the Washington Post to The Nation. Most recently, he co-edited the book Invisible No More documenting the experiences of African Americans at USC.
“Dr. Greene has a wealth of knowledge, but he also has a rare talent for teaching,” said Brett Bursey, executive director of the SC Progressive Network Education Fund, the school’s sponsor. “Robert teaches a living history that connects the past with our present, which is critical to truly understanding current reality and to any hope of making meaningful change for the collective good.”
Bursey has arranged an impressive line-up of guest teachers this session, maximizing connections he has cultivated with activists, authors, and historians over his 50 years as a South Carolina community organizer. The roster of presenters makes the school a unique experience, one that students cannot get anywhere else.
Dr. Burnette Gallman, who teaches African history,took the course twice, and is a presenter this session. He said, “As the lies and the assault on truth continue, the Modjeska School is a breath of fresh air. It provides a correction of the lies that have been told in schools for generations, as well as a firewall against the lies being legislated today. Everyone should take this course.”
The school has attracted a mix of students of all ages, backgrounds, and professional experiences. April Lott, president of the Charleston Central Labor Council, vice-president of the SC AFL-CIO, and president of AFGE, the regional union for Social Security employees, attended last year’s session. “The school opened my eyes to my own history here in South Carolina,” she said. “As a Charleston native, there was so much rich history that I did not know — the good, the bad, and the bitter ugly. As a union leader and labor activist, learning these things through the life of Ms. Modjeska not only inspired me but it gave me validation that I can fight for the working families of SC. I learned that I will have battles and disappointments but if I stay strong and hold to my faith, I will endure. I stand on the shoulders of Ms. Modjeska, and am proud graduate of the Modjeska Simkins School.”
Cecil Cahoon, an education expert and a Modjeska School graduate, said the school presents the essential foundation for informed citizenship in South Carolina. “Its content is heavy on documentary evidence of its peoples’ real history, not the sanitized narratives approved by its ruling class and textbook adopters for generations. Here, students are introduced to consequential persons and events that have long been obscured by white supremacist doctrine but nevertheless shaped today’s South Carolina. Graduates leave with a better understanding of the state’s present conditions and challenges, and of how informed citizenship can address systemic injustices to improve its future.”
Cahoon said, “Only where truth is prized and shared, can there be liberty and justice for all. The Modjeska School is the modern representation of everything that South Carolina’s evolving aristocracy has ever feared and worked to prevent: truth being taught to its citizens.”
For details about the school or to apply to the 2023 session, see modjeskaschool.com.
Tuition for the spring session is $375. Payments may be made installments, and some scholarship assistance is available.
To apply, click HERE.
Tax deductible donations are always welcome to help provide student scholarships and stipends for guest teachers.
Questions? Call the Network’s office at 803-808-3384 or email network@scpronet.com.