Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum facts for kids

The Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum is South Carolina’s only civil rights museum. Award-winning photographer Cecil J. Williams operates and curates the museum, located in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

The museum holds thirty-five historical exhibits consisting of 500 photographs and over 200 artifacts about the civil rights movement in South Carolina during the 1950s and 1960s. The exhibits focus of major events, including the Briggs v. Elliott case, the Orangeburg Freedom Movement, Harvey Gantt at Clemson, the Orangeburg Massacre and the 1969 Charleston Hospital Workers Strike.

The museum also offers other attractions, including a civil rights movement timeline, an 800-name recognition wall, a digitization laboratory, a sign-in wall, media and presentation center, community meeting room, library, and gift shop.

The 3,500-square-foot museum opened in 2019. It is located in a building Williams designed after being denied admission to segregated Clemson University, where he wanted to study architecture.

In a recently published brochure, a description reads: "South Carolina history is important because, just as it is where the Civil War began, it can be said it was people in the Palmetto State that started the modern Civil Rights Movement. Inside South Carolina’s first and only civil rights museum—journey through unique and rich history; an experience that includes hardships and triumphs, valor and determination, influence and monumental change. Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum—a 3500 square foot, ultra-modern, minimalist-styled facility, appropriately perfect to capture the essence of this important journey!"

Some of the Historically Significant Exhibits Include: • BRIGGS–DELAINE–PEARSON GALLERY • THURGOOD MARSHALL LEGACY HALL • CLEVE SELLERS • JUDGE MATTHEW PERRY MEDIA CENTER • ORANGEBURG MASSACRE COMMEMORATION • 50 MOST SIGNIFICANT CIVIL RIGHTS PIONEERS • CHARLESTON HOSPITAL WORKERS’ STRIKE • HARVEY GANTT AT CLEMSON • GROWING UP COLORED • ORANGEBURG TO MONTGOMERY • SEPTIMA CLARK • HISTORICAL BRIGGS FAMILY BIBLE • MODJESKA SIMKINS • FRED MOORE ORDEAL • JESSE JACKSON • CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TIMELINE • GONE WITH THE WIND (Confederate Flag Removal) • ROCK HILL NINE • TRIBUTE TO EMANUEL NINE • WALL OF RECOGNITION • DONOR WALL • VISITOR COMMITMENT SIGNATURE WALL

Williams funded the museum himself. He received a $100,000 donation for the museum a few months after its opening.