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How Did Mary Modjeska Monteith Simkins Impact The Civil Rights Movement?

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“Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.” This quote was said by Coretta Scott King during the civil rights movement. In South Carolina, there was segregation between the whites and the blacks. The majority of the whites discriminated the blacks and thought they were superior to the blacks. One of the activist and leader in changing the rights of African Americans was Mary Modjeska Monteith Simkins. With Simkins’ mother being a house slave, she had someone to tell her how they treated her and what she had to do as a slave. Simkins had the insight to a slave's conditions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes. This drove her to change African American rights. Simkins greatly impacted the growth of the Civil Rights Movement when she worked as …show more content…

A slave is a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them. Starting in 1619, South Carolina had African American slavery and in 1865 it was abolished. Born in Columbia on December the fifth of 1899, Simkins was the first out of eight children, being the oldest helped her established skills of leadership and responsibility (Modjeska Simkins). She went to Benedict College to get a teaching degree (Modjeska Simkins, Reformer…). After leaving Benedict College, she took more courses at Columbia University and at Morehouse College. She then went on and did graduate work in public health at the University of Michigan (Modjeska Simkins). Shortly after she began teaching at the Booker T. Washington School when she was fired two years later for being married to Andrew W. Simkins, an African American businessman (Modjeska Simkins, Reformer…). The Columbia school system did not allow married women to teach (Modjeska Simkins). After she was fired, she went to work for the South Carolina Tuberculosis Association as its Director of Negro Work. There she made bonds with influential whites and African American groups to change public

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