Modjeska Simkins House

For sixty years, this was the home of Modjeska Monteith Simkins (1899-1992), a social reformer and civil rights activist. A Columbia native educated at Benedict College, she later taught high school. As Director of Negro Work for the S.C. Anti-tuberculosis Association from 1931 to 1942, she became the first black person in S.C. to hold a full-time, statewide public health position. Simkins was also a founder of the S.C. Conference of the National Asssociation for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As the conference's secretary from 1941 to 1957, she hosted many meetings and planning sessions here for cases such as Brown v. Board of Education. In 1997 the house was acquired by the Collaborative for Community Trust, and in 2007 it was transferred to the Historic Columbia Foundation.

Columbia, South Carolina · United States