History of the University of South Carolina (USC)

This book details the long and complex history of people of African descent at South Carolina's flagship university. Essays by twelve scholars explore a broad range of topics, from an examination of the lives of the enslaved men and women who lived and worked on the campus, to the first desegregation during the Reconstruction era, and continuing through the famous 1963 desegregation of the school and its long aftermath. This is the first single volume to examine the presence of Black people at a state university during the eras of slavery, Reconstruction, Civil Rights, Black Power, and Black Lives Matter.

In celebration of the University of South Carolina's bicentennial, this remarkable volume reveals the personal stories of Carolina students over the past two hundred years. Told in their own words, these writings—from antebellum manuscripts to e-mails—capture the color and spirit of the times, revealing attitudes and opinions, issues and passions...In this volume students share their own versions of the University of South Carolina story.

This book offers a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the historic Horseshoe. So much more than just a walking tour of Carolina's historic original campus, it features a wealth of archival photographs and drawings dating back to the nineteenth century and also provides a close look at the Horseshoe's structures as well as the men and women who lived, worked, and studied in them.

An illustrated history of the earliest buildings and grounds at the South Carolina College.

A 475-page history of the university spanning 1801 to 1913. Note: this text contains outdated and prejudicial opinions.

A 356-page volume by historian Daniel W. Hollis about the history of South Carolina College, 1801-1865. Unlike the Maximilian LaBorde and Edwin Green books, this book is largely free of the author's personal opinions and based on primary source evidence.

Tis 596-page book details the history of the South Carolina College from the perspective of one of its professors who lived on campus. Note: this text contains outdated and prejudicial opinions.

Richard Theodore Greener (1844–1922) was a renowned Black activist and scholar. In 1870, he was the first Black graduate of Harvard College. During Reconstruction, he was the first Black faculty member at a southern white college, the University of South Carolina. He was even the first Black US diplomat to a white country, serving in Vladivostok, Russia. A notable speaker and writer for racial equality, he also served as a dean of the Howard University School of Law and as the administrative head of the Ulysses S. Grant Monument Association...Richard Greener’s story demonstrates the human realities of racial politics throughout the fight for abolition, the struggle for equal rights, and the backslide into legal segregation.

A 475-page history of the university spanning 1801 to 1913. Note: this text contains outdated and prejudicial opinions.

A 431-page volume by historian Daniel W. Hollis about the history of the University of South Carolina from 1865 to 1956. Unlike the Edwin Green book, this book is largely free of the author's personal opinions and based on primary source evidence.

This book is a history of the modern University of South Carolina. World War II, the civil rights struggle, and the revolution in research and South Carolina's economy transformed USC from a small state university in 1939, with a student body of less than 2,000 and an annual budget of $725,000, to a 1990 population of more than 25,000 and an annual budget of $454 million. Then the University was little more than a small liberal arts college; today the university is at the head of a statewide system of higher education with eight branch campuses. Henry H. Lesesne recounts the historic transformation of USC into a modern research university, grounding that change in the context of the modernization of South Carolina and the South in general. The half century from 1940 to 1990 wrought great changes in South Carolina and its most prominent university. State and national politics, the challenges of funding modern higher educations, and the explosive growth of intercollegiate sports are among other elements of the University that were transformed. Lesesne describes with candor and impressive research how the University of South Carolina and, indeed, all of the state's higher education system emerged from a past limited by racism and poverty and began to measure its aspirations by national educational standards.

In A Gamecock Odyssey: University of South Carolina Sports in the Independent Era, author Alan Piercy chronicles the significant events and describes the larger-than-life characters of the years following the university's departure from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The University of South Carolina experienced some of the highest highs and lowest lows in its athletics history. With colorful storytelling and Gamecock pride, Piercy gives curious college sports fans and diehard Gamecocks a behind-the-scenes tour of these raucous decades. Tales of interpersonal clashes between football head coach Paul Dietzel and men's basketball head coach Frank McGuire, the Icarian rise and fall of women's basketball coach Pam Parsons, George Rogers and his magical Heisman Trophy-winning season, the birth of USC's beloved mascot, Cocky, and other USC sports stories converge, stirring feelings of amusement, nostalgia, and pride. A Gamecock Odyssey captures the spirit of the time and shows the reader how those years influenced today's Gamecock athletics culture.

A scholarly article from the April 2008 volume of the South Carolina Historical Magazine, Rebecca L. Miller tells the story of Henrie Monteith and the second desegregation of the University of South Carolina in 1963.