From a young age, Modjeska Monteith Simkins practiced social activism. Her career involved working with local and national civil rights leaders and NAACP lawyers such as Thurgood Marshall, who stayed at her home. Simkins’ efforts in the realm of education, public health, and human rights led her to receive the Order of the Palmetto-the State of South Carolina’s highest honor-before her death in 1992.

Spread across four rooms, this multimedia experience documents Simkins’ upbringing and career as a public health worker and state secretary of the South Carolina NAACP through the lens of the long civil rights movement. It invites visitors to connect the values of Simkins and her contemporaries to those of future generations of activists while closely examining the central—and complicated—role that the media has played in the struggle for equality.

There are two session offered: Friday, May 27 @ 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM and Sunday, May 29 @ 1:00 – 4:00 PM