» The Avery Research Center: As Necessary and Relevant as Ever
This post is written by Nate Hubler, the Avery Research Center’s Liberatory Legacies Archival Fellow.
2025 and 2026 are important, celebratory years for the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture because they commemorate multiple monumental anniversaries. 2025 marks the 160th anniversary of the opening of the Avery Normal Institute (initially named the Saxton School). It also marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Avery Research Center and the 35th anniversary of Avery reopening its doors to serve the public, this time as an archive and museum.
The Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture would not exist to celebrate these anniversaries if not for the grassroots organizing of the Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture in the 1970s and 1980s. The Institute was founded in 1978 by a group of Avery Normal Institute alumni, their descendants, and other interested people in Charleston, South Carolina. Its mission was twofold. It first aimed to save the Avery Normal Institute school buildings from threats from development. Once the buildings were saved, it aimed to open an archive and museum in the very buildings where thousands of Lowcountry African Americans once learned, organized, and advocated for a better tomorrow. The Institute’s tireless work proved successful, and its records are now processed and open to the public in the building they fought to save and in the archive they aimed to create.
Since it’s a time of celebration for the Avery Research Center, I’d like to highlight a speech by Senator Herbert U. Fielding that I came across while creating the finding aid for the Institute’s records. This speech was given at the Institute’s Kick Off Ceremonies held on December 7, 1985. These ceremonies were also held as a celebration for the Institute. That year, another agreement was reached with the College of Charleston to create the Avery Research Center, and Dr. Myrtle Glascoe was hired as the Center’s first director. During his speech, Senator Hebert Fielding spoke about why the Avery Institute and the Avery Research Center are so desperately needed in Charleston and South Carolina:
Why do we need an Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture?? From the very outset of our sojourn here in South Carolina, we, South Carolinians of African [descent] have had an historical experience dominated by tribulation and travail. Our history has been written by whites from the vantage point of white Carolina, and it gives virtually no insight into the history of the Black minority (which in fact was a majority between 1820 and 1930). It is a history-as-written instead of a history-of-actuality…
we can not afford to forget that there exists a purposeful void in our glorious history – a void which must be filled. We would cheat every future generation of South Carolinians (Black and white) if we do not make every effort possible to accurately fill this void. We are fortunate to have [an] Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture that is particularly suited to collect and reconstruct that part of our history. Yes, we do need the Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture.1
Sen. Fielding’s words still ring true today, and the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture has taken this charge seriously since opening to the public. Its staff has remained dedicated to collecting, preserving, and promoting the unique history and culture of the African diaspora and ensuring a complete historical record exists for future generations.
Beyond celebrating the Avery Research Center’s milestone anniversaries with us, visit us and make an appointment to read in our reading room or go on a self-guided tour. See for yourself how the Avery Research Center continues to build on a legacy that started in 1865!
Thank you to the Mellon Foundation for supporting the processing of this collection.
Footnotes
- Sen. Herbert U. Fielding Kick Off Ceremonies speech, 1985, Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture, AMN 1104, Box 25, Folder 19, Avery Research Center, College of Charleston, SC, USA. ↩︎
Image Citations
Group photo from Dr. Drago’s autograph party, 1981, Unprocessed photographs in the Avery photograph collection, AMN 1112, Avery Research Center, College of Charleston, SC, USA.
The Bulletin, Volume 10, Number 2, Fall, 1990, Avery Research Center Ready Reference Bulletins Box 2, Avery Research Center, College of Charleston, SC, USA.
Sen. Herbert U. Fielding Kick Off Ceremonies speech, 1985, Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture records, AMN 1104, Box 25, Folder 19, Avery Research Center, College of Charleston, SC, USA.