» Pioneering Women of the Avery Research Center: A Legacy of Leadership and Community Impact

This post is written by Veer Mehta, Avery’s Mellon Project Archivist.

Organizing a space to honor a historical institution is a complex and monumental task. With several rounds of planning and years of routine discourse surrounding funding and material access, it is not uncommon for these ambitious projects to fail.  

The Avery Normal Institute was organized and funded through the American Missionary Association in 1865, coinciding with the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War. The school and its administration have a rich history filled with ups and downs, trials and errors, successes and controversies, all while trying to navigate African American civil justice during Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, economic recessions, and World Wars. Ultimately, due to racism and lack of social and financial support for two Black public schools on the peninsula, Avery High School closed, and students were transferred to Burke High School. After a quarter of a century had passed, a local community-based initiative, the Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture, made progressive efforts to reclaim the Avery school buildings.¹ The mission of the Institute quickly became centered on renovating the buildings, establishing an archive and museum to collect and document the history and culture of the school, the African Diaspora, and African American life of South Carolina, the Lowcountry, and the coastal Sea Islands. A tall and extensive task indeed. This objective accumulated over fifteen years of planning. But before opening its doors to the public, the Institute, with its brilliant minds at the helm, needed an experienced leader to carry on the mission, which would be held under the auspices of the College of Charleston. That leader would come to be the founding director of the Avery Research Center, Dr. Myrtle Glascoe. 

Born in Washington, D.C., Dr. Glascoe spent her early years entirely focused on art and literature. She did not formulate political ideologies and maintained little interest in civil activism. In college, she wanted to be known as a copious student with an exuberant social life. Upon graduating with a Health and Physical Education degree, she obtained her first teaching job at a Catholic Boarding School for young women. Because she was a P.E. instructor, she quickly sought the opportunity to invigorate the daily lives of the young girls she taught. She introduced them to new and exciting activities like organized sports and dancing. The convent of nuns who administered the policies in the school were extremely conservative and strict with the young women and teachers alike. In her interview for the Civil Rights History Project Collection,² Dr. Glascoe recalls this school year as her first indication of a liberatory awakening. She became more open to the concepts of oppression, especially when it concerned young black women. Her life as a teacher evolved into a career in social work. After receiving her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Pennsylvania, she settled in Baltimore, MD, working at Rosewood State Hospital. One could assume that Dr. Glascoe furthered her studies in social and economic injustices within the African American community.  

Dr. Glascoe’s next charitable endeavor began in the summer of 1962 when she left Baltimore for Los Angeles. She spent her days there working with troubled youth in underdeveloped neighborhoods. She would attend CORE (Community Organized Relief Efforts) meetings at night. At this point in her life, Glascoe was fully engaged in the fight for freedom. Although she did not believe non-violent protesting was a widely successful tactic, she developed an ability and passion for standing up to the powers that be from a legal standpoint. During the interview, she recalls working with the Jones-Ridge Elementary School in Arkansas. The school was drastically underfunded, and the building was poorly constructed. Every time it rained, the sewage pipelines would overflow, causing flooding all over the school halls. She led a task force that traveled to the Little Rock Department of Education and demanded a proper assessment that would ultimately fix the issue. During the ’60s and ’70s, she grew accustomed to assisting in public school dilemmas throughout southern states like Arkansas and Mississippi. Glascoe’s resume and accomplishments continued to grow. She worked with Fannie Lou Hamer and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She was appointed director of West Helena’s (Arkansas) Freedom School, a youth summer school that linked education with self-discovery and freedom. She was on the inaugural team that created the first Head Start program in the United States. She eventually obtained a faculty position at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. With her social work and activism background, she was uniquely prepared to lead the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture in 1985, when the Institute board invited her to be the inaugural Executive Director.  

As previously mentioned, the Avery Normal School building was in dire need of restoration. This was among Dr. Glascoe’s first problems to solve. She quickly identified that under the bureaucracy of the College, she would have to be more calculated with her approaches. While processing the institutional records of the Avery Research Center, it was abundantly clear she succeeded in these strategies. Glascoe worked tirelessly during her first few years as Director. She recalled spending every dollar that was in the budget to improve the quality of the building, archive, and museum. If the then Dean of Libraries, David Cohen, did not explicitly tell her “no,” she would find a way to execute her goal. She stated in correspondence with friends and colleagues that when the Avery Research Center opened its doors, the College expected that she would quietly collect historical documents, but they did not understand her personality.  She was driven to make the Avery Research Center a foundational landmark in Charleston. Through her lens, Avery was going to seek and house ephemera, which personified the essence of the local Black community in Charleston and the Sea Islands. Examples are in her first collection purchase, Guy and Candy Carawan – The Music of John’s Island, and the first conference she organized and facilitated, The Black Women of South Carolina. Throughout her tenure at Avery, she was fundamental in ensuring the longevity of this revived institution. She became a living embodiment of what she felt was life’s greatest virtue. She often said, “those who have, must turn around [and] give.” The Center would become a space for community organizing, civil discourse, Black excellence, and liberation through the work of Glascoe and other advocates.  

 Along with taking the role of Director of the Center, Dr. Glascoe taught several classes through the College’s education department. Within her first semester, she noticed that African American Studies was not involved in any curriculum.  As time passed, she participated with other faculty to create an African American Studies program. In 1996, African American Studies was administered as a possible minor for students, and in 2014, it was added as a major. Dr. Glascoe found time in her courses to express her feelings on how Black youth must reflect things from their culture within the new society (gentrified Charleston County). 

Following Dr. Glascoe’s model, several more women have represented the Avery Research Center. These directors include Dr. Karen Chandler, Ms. Georgette Mayo, Dr. Patricia Williams-Lessane (now Dockery), and the current director, Dr. Tamara Butler.  

I have enjoyed working under Ms. Georgette Mayo and Dr. Butler during my archival term at Avery. Not only do they make concerted efforts to promote women’s history within Avery’s functions, programs, and exhibitions, but they are also led by Dr. Glascoe’s example of a tireless work ethic. Habitual visitors of the Center will grow accustomed to seeing these two leaders move along from project to project: Ms. Mayo, currently the Processing Archivist with a lifetime of archival familiarity, and Dr. Butler, as a distinguished professor, fierce leader, and representation of our current staff’s accomplishments. Even after contributing to their daily professional life, they carry their work into the evening hours, hoping to reach beyond the College of Charleston community. Several times a year, Ms. Mayo leads the Dr. Conseula Francis Reading Circle, a book discussion group inviting guests to join in intellectual analyses of selected works emphasizing African American stories. Most recently, she has planned discussions honoring women activists like Dr. Millicent Brown, Ms. Ruth Rambo, and Dr. Courtney Thorsson. As for Dr. Butler, she spends her hours balancing numerous roles and responsibilities. As the Executive Director of the Center and the Associate Dean of Strategic Planning and Community Engagement at the College of Charleston Libraries, she allocates her evenings and weekends, contributing to her activism through civic engagement. Her colleagues can only witness the comprehensive efforts in which few have the mental fortitude. Once again, we look to Dr. Glascoe’s time here as motivation to perform our roles to the highest degree, an earned trait that Ms. Mayo and Dr. Butler have proven through their work.  

We thank the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for supporting the processing of this archival collection. 

Sources

Glascoe, Myrtle. Interview by Paul W. Kelsay. Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Power in the South Collection. Library of Congress. Accessed March 10, 2025. https://www.loc.gov/item/2015669102/. 

Footnotes

1. “Developing the Avery Research Center · Avery: The Spirit That Would Not Die, 1865-2015 · Lowcountry Digital History Initiative.” Lowcountry Digital History Initiative (LDHI), May 2016. https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/avery/developingavery. ↩︎
2. The Civil Rights History Project is a joint project of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the Civil Rights movement.  ↩︎

Image Credits

1. Guy and Candi Carawan Reception, 1990. Avery Photograph Collection, AMN 1112, 220-27. 
2. “An Evening with Guy Carawan and Janie Hunter,” 1987. Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture Records, AMN 1103, Box 14, Folder 23. 
3. Black Women’s Conference at Mother Emanuel Church, 1986. Avery Photograph Collection, AMN 1112, 220-07. 
4. Black Women in Media Program, 1992. Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture Records, AMN 1103, Box 16, Folder 18. 
5. Pictorial Exhibit of Lowcountry African American Life on John’s Island, SC, during the 1960s, 1988. Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture Records, AMN 1103, Box 14, Folder 5. 
6. African American Studies Planning Program, 1992. Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture Records, AMN 1103, Box 17, Folder 15. 
7. African American Artists Program, 1988. Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture Records, AMN 1103, Box 14, Folder 6. 
8. Black with a Red Centerpiece Program. Miscellaneous Programs, 1980-1989. Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture Records, AMN 1103, Box 14, Folder 15. 
9. Gullah Festival, St. Helena Island, SC, 1989. Avery Photograph Collection, AMN 1112, 220-16.