Mamie Garvin Fields, 1913

Mamie Garvin Fields, 1913
This photo of Fields was taken a few years after she and her sister had been told to “Scat!” when they looked through the Porter’s Lodge gates. On that day, a candy-seller across the street comforted the girls, telling them that African American children should go to Shaw School because the College “ain’t for we.” Fields did attend Shaw, then earned her college degree in 1909 from Claflin College in Orangeburg. She had a long career teaching on Johns Island and James Island and was also an influential clubwoman who successfully advocated for adult education and daycare for children in the Charleston area. She wrote her 1983 memoir Lemon Swamp and Other Places in collaboration with her granddaughter, Karen Fields. The papers of Mamie Garvin Fields are housed in the College’s Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture. Courtesy of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture.
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