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Civil Rights leader Modjeska Simkins, born in 1900, was named after the Polish actress Helena Modjeska. The Columbia, South Carolina native learned from her family and her education how to be a peace maker, and, when necessary, a hell raiser.[1] She learned about racism, when she and her family travelled with her father, Henry Monteith, who took jobs as a chief bricklayer.[2]
Modjeska Simkins remembered Henry Monteith, when he worked in Huntsville, Alabama was often prepared to fight back with hammer and mortar blade, White men who suggested that he be lynched. She also remembered her father as one who never turned a person in need away. Modjeska Simkins thought of herself as a softhearted person like her father who always desired to help others. From her father, and her mother Rachael, Modjeska Simkins learned about leadership and responsibility.[3] Her early experiences with racism and her exposure to education helped her understand what a single person could do to promote justice in an often unjust society. The Monteith home had also been a place in which children, after completing household chores, sat around a fire reading books and completing their homework. Early in her education Modjeska Simkins was enrolled in the first grade at Benedict College’s elementary school.[4] Benedict College produced African American educators and ministers of great promise.[5] Modjeska Simkins had been one of those students, who very early showed promise.[6] Once she graduated from the college, Simkins served as a history for one year at Benedict, and later taught Algebra at Booker T. Washington High School; an African American institution, famous for educating generations of black leaders. In the early 1920s, a married women was not allowed to teach in the city school system in South Carolina.[7] When Modjeska Simkins married a wealthy businessman named Andrew Whitfield Simkins in 1921, she lost her teaching job.[8] However, her husband’s wealth gave her opportunities to engage in improving the social status of African Americans as American citizens.
Andrew W. Simkins and his wife Modjeska Simkins became members of the Civic Welfare league that included many African American educators and business professional men and women. This organization worked to improve the condition of Black society while also urging people of color to register to vote as a means of fighting for their civil rights.[9] Before she began her work as a civil rights leader, Modjeska Simkins was on a mission of selfless philanthropy to improve the health of African Americans across the state of South Carolina. In fact, Simkins became the first African American in her state to hold a statewide position in the public health field.[10] Starting in the 1930s, she set out to fight an invisible enemy. This enemy spread through the air and got into peoples lungs. From the lungs this disease also made war on the kidney, the spine, and even the brain. This disease even could spread to healthy populations from a mere cough or on exhalation of merely one breath. The Tuberculosis disease had been the enemy that Modjeska Simkins sought to destroy.[11]
The number of African Americans dying from tuberculosis and other contagious disease in South Carolina caused great alarm even among Whites. African Americans' rate of contracting the disease far exceeded the numbers of Whites who caught the disease. The White organization, known as The South Carolina Tuberculosis Association, organized a program run by African Americans. Modjeska Simkins’ work on ridding African Americans of tuberculosis eventually led to her being elected to the position of director of the Negro Program of the South Carolina Tuberculosis Association, or Negro Work as it was often called. She organized many African American volunteers to help her with the necessary education and fund-raising needed to fight the disease.[12]
In 1937, Waverly Samaritan Hospital hired Modjeska Simkins to teach African American nurses in a course on Tuberculosis. In 1943, she offered a course in personal health at the historically Black institution known as Allen University.[13] Modjeska Simkins also was the field agent of the Special State Committee of Tuberculosis Association. Her organization was able to commit African American schools, churches, and Masonic organizations to rid society of Tuberculosis.[14] Desiring more knowledge about contagious diseases, she completed a Master’s degree at the University of Michigan from the department of Hygiene and Public Health. After she took a summer course on Tuberculosis under a Theo J. Werle, he wrote Modjeska’s White supervisor Chauncey McDonald stating: “I can’t let this summer period pass by without telling you how pleasant and capable was Mrs. Modjeska Monteith Simkins who I understand is in charge of your Negro Health Work. Mrs. Simkins’ final paper is in my opinion the best one written after my summer course on Tuberculosis.”[15]
Modjeska Simkins could be caustic and abrasive in her speech and mannerisms, to people she disagreed with, when she thought that they were just plain wrong. Modjeska Simkins’ relationship with her employer Chauncey McDonald, a White lady who belonged to the Southern Presbyterian church, serves as an example how Modjeska viewed public health and religion. In Modjeska’s opinion, McDonald was religious, but she was not a Christian. McDonald often thought of Simkins as an awful person. Chauncey McDonald did not believe that Modjeska Simkins should work with the NAACP. However, in spite of McDonald’s opposition, Simkins continued to involve herself in civil rights activities.
Modjeska Simkins, unlike Chauncey McDonald, also did not believe in the notion that God would solve all the problems of the world in his own time. She believed that people, using their minds, could make change through social and political action. When Modjeska Simkins wanted to expand her interest to social actions in the African American community, McDonald did not approve of her new direction. McDonald, did not agree with Simkins’ views about venereal diseases, but instead believed that all one needed to do was to trust in God and he would take care of that one person.[16] When Modjeska Simkins desired to expand her health program to tackle the problems of syphilis and gonorrhea, McDonald told her that those diseases were from sin and should not be discussed in public.[17] It was Modjeska Simkins who came to believe that Chauncey McDonald, a white women, was not use to a black person disagreeing with her.
Modjeska Simkins did not listen to Mrs. McDonald’s demands to avoid discussing venereal disease in public. Instead, she traveled across the state of South Carolina, giving addresses regarding the deadly communicable diseases afflicting African Americans.[18] Because of her personality and strong will, Modjeska Simkins increased the length of the arm of affiliated Tuberculosis organizations when she worked with eleven schools in South Carolina to create accredited summer health courses for African American teachers. Through her efforts, summer schools programs throughout South Carolina hired full time instructors in the field of health education to inform African Americans about the importance of public health.[19]
The first course was entitled Personal Hygiene, which informed future health care workers about the recent findings in science and medicine that were used to maintain good health. The community Hygiene course stressed the importance of the individual and the communal responsibility to ensure good health for the benefit to the African American community in South Carolina. The third course entitled Methods and Materials in Health Education provided health care professionals with strategies on how to educate teachers, students, and parents on issues related to contagion control; physical fitness; first aid, and the creation of a hygienic environment. The summer program for teachers involved conference hours in which controversial topics such as sex education was discussed.[20]
In
November of 1941, In Anderson County “the local Negro teacher association
group” listened to a speech by Modjeska Simkins on the health and prevention of
illness. After she listed the common causes of death; automobile accidents,
cancer, and syphilis, Modjeska Simkins emphasized the need to get a checkup
from a competent doctor and discussed the procedures employed in a thorough
physical examination.21 At the second Annual Tuberculosis conference
at Booker T. Washington High School, more than one hundred and fifty citizens
from twenty counties came to learn of the current trends in attacking
Tuberculosis. All the major leaders, African Americans and whites, attended
the conference, including Modjeska Simkins who spoke about the challenge for a
more intensive educational program in the schools.22 Modjeska
Simkins, part hell raiser, part peace maker, worked with hundreds of men and
women in South Carolina and other parts of the country to make a better America.
Bibliography:
“Anderson County Teachers hears Mrs. M. Simkins On The ‘Health of American Citizens.’” The Palmetto Leader, 1941.
"Civic Welfare League Discusses Vital Issues." Palmetto Leader, 1941.
"Civil Rights Congress Charges Four More Acts of Racial Genocide In USA." Lighthouse and Informer. Columbia, July 5, 1952.
“Committee Meeting,” The Palmetto Leader, 1940.
“Health Courses Offered at Ten Summer Schools.” The Palmetto Leader, 1938.
"Interesting Tuberculosis Meeting Held in Columbia ." The Palmetto Leader, 1938.
"John Jacobs Win City-Wide Golf Tournament." The Palmetto Leader, 1937.
“Large Gathering at Second Annual Tuberculosis.” Palmetto Leader, 1936.
"Mrs. Andrew Simkins To Offer Course In Personal Health." The Palmetto Leader, 1943.
Robbins, Becci. Modjeska Monteith Simkins-A South Carolina Revolutionary. Columbia, May 2014.
"Simkins' Saunterland Opens." The Palmetto Leader, 1943.
Simkins, Modjeska, Interview by Jacquelyn Hall. Interview with Modjeska Simkins, 28 July 1976. Southern Oral History Program Collection, Columbia, South Carolina.
Simkins, Modjeska, Interview by John Egerton. Interview With Modjeska Simkins, 11 May 1990.
“Simkins’ Saunterlnd Opens.” The Palmetto Leader, 1943.
Starks, J.J. "Fifty-Five Graduates Awarded Degrees ." The Palmetto Leaer, 1935.
“State Medical Meetings Opens Tuesday-Three Day Clinic Session To Be Held.” The Palmetto Leader, 1940.
“State Seal Sale Short of Goal.” The Palmetto Leader, 1941.
“Student Health Conference Hears Mrs. M. Simkins On The ‘Health of American Citizens.’” The Palmetto Leader, 1941.
“South Carolinians Attend National Meeting-Conference on Student Health Held in New Orleans.” The Palmetto Leader, 1941.
"Taylor School News." The Palmetto Leader, 1936.
"The Old Gray And The New Rider"." The Palmetto Leader, 1936.
“Turberculosis Course Opens At Waverly Hospital.” The Palmetto Leader, 1937.
The Palmetto Leader.July 24, 1937.
"Wittemore School Again Over the TopStudents Purchae $100 Health Bond For 3rd Yr." The Palmetto Leader, 1939.
[1]Robbins, Becci. Modjeska Monteith Simkins-A South Carolina Revolutionary. (Columbia: S.C. Progressive Network Education Fund, May 2014), 2.
2The Palmetto Leader, July 24, 1937.
3Modjeska Simkins, Interview by John Egerton. Interview With Modjeska Simkins 11 May 1990. Southern Oral History Program Collection, Columbia, South Carolina.
5Fredrick Richardson, A Power for Good in Society: The History of Benedict College,
Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, (Tallahassee, Florida State University, 1973.; J. Tracy
Power, Benedict College Historic District, National Register of Historic Places, 1987.
[6] Modjeska Simkins, Interview by John Egerton. Interview With Modjeska Simkins 11
May 1990. Southern Oral History Program Collection, Columbia, South Carolina.
[7] Modjeska Simkins, Interview by John Egerton. Interview With Modjeska Simkins 11 May 1990. Southern Oral History Program Collection, Columbia, South Carolina.
8 "John Jacobs Win City-Wide Golf Tournament." The Palmetto Leader, 1937.; "Simkins' Saunterland Opens." The Palmetto Leader, 1943.
[9]"Civic Welfare League Discusses Vital Issues." Palmetto Leader, 1941.
10Robbins, Becci. Modjeska Monteith Simkins-A South Carolina Revolutionary. Columbia, May 2014.
11"Interesting Tuberculosis Meeting Held in Columbia ." The Palmetto Leader, 1938.; "Taylor School News." The Palmetto Leader, 1936.
[12]"Wittemore School Again Over the Top Students Purchae $100 Health Bond For 3rd
Yr." The Palmetto Leader, 1939.
13"Mrs. Andrew Simkins To Offer Course In Personal Health." The Palmetto Leader, 1943.
14"The Old Gray And The New Rider." The Palmetto Leader, 1936.; “Large Gathering at Second Annual Tuberculosis Conference.” The Palmetto Leader, 1936.; “Committee Meeting.” The Palmetto Leader, 1940 ;“State Seal Sale Short of Goal.” The Palmetto Leader, 1941
[12]“Tuberculosis Course Opens At Waverly Hospital.” The Palmetto Leader, 1937.
[16] Modjeska Simkins, Interview by John Egerton. Interview With Modjeska Simkins 11 May 1990. Southern Oral History Program Collection, Columbia, South Carolina.
[17]Ibid.
[18]“State Medical Meeting Opens Tuesday-Three Day Clinic Session To Be Held.”
The Palmetto Leader, 1940.
[20]“Accredited Summer Courses in Health Education at ‘State.’” Palmetto Leader, 1938;
“Student Health Conference To Be Held At Orangeburg.” Palmetto Leader, 1941.
21“Anderson County Teachers Hears Mrs. M. Simkins On The ‘Health of American
Citizens.’” The Palmetto Leader, 1941.
22“Large Gathering at Second Annual Tuberculosis Conference.” The Palmetto Leader,
1935.