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| S C T E CHN I CA L CO L L E G E S Y S T EM ’ S
F I R S T 5 0 Y EAR S
It was a tough decade for workers. South Carolina’s loss of jobs in the 1950s was heartbreaking. Textile mills began eliminating jobs
through automation. Meanwhile, farming’s mechanization, federal crop restrictions, and foreign competition in cotton and tobacco forced
thousands of people off the farm. Cheap imported textiles would close mills and lead to less demand for domestic cotton. Farm work was just
no good and millwork wasn’t far behind.
South Carolina’s spiral-down economy had another problem. The state had not done a good job of training people for industrial jobs. If
you were headed to college, you might be okay, but if you had no intention or means to go to college, you were trapped in a state hemorrhag-
ing jobs.
There was one way out. Leave. In particular, people left rural areas. Walter Edgar explained
this exodus in
South Carolina, A History
, “Changing agricultural patterns resulted in reduced
job opportunities and were another factor in the depopulation of the countryside.” There was
a more heart-rending way to express this. One man said, “My daddy was the strongest man I
know, but not having work brought him to his knees.”
This daddy wasn’t alone. Strong people all over South Carolina fell to their knees. This dire
situation was not lost on state leaders. About the time the hula hoop craze was sweeping through
the country, a lieutenant governor was out campaigning. Somehow the trail took him to Dayton,
Ohio, where he was attending a Lutheran conference with his friend, the Reverend Heyward
Epting. It was eleven p.m. when their session ended. Across the corner was a technical training
college, lights ablaze. As the men walked into the Ohio night, this governor-to-be looked over
and said, “Eleven at night? What kind of industry is working all night long?”
Technical training was underway. “I’ll be damned. The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. We don’t have anything like
that in South Carolina. If I can ever get elected, that’s the first thing I’m gonna do.”
That man—Ernest Frederick Hollings—vowed to make South Carolina more competitive in recruiting business and industry. We know
him as Fritz. He went on to serve as South Carolina’s governor from 1959 to 1963.
On October 21, 2012, I was signing books at the Preservation Society of Charleston’s bookstore on King Street. The fall tour of homes and
gardens was underway, and a steady stream of people came in to buy tour tickets. I was signing two books, one of which was
Reflections of
South Carolina
, a book showcasing the state’s beauty. A gentleman approached my table, and as we talked, he told me he was from California
but living for now in Charleston.
Prologue—
A MORE COMPETITIVE SOUTH CAROL INA
“Every South Carolinian
shall have the right to
seek his or her own
natural destiny. There
must be dignity in all
honorable work.”
—Boone Aiken’s philosophy for
the original state board
