Yet, instead of leaving, the twenty-year-old African American stayed and operated his pharmacy for more than forty years, became president of a bank, and a civil rights pioneer who fought for equality and justice.
Within The Charleston Museum’s permanent exhibition,Beyond the Ashes: The Lowcountry’s New Beginningsis noted that, by the early 1900s, Charleston had “lost the wealth and grandeur it had experienced during the colonial and antebellum eras. No longer considered the ‘Queen of the South,’ the city had become run down and unsanitary, an unhealthy place to live and a town few wished to visit…. While celebrating its past glory, however, the city continued to reckon with its legacy of slavery with regard to social and economic opportunities, which were limited for its African American population….”
When John McFall returned to Charleston in 1899, after graduating with honors from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, he called the city “a dump” and confessed he wanted to “beat it back North.” Yet, instead of leaving, the twenty-year-old African American stayed and operated his pharmacy for more than forty years, became president of a bank, and a civil rights pioneer who fought for equality and justice. In this talk, Lahnice McFall Hollister shares her granduncle’s remarkable journey — a man whom Judge J. Waties Waring described as “a scholar and a gentleman.”
Registration is encouraged. This lecture is FREE for Members and FREE for the public. ***SUGGESTED DONATION $10***. Register online or call (843) 722.2996 ext. 235.
Lahnice Hollister is a graduate of Fisk University; she lives in Greenville, S.C. She published Resisting Jim Crow: The Autobiography of Dr. John A. McFall. Her research has been published by the South Carolina Historical Society, the Waring Library and several national genealogical and historical journals and magazines.
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