COLUMBIA, S.C. — Today marks 60 years since the first Black students enrolled at the University of South Carolina.
A ground-breaking ceremony was held Monday morning where bronze statues of those three students will soon look over the university's horseshoe.
“I want students to recognize that if they see things that are wrong in our community, they are compelled to act,” Henrie Monteith Treadwell said.
Treadwell recalls her actions that solidified her place in USC’s history.
In 1963, she was one of three Black students who registered for classes.
“It is, I hope, a catalyst to remind us that people must step forward in leadership,” Treadwell said. “People often say, 'Well, you were awfully brave to come.' It was not an act of bravery. I think in retrospect, it was an act on the part of all of us who came of leadership.”
USC broke ground on Monday on a monument to honor Treadwell along with the other two students, Robert Anderson and James Solomon, Jr. It marks exactly 60 years of integration at the university.
Treadwell, and the families of Anderson and Solomon, put the first shovels into the dirt.
“That is really what I hope the monument will inspire,” Treadwell said. “You can change history. If you just step out.”
The statue, by Basil Watson, will be next to the McKissick Museum on USC’s horseshoe. It n celebrates the three students’ historic walk from the Osborne building to Hamilton College to register for classes.
“The growth has been tremendous,” Treadwell said. “But more significantly, the growth in the numbers of young people of color who have come to this institution.”
“I think it shows how far we've come,” said USC’s student body president, Emmie Thompson. “And I mean, obviously there is still progress to make but I think it shows just the steps we've taken to be a unified Carolina community and actually live out the ideals in the Carolinian Creed.”
Hannah Baumgadner is a descendent of Robert Anderson and she and her family represented him at the event.
“Miss Henrie would be very proud to hear that I am certain of who I am,” Baumgadner said. “I'm certain of how I exist in this world. I'm certain of my importance in this world. As I'm sure maybe- many of them before did not feel that, and it takes leaders like her to make that possible.”
She hopes their story will inspire more students to be trailblazers.
“You can't learn from it, if you erase it, if you don't, if you don't think about it and reflect on where you've come from,” Baumgadner said.
The statue will be completed in 2024.