COLUMBIA, S.C. — Elise Jones Martin is affectionately called "Mama Lise" by her family and friends. Because to her decades of service to the people in Columbia, she is also called a trailblazer, pioneer, servant leader, and community advocate.
Martin is the first black woman to open a business on Main Street in downtown Columbia, and went on to run multiple businesses in the area. She volunteered with a number of charities, served on the Columbia Zoning Board was a member of the Keep America Beautiful of the Midlands. A devout Christian, Martin has been a leader at Bethel A.M.E. Church.
On top of that, she has served as a poll worker in Richland County for over 30 years.
"I always had a nice group of people working with me," Martin said. "Of course, they were younger. That was easy," she joked.
Martin's experience at the polls stretches back to the 1940s.
"We never had the privilege of voting in the white precincts," Martin said. "The white people had their own section and precinct. The black people had theirs."
South Carolina was segregated during that time, and black people were fighting against voter suppression like Jim Crow Laws.
During one of her early experiences with voting, Martin was subjected to a literacy test.
"When we got to the door of the voting place, there was a white lady standing there and she said, 'can you read?'"
Martin, at that time, was a teacher at Booker T. Washington High School. She says they were dismissed from school to go and vote. When they arrived, they were asked to read the preamble before they were allowed to vote.
That did not stop them.
"We decided we would not look at the paper. We would look around her and say it and her color really changed," Martin said.
Looking back on the experience, Martin laughs at the irony of the situation.
"It tickled me to think...the white people that hired us to teach and they were asking us if we could read." She went on to say, "If we couldn't read, why you hire us in the schools?"
Martin continued to be a strong advocate for equal voting rights in South Carolina. She spent decades registering people to vote and helping them through the voting process.
Martin said she dedicated so much time to this cause because "that is the way you make progress in the world." She said, "You can't just sit there and let it go by. You have to be a part of it. And in order to be part of it, you have to know something about it."
In her mid-90s, Martin finally decided to step away from serving at the polls. However, she changed her because Barack Obama was running for president.
She met him while he was on the campaign trail. She pointed her finger in his chest and said, "You are a good man. You've got good brains and don't you stop."
Although now retired and living in California with family, Martin is still taking interest in her community. Her daughter says she is still keeping up with what's happening in Columbia and making phone calls encouraging people to vote.
Martin says her community advocacy was inspired by her mom, Fannie Jones. She co-organized the Jones-McDonald Club. They helped keep neighborhoods safe, clean, and connected.