ABOUT THE 3D VIRTUAL TOUR THROUGH

THE CECIL WILLIAMS CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM

The Cecil Williams Civil Rights Museum, only museum dedicated to the history of the South Carolina Civil Rights Movement, chronicles the sacrifices, perseverance and bravery of the young and old, black and white, students and laborers determined to destroy Jim Crow and command the dignity, respect and social justice the Constitution proclaimed for all Americans. This steadfast legal and civic movement in South Carolina taking shape strategically in the late 1940’s through 1970 would inspire and influence the marches, protests and boycotts throughout the South.  

The Museum brings to life little known individuals and often untold events that would swell from the South to international shores where the fight for the right to vote, to be educated, for employment opportunities would be championed universally as an inalienable right for all humanity.

 The Museum’s virtual tour is a vivid comprehensive journey bringing remote visitors through time and space to the hundreds of images, documents and memorabilia in Cecil Williams’ collections. The self-guided virtual tour allows visitors to travel, via mouse and mousepads, through the entire Museum and to click on the hundreds of images and high-lighted materials for full-screen examination of the Museum’s collected pieces. 

Archived in the Cecil Williams Civil Rights Museum are the historically significant episodes that influenced and contributed to America's Civil Rights Movement and  collections and a wealth of research materials of particular interest to the general public, academics and historians. 

 1. Briggs v. Elliott was the first of five cases challenging segregation in public education and would be merged into Brown v. Board of Education.

2. The Orangeburg Freedom Movement, where local citizens using boycotting as a tool to fight Jim Crow that would eventually become the template for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

3. Harvey Gantt, first African American to attend Clemson University, is captured by the photographs of Cecil Williams.

4. The Orangeburg Massacre occurred after a student protest against a segregated bowling alley and would become the first shooting of unarmed students on an American college campus.

5. The Charleston Hospital Workers' Strike involved more than 400, mostly female, African American, hospital workers fighting the discriminatory practices they had to endure in Charleston, South Carolina.

6. In addition to the space where museum previews take place, the Matthew Perry Media Center, from the perspective of South Carolina Civil Rights Movement events, profiles 50 most influential persons.

7. The Thurgood Marshall Legacy Hall pays tribute to the NAACP attorney who parlayed the Briggs v. Elliott Case from Clarendon County to the US Supreme Court.

8. The Civil Rights Movement Timeline graphically illustrates the early South Carolina civil rights pioneering that proceeded origins of the better known national events.

9. The Cecil Williams Civil Rights Museum sign-in wall displays signatures of visitors to the museum. 

10. Twenty-five other exhibit depicting historically significant milestones in South Carolina Civil Rights History.