Rock Hill civil rights leader, husband of first black woman in SC Legislature, dies

Horace Goggins Sr., a Rock Hill civil rights activist and husband of the first black woman elected to the South Carolina General Assembly, has died.

Goggins, 88, was a retired dentist who came to Rock Hill in the 1950s and remained all his life. His former wife, the late Juanita Goggins who died in 2010, in 1974 became the first black woman ever elected to the state legislature.

A stretch of West Main Street in Rock Hill in front of the Goggins’ home was named by the S.C. Legislature for Juanita Goggins in 2009.

Dr. Goggins died Thursday at Piedmont Medical Center.

Horace Goggins was an officer with the Rock Hill NAACP during the late 1950s and 1960s, when Rock Hill clergy, black professionals and students protested segregation through a bus boycott, picketing and sit-in protests.

Goggins in 1965 was the first black candidate for the Rock Hill school board, when schools were segregated. He continued his activism, promoting racial and religious equality into his 80s.

The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church on Hampton Street in Rock Hill. Dr. Goggins was one of the founders of the church.

The funeral is 1 p.m. Wednesday at the church.

This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Rock Hill civil rights leader, husband of first black woman in SC Legislature, dies."