A Fort Mill connector road will honor the memory of a former slave.
A connector between two of Fort Mill’s busiest roads and one of its most historic recreation sites is now registered with York County as Handy White Way.
It’s named in honor of Handy White Sr. who was born into slavery around 1832. By his death in 1917, White owned 118 acres in Fort Mill. He helped establish Bethlehem Baptist Church and the Banks Street Cemetery. His name is inscribed on the monument to “faithful slaves” that stands in Confederate Park downtown.
In about 1897, White began to establish what has since become the historic Paradise community. That community was mostly Black as was membership at Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Rudy Sanders, who helped establish the Fort Mill History Museum and has worked on community block grant projects in Paradise, researched White.
“It was altogether fitting for the roadway, Handy White Way, to be named after Handy White,” Sanders said. “Most of the land he picked up was in that vicinity.”
The new road accesses the Fort Mill YMCA at the Complex and Anne Springs Close Greenway trail from Springfield Parkway, just off Tom Hall Street.
The long-time complex entrance now will be known as the Blue Star Entrance, in honor of the longest Greenway trail and native wildflower namesake.
Sanders said White was enslaved under William Elliott White, father of Samuel Elliott White. Anne Springs Close is the great, great granddaughter of William Elliott White.
Samuel Elliott White built one of Fort Mill’s most historic sites -- the White Homestead.
Historians describe Handy White as a hard worker, and trustworthy.
“Along the way, Handy worked himself up within the plantation,” Sanders said. “With honors of becoming what you would call a free slave, meaning that he had papers to walk the town and also act on behalf of his slaveowners.”
Handy was about six years older than Samuel and the two grew up together, Sanders said. Handy White worked on a plantation after the Civil War and while it isn’t clear exactly how he amassed a small fortune, his relationship with Samuel likely helped, Sanders said.
What happened once Handy White amassed that fortune, from the Pleasant Valley church to the Paradise area, is clear.
”He started buying up land and building houses,” Sanders said.
Road name, monument protest
The 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis set off nationwide public protests that reached Fort Mill. Confederate Park had multiple protests, dozens of letters have been written and read into the record at town council meetings in recent months, calling for monuments like the “faithful slaves” structure to come down and asking for certain roads to be renamed.
Similar discussion three years ago led some descendants of the slaves listed on the Confederate Park monument to ask that it remain, in honor of the names listed. Included were descendants of Handy White.
The town can’t change monuments or road names without state legislators changing the Heritage Act. That was part of an agreement that brought the Confederate battle flag down from from the statehouse.
Mayor Guynn Savage said repeatedly in recent months the town is evaluating what it can do about the park and monuments, and that there have been voices both for and against removal.
Sanders said he isn’t one to stand at the forefront of what easily can become a political issue, but did say he’s hopeful both sides of the monument and road name debate can remain civil.
“We have such a wonderful history in Fort Mill,” Sanders said. “I know things are getting a little testy, but I certainly hope some reasoning comes into some people.”
Honoring Handy White
A new name road doesn’t take any special state approval. Elizabeth Bowers, communications director for the Anne Springs Close Greenway said her organization reached out to the Fort Mill History Museum and the Greenway’s diversity and inclusion committee to come up with the name.
“We saw the need to name this new road as an opportunity to highlight an important piece of Fort Mill’s history,” Bowers said. “In keeping with other roads on the property, we wanted the name to be relevant to this area of the Greenway, which is adjacent to the historic Paradise community.”
Sanders finds it a fitting tribute.
“This is coming at a timely fashion,” he said.
