‘Telling the complete story of Rock Hill’: Sign unveiled for African American Cultural Center
The theme of the day was celebration.
After nearly two years of talks, Rock Hill will officially have an African-American cultural center. Thursday, city officials and leaders from the city’s African American Cultural Resources Advisory Committee unveiled the sign for what will be called the Williams-Ivory Cultural Center.
The cultural center will be inside the brick house at 332 W. Main Street, which was built by Simon Williams, a Black Mason who also is one of the center’s namesakes. The center is not complete inside, but it’s official: The cultural center project will be a part of Rock Hill.
E. Tanzella “Tan” Barber opened the ceremony with a rendition of Jonathan McReynold’s “Movin’ On.” The crowd of around 30 nodded along as she rang out: “I’m closing chapters, I’m turning pages. Glory to glory, and from faith to favor... I’m moving on.”
Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys beamed as he moved to address the crowd.
“This project is about getting to talk about moving on, moving forward,” he said, “Telling the complete history of Rock Hill from the right point of view.”
The complete history of Rock Hill is irrevocably tied to African American history and the civil rights movement. Dr. Gladys F. Robinson, Chair of the AACRAC, listed historical events in the city, each time asking the crowd “Who knew that?”
More familiar events, like the Freedom Riders trip through Rock Hill, led to plenty raised hands.
Others, only two or three people knew.
Now, the cultural center will educate visitors on every piece of Rock Hill’s timeline, good and bad. From the Freedom Riders visit to Rock Hill, which is the only place they were faced with physical violence, to Friendship College’s opening of the area’s first Black library.
The cultural center also will educate the public on Rock Hill’s “unsung heroes.” The building itself is named to honor the late Rev. Cecil Ivory, a Rock Hill resident who was a prolific part of civil rights activities.
As part of the NAACP, Ivory was well-known for leading a bus boycott so successful that it put the local bus company out of business.
His daughter, Darnell Ivory, watched the sign be unveiled. She is Ivory’s last surviving relative.
“I’m it,” she said, “So I’m trying to carry the mantle, carry the legacy.”
Now, her father’s legacy will be carried in a different way.
“They say he’s the Martin Luther King of Rock Hill. They continue to talk about my father’s influence, in his fight for civil rights,” she said. “This is just bringing it full circle.”
Robinson said: “This is a historic event for the city of Rock Hill, as well as the African American community. And believe me, it has been a long, long, long, long time coming.”
And appropriately, the celebration closed with Rock Hill’s Together as One Choir.
“Lord, you brought me a long way,” they sang.
And the crowd joined in, seeming to get lost in a minutes-long moment of music and joy.
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 1:44 PM.
