This is one of my heroes, Rev. John L. Dart. Born free in Charleston in 1854, he was the valedictorian of the first graduating class of that citys Avery Institute in 1872. He was a licensed minister at age 21 and soon graduated from Atlanta University and Newton Seminary in Massachusetts. After preaching and teaching in Washington DC, Augusta Ga, and Providence RI, he began pastoring at Charlestons Morris St. Baptist Church, where he gave shelter and relief to his community after the Charleston earthquake of 1886. In 1898, he spoke against the lynching of a black postmaster named Frazier Baker in SCs Pee Dee area and composed a pamphlet and sent a letter to the US President William McKinley regarding that injustice. He was also the founder of the Charleston Normal & Industrial Institute (now Burke High School). He had perhaps the largest collection of books among black Charlestonians and would frequently lend them to his community. His daughter Susie Dart Butler continued that tradition after his death in 1915, and this led to the formation of the John L Dart Library that serves Charleston to this day. More on him can be found in my book True Stories of Black SC.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 19:01:17 +0000