THE In

MAN
James Meredith. Harvey Gantt. Those names, those men, are inextricably linked with the
Civil Rights movement and their respective alma maters the University of Mississippi and
Clemson. But what of the Colleges integration history? What is our bold-faced name in
the history books? Who is our face? Meet Eddie Ganaway 71.

by Eric Frazier 87

photography by Nancy Santos

e lets his mind drift back 40 years, to his days as an Its obviously something Ive been aware of. But no big deal was
undergraduate student. made of it, either by the College or by me, he says, settling in over
Scraps of detail remain frozen in his memory, as vivid a cup of coffee at a coffee shop on Calhoun Street.
and textured as if they happened yesterday. Like the butter- But as the minutes turn into an hour, it becomes clear just
covered honey buns he devoured at what was then called Craig how indelible an imprint his student years left on him. His thin,
Union. Or the courtly English accent of a favorite history angular face grows animated. His dark-brown eyes seem to light
professor. Even a classmates passionate embrace of Nixon- up. Furrows dig themselves into the penny-colored skin around his
Goldwater Republicanism. eyes as he strains to unearth more memories.
Its amazing, Eddie Ganaway says, walking along the Calhoun These are memories I havent thought about much, really, he
Street edge of the campus one sunny Saturday morning. Its not says, smiling.
been that long ago, but everythings changed. Today, he considers his time at the College one of the most
Hes a big part of that change. Ganaway, a longshoremans son enriching experiences of his life. But back then, he wasnt sure
from Charleston Heights, arrived at the College in January 1968 how he should feel.
and went on to become its first African American graduate. I was an angry young man there when I first graduated,
Its a big deal, a seminal event in the 237-year history of the Ganaway says. I used to say to people, Rather than being proud
school. Just dont expect Ganaway to say so himself. Hes a quiet of me being the first black, the College of Charleston ought to
man who carries himself with the dignified reserve of the history be ashamed of itself that I was the first black, and that it took
professors he once admired, and whose ranks he eventually joined. so long.
Now a 62-year-old retired insurance adjuster, he approaches the He chuckles and shakes his head.
subject with genteel grace, muscular intellect and more than a few But, he adds, theres a fair amount of water under the
self-deprecating jokes. bridge now.

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 family to go to college. Teachers at Benedict closed ranks behind :: Finding a Home
them, constantly assuring them they were just as smart as white
Ganaway responded by being standoffish himself. He spent
college students.
much of his early time at the College hanging out in the
He excelled his first semester. But then the money ran out.
admissions office with Daniels. He didnt live on campus, so
Disappointed and angry, Ganaway joined the Navy. He stayed for
when his classes ended for the day, so did much of his contact
four years, serving as a medic in the Vietnam War.
with students.
When he neared the end of his tour, he wrote the College and
Academically, his worst fear came true. He wasnt well prepared.
asked, politely, if the school was accepting blacks. It wasnt
He had entered as a pre-medicine major, dreaming of becoming
so unthinkable by then. In 1963, Clemson University and the
a latter-day Albert Schweitzer philosopher-scientist who would
University of South Carolina admitted their first black students.
save the world through ideas as well as medicine. But calculus and
The College wrote Ganaway back. Yes, the school was accepting
chemistry overwhelmed him.
black students.
I felt an immense burden at the College, Ganaway recalls.
:: Breaking Boundaries This was not Benedict College I didnt have the sense that I had
any support there, and I was going to fail.
After returning to the states, Ganaway visited the campus.
He felt most at ease in social science and English classes
When an initial meeting with a college staffer proved less-than-
even though problems with grammar and punctuation pulled
encouraging, he wondered if the school had changed its mind.
his grades down. Michael Thorn, an Englishman who taught the
But then he spoke with Fred Daniels, the admissions director, and
freshman survey class in history, went out of his way to make him
Daniels strongly encouraged him to enroll. Ganaway wasnt sure
feel welcome. Through Thorn, he met another history professor,
he should. He told Daniels he had some money, thanks to the G.I.
George Heltai, a cosmopolitan European expatriate.
bill, but not enough to come. Well get loans to cover you, Daniels
Heltais children, Sophie and Martin, became his friends. They
assured him.
introduced him to their friends, who accepted him also. By the end
Even after he applied and was accepted, Ganaway still hesitated.
of his first semester, he felt like a part of their group, even if he
Instead of enrolling and coming to school, he took a job at the
couldnt help feeling self-conscious when walking around campus
Charleston Rubber Co. Daniels, a no-nonsense Yankee, as
with Sophie 70.
Ganaway recalls him, wasnt pleased.
To solve his writing problem, he re-read his high school grammar
He said, Look here, either piss or get off the pot, or some such
text and studied punctuation and sentence structure. He changed
thing as that, Ganaway recalls with a chuckle. He made it clear
his major to history, and his grades soared. He struck up
that they wanted me.
friendships with some of the professors, who seemed to be rooting
So, Ganaway started classes in January 1968. Two African
for him to make it.
American women had quietly started the semester before. Daniels,
His grades rose, and so did his confidence.
still an administrator at the College today, remembers that none
:: The Path to College of the three students needed police escorts. There were no anti-
Hell, he says with a laugh, I got rather cocky.
Luther King Day services and has spoken on occasion to
Ganaways path to the College proved a circuitous one. He grew integration protests. :: Becoming the Face African American student and alumni groups. Still, he
up in Charleston Heights, in the Daniel Jenkins projects, the fifth Everybody (at the College) was from Charleston, Daniels
It wasnt long before Ganaway began projecting that confidence. jokes, the significance of his role didnt hit home for him
of nine children. His father worked as a welder at the Navy Yard recalls. Charleston residents were just too civil to do anything
He became, essentially, the face of integration at the College, until a few years ago. That was when he learned his son,
and a longshoreman on Charlestons commercial docks, both good about it, so they just did nothing.
the most publicly engaged of the first wave of black students on now 28, had often used his barrier-breaking achievement
jobs for a black man in the segregated South of the late 1940s and Ganaway simply walked onto campus and started reporting to
campus. He even ran for student government president in 1970. He at the College as part of a pickup line for dating College of
early 1950s. his classes.
didnt win, but he had become such a strong and respected voice Charleston girls.
Ganaway remembers hot summers swimming in the Ashley Im terrified, he says, summoning back his emotions of the
among some students that his support pushed another candidate It hit me that, oh, thats important, he says, chuckling.
River and catching the bus down to Charleston for the dime time. Im out of the service with a four-year interruption in my
to victory. The things he learned at the school have stuck with him for
movies at the Lincoln Theater at Spring and King Streets. education. And Im not so confident of how good my education was
He was a highly respected campus leader, Daniels says. He a lifetime. He jokingly notes that he wouldnt be so confused if
It was, he says, the only theater downtown that catered to an at Bonds-Wilson. And I have this perception of the College as being
was wildly public, and wildly popular. the College hadnt introduced him to the joy of learning, and the
all-black audience. the cream of the crop of the white aristocracy. Im intimidated by
I thought Eddie was brilliant, says Morrison, who taught him complex philosophies of great thinkers from Aristotle and Plato
During one trip, he found himself staring at the Colleges these kids.
in English. He didnt mind telling you his opinion. He was just to John Stuart Mill and W.E.B. DuBois.
campus. Ganaway, a boy between 12 and 15 at the time, was No one, however, directed any overtly racist comments or threats
enormously energetic and outgoing and full of goodwill. It makes life interesting. Its as if Im always on the brink of
shocked to find this green oasis in the middle of the city. Hed been at him. Instead, many whites on campus studiously avoided any
By the time Ganaway graduated in 1971, he was the only black something important, he says. His brow furrows and his smile
a bright student, fond of reading newspapers and magazines such recognition of him at all.
student wearing the traditional white dinner jacket or dress widens, as if he just thought of something even more interesting.
as Ebony, Jet and Time and the Charleston newspapers. It was almost like Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man, he says. I
for commencement. The education he received, and even the hard times he endured,
But hed never heard of the College. Having seen it, he hungered did get the sense that I was being looked through.
I was pretty proud that Id managed to get that far, he recalls, makes him appreciate this tremblingly wonderful sense of
to attend. But that was little more than idle dreaming at the time. He felt it most acutely from members of some of the popular
and I was all set to go to Duke the following school year. possibility we all have as human beings.
The College went private in 1949 in order to avoid integration, fraternities and sororities of the time.
With Daniels help, hed landed a spot in Duke Universitys He stops and apologizes, wondering if hes going on too much,
according to Nan Morrison, a retired English professor who is They were not overtly racist. They were too aristocratic for
graduate history program, where he earned his masters degree. getting lost in his own thoughts again. Its so easy to do. So many
writing a history of the school. Black people had their place and that, too polite, too well bred. These were not blue-collar, recent
He taught history at Illinois State University and South Carolina intriguing ideas to consider, seductive philosophies to ponder.
at the time, it wasnt at the College of Charleston. arrivals to the middle class who felt threatened, but they were
State College before a 21-year career as a claims adjuster for All because his little-boy dream, once so seemingly unreachable,
When he graduated from Bonds-Wilson High School in 1962, profoundly conservative in the sense of a fidelity to the old ways
Allstate Insurance. came true.
Ganaway took a small scholarship offer from all-black Benedict and traditions.
Now retired, he doesnt spend much time doting on his place The College, he says, has been as influential in my life as
College in Columbia. He was, like many of his peers, the first in his There was a sense I wasnt welcomed. And I felt the coldness.
in history. He gave a speech at one of the Colleges Martin anything Ive ever done.

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