Black Artist Disparities in South Carolina

“Being a teacher, I can say it’s difficult on both sides. These girls don’t have the resources, so I as a teacher have to try my best to guide them with only one meeting a week.” - Robert Mason

Robert Mason 2020

Growing up near rural South Carolina, I found myself running into difficulties when it came to education access and proper resources. Not only would I suffer the effects of this, but I saw it personally affect my friends and family.

According to the South Carolina Arts Commission and the 2020 Census, it is the places in which the black population is higher where arts in basic curriculum suffer more than in other areas of South Carolina.

A
BC Schools in South Carolina

Black population throughout South Carolina, Census 2020

I personally saw this within not only my artist experience in South Carolina, but within the experiences of friends, family, and other black artists. In Florence, South Carolina, the black population makes up 41.6% of the overall population. The neighboring county, Williamsburg County, SC the black population is 64.3%, In Marlboro County the black population makes up 50.2%. The region of the Pee Dee, which includes the counties of Chesterfield, Clarendon, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Georgetown, Horry, Lee, Marion, Marlboro, Sumter, and Williamsburg, the black population is the most dense throughout the state of South Carolina.

If we were to look at the distribution of schools that are ABC schools in South Carolina, we will see the amount of these schools in the Pee Dee County are little none. ABC stands for Arts in Basic Curriculum, meaning that these schools make sure that an adequate arts education is integral to a students education. The number of ABC schools within the entire Pee Dee region is numbered at 7, while the overall number for ABC schools in SC is 73.

Personal Experience

Of course, it is not just statistics that solidify this value. My personal experience can address the statistics further. All of my life I have attended institutions within these counties. Honestly, one of the first black teachers I had was my introductory band director in intermediate school. When I was young, I was surrounded a lot by the black community due to me just being where I am from, and the events I took part of and attended. One pivotal moment for me was when my mother took me to her HBCU homecoming at South Carolina State, and I remember being mesmerized by the band, and wanting one day to be part of something similar. So when the opportunity came up in intermediate school to sign up for band and begin learning an instrument, I took that opportunity.

South Carolina State University 2020

I spent years honing the craft of my instrument. I auditioned for clinics, took any opportunity to be part of something bigger, to be part of the classical music community. So much so, I took it upon myself to audition for the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, SC, to which I got in. However, the differences of artistic experiences were vast.

I soon noticed the disparities to which schools in my hometown faced in comparison to students from all over the state. At the Governor's school, I was able to meet students who were from different areas of South Carolina. Within this artistic space, I noticed a disparity as well. A friend of mine, Christian Dukes, I happened to meet in my senior year at the Governor’s School. Christian is from the same area I am from within South Carolina, as well as he attended a majority black school. Christian stated “The experiences are really incomparable. I only did show choir in a majority black choir in Florence, but when I came to Greenville, I got more performance experience in general, but that was jaded by the fact that my exposure to black literature dropped significantly.”

I would mention the same for my experience, as when I came to Greenville my learning and performance opportunities expanded greatly, which overall gave me a sense of slight sadness as I began to see the disparities between the two areas much clearer.

Hearing experiences from black artists all across South Carolina have solidified these findings. Both from the perspective of black artists from more affluent areas and black artists from less affluent areas. What I believe will really aid students from the area is artists going back and serving these areas as much as they could. Robert Mason, a graduate of Julliard from Columbia, South Carolina has spoken of his experiences of providing classes for black artists in South Carolina. He stated “Being a teacher, I can say it’s difficult on both sides. These girls don’t have the resources, so I as a teacher have to try my best to guide them with only one meeting a week.” However, the more black artists that reach out to these areas, the more access these black artists will have to proper resources, as a result, we can begin to push towards a diverse artistic curriculum throughout the state of South Carolina.

Cited Sources

“Current ABC Schools.” ABC Institute, 11 Aug. 2022, www.abcinstitutesc.org/current-abc-sites/current-abc-sites/.

“Home.” SC.GOV, www.sc.gov/government/peedee. Accessed 04 Oct. 2023.

Posted by Sam Watson. July 18, et al. “South Carolina State University - Ready All to Do and Dare.” South Carolina State University - Ready All to Do and Dare, 28 Aug. 2023, scsu.edu/.

Staff, America Counts. “South Carolina Gained Almost Half a Million People Last Decade.” Census.Gov, 12 July 2023, www.census.gov/library/stories/state-by-state/south-carolina-population-change-between-census-decade.html.