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I am Adrienne Wright
While growing up, the Civil Rights Movement was always happening in my living room.
This article is about:
Adrienne Wright's unique background
Black History Month
A: I grew up in the Greenview neighborhood of Columbia, SC in a neighborhood full of African-American families. My childhood was happy. It was filled with family, school events, ballet lessons, swim lessons at the neighborhood park, playing ball in the street until the streetlight came on, and church on Sunday. I grew up knowing my education was critically important. There was not an option to getting good grades. My parents were professionals: my dad a lawyer and my mom a medical librarian. I knew that I was going to college.
A: The civil rights movement was always happening in my living room, thanks to my dad, James L. Felder. Great South Carolinians who were leaders in the movement were always stopping by on Sunday for dinner. The Honorable Jasper Cureton, my dad’s best friend and fraternity brother, was the first African-American elected as an appellate judge in South Carolina since Reconstruction. Reverend Jesse Jackson, also a good friend and fraternity brother, ran for US President and pressured Coke to invest in minorities a long time before diversity and inclusion was thought of. Herbert Fielding and I.S. Leevy Johnson served with my dad in the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1970, the first blacks since Reconstruction. John Roy Harper was a brilliant legal mind and unsung civil rights warrior in South Carolina. To me, these men were family friends.
Growing up, I saw my dad like any other kid does, just a dad doing all the regular dad things, until fifth grade. I had to complete a project on John F. Kennedy. My mom suggested I use some black and white photos she had stored in the closet. They were not just any photos. They were photos of my dad as a pallbearer at JFK’s funeral. On that day I figured out that I was living with a historic figure. I am proud of him.
A: When my parents moved back to South Carolina in 1967, my dad took a job as the President of the Voter Education Project (VEP), whose sole purpose was to educate black folks on who was running for office, get them registered to vote and finally get them to the polls to vote. My dad’s involvement with the civil rights movement is intertwined in his personal and professional life. It cannot be separated. He resurrected VEP about two decades ago and still serves as the “agitator” (his word) for local politics. His passion for service moves me. He is “all in.” When I turned 18, I voted in an election for South Carolina State House of Representatives. My dad was on the ballot, running for the same office he held in 1970. He didn’t win the election, but it was amazing to be a part of the process and support him; really be in his world.
A: My dad is stubborn, in a good way. He’s persistent and unwilling to accept ‘no’ for anything. I have the same traits. I call it survival instinct. I’m grateful for his example. I don’t hesitate to speak up or share my thoughts at work or in the community. I am quick to set the record straight when it comes to South Carolina history. I want to tell the whole story. I can thank my dad for that.
A: There is still work to be done. Modjeska Monteith Simkins was the matriarch of the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina. She was fearless and not to be trifled with. I believe that the current era of social injustice can be summed up with a quote from Mrs. Simkins, “I woke up this morning with my mind set on freedom.”
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