Henrie Monteith Treadwell
Student and civil rights activist
In May 1962, Henrie Monteith (1946- ) applied to the University of South Carolina but was denied admission. Her aunt, civil rights activist Modjeska Simkins; her mother, teacher and activist R. Rebecca Monteith; and civil rights attorneys, including Matthew J. Perry, helped her sue the university. Her successful lawsuit opened up the opportunity for two other students, James Solomon and Robert Anderson, to attend the university. On September 11, 1963, Monteith, Anderson and Solomon desegregated the University of South Carolina by being the first African American students admitted into the university since Reconstruction. Monteith graduated in 1965 as the first African American graduate of USC since Reconstruction and the university’s first African American woman graduate.
Image courtesy of The State Newspaper Photograph Archive, Richland Library