Mary H. Wright
Mary Honor Farrow Wright was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1862 and was the daughter of Lott and Adeline Farrow, and the wife of William Corbeth Wright. Wright accepted her first teaching position in 1879, instructing her students under a brush arbor tree in Inman, South Carolina. Throughout out her career, Wright taught in several schools for African American children throughout Spartanburg County. In 1904, due to concern over young children’s ability to walk to Dean Street School, the city’s only black school at the time, Wright began teaching out of her South Liberty Street home. The school grew, first relocating to the former Cedar Hill Academy, and later to the basement of Majority Baptist Church. In 1909 a new structure was built and named Carrier Street School, where Wright taught until 1936. In 1950, Carrier Street School closed and a new school was built and named the Mary H. Wright Elementary School in Wright’s honor. Wright retired from teaching in 1943 and died in 1946.
Brenda Lee Price
Born on South Liberty Street, Brenda Lee, another of the compilers of this history, has lived on the Southside her entire life. She is a 1966 graduate of Carver High School and attended the University of South Carolina. She was the 1998 recipient of the K Lewis Miller Award for leadership in Spartanburg and has served on numerous local boards including the Spartanburg Development Council and the Wofford College President’s Advisory Committee. She served as a member of the S.C. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2005. Brenda also collects books by African-American woman authors. She documented urban renewal’s effects on her neighborhood in a book she wrote in 2005 titled, “South of Main.”
Hudson L. Barksdale, Sr.
Hudson L. Barksdale Sr. served as a teacher and principal in Spartanburg County for 27 years and was at one time Principal of Zion Hill High School in Pacolet. He was named Spartanburg County’s teacher of the year in 1961. In 1963, Barksdale met with President John F. Kennedy in a White House conference on education and civil rights. He later became the first Black person from Spartanburg elected to the South Carolina Legislature. There is a road named for him in Spartanburg. Barksdale died in 1986 at the age of 74.
Listen to an interview courtesy of Winthrop University.
T. K. Gregg
Theodore K. Gregg was born in the early 1900s in Marlboro County, South Carolina. After graduating from Claflin College, he was appointed as pastor of the Silver Hill United Methodist Church in Spartanburg. Gregg left to earn his medical degree in Nashville and returned to work in Spartanburg as one of the few Black physicians in the city (serving in the Negro Annex of Spartanburg General Hospital). Concerned by the lack of recreational activities for children in the north side of Spartanburg, Gregg used his state and local connections to raise money for a wooden recreation center in the community. There is now a new community center on the Northside named in his honor.
J. W. Woodward
John Woodward lived during the Jim Crow era when whites dominated the business community. It was opened in 1916, when J.F. Floyd (Floyd's Mortuary) suggested that John and others organize a local mortuary for citizens of color. The funeral home is one of the oldest Black owned businesses in Spartanburg still in operation today. Originally located on Short Wofford Street, it moved to its current location at 594 Howard Street (the site of a former hospital for African Americans). The funeral home's chapel was built in 1979 and is able to seat 600 people.
Howie Williams
Three men who played for Spartanburg High School have played in the NFL Super Bowl, but Howie Williams was the first from the city’s schools to reach professional football’s highest level. A standout at Spartanburg’s segregated Carver High School, Williams went on to play at Howard, and played for three teams in the NFL. He won an NFL championship with the Green Bay Packers in 1962, played for the San Francisco 49ers, and finished his career with the Oakland Raiders, where he recorded 14 interceptions in six seasons and started at free safety in Super Bowl II.
Freddie Brown
Freddie Brown graduated from Wofford College and made history three times in his head coaching career. He was a four year letterman at Wofford and spent eleven seasons coaching running backs and the track and field program. In 2006, he became just the third coach to lead the Wolverines after the tenure of the legendary W.L. Varner, and the first Black head coach at a South Carolina High School League program in Spartanburg County in the process. Browon led Spartanburg High School's football team as head coach from 2008 until 2012.
Sheila Foster
Foster was a four-sport athlete for Boiling Springs High, starring in basketball, volleyball, softball, and track. She earned a host of individual honors, and was part of the only girls basketball state championship team in school history. After graduating from high school, she played for the University of South Carolina from 1978-1982. She is one of the most decorated athletes in program history, leading the Gamecocks to the postseason in every year of her career, including a third-place finish in the 1981 AIAW Final Four and a berth in the Sweet Sixteen of the inaugural NCAA Women's Tournament. Foster's 2,266 points rank second all-time in Gamecock history, while her 1,427 rebounds are still the program standard. She recorded 72 double-doubles in 134 career games.
Valorie Whiteside
While attending Chapman High School, Whiteside was a three-time All-State player for the Panthers. She followed her standout high school heroics with a truly legendary college career at Appalachian State. An All-American, Whiteside still holds Southern Conference career marks for points in a season, points in a career, season and career scoring average, career field goals made, and season and career free throw attempts. She is second all-time in rebounding in the conference. The girls varsity coach at Dorman unitl April of 2022, Whiteside was one of three women in the inaugural class of the Southern Conference Hall of Fame.
James Moorer
James Moorer took over as the football coach at the segregated Sims High School in Union in 1946. Moorer guided Sims to 96 consecutive wins from 1946-1954, losing to Spartanburg's Carver High. The win streak was the national record until 1999, when Concord (Calif.) De La Salle surpassed the mark. It wasn't always widely recognized, as it occurred against segregated opponents. Moorer's legacy includes being the first Black head coach enshrined in the South Carolina Hall of Fame, and lived on in former players such as legendary coach Willie Jeffries, who in 1979 became the first Black head football coach at a predominately white college when he took the reins at Wichita State.
