Bryant Davis

Davis didn’t heed the call until a few years after graduating from Gardner-Webb University in 2010. His first job after college was in sports marketing at Charleston Southern University.

“I was not very keen on the sales part of it, but I loved the relationship building,” Davis said. “I loved the community aspect in terms of partnering with local agencies, churches and schools.”

He decided to take a job as the assistant director of government and community services for Richland County in 2017. The position allowed Davis to make an impact on his hometown of Columbia. It also opened his eyes to the need for narrowing diversity, equity and inclusion gaps within the community.

“I started focusing a lot more on working to address and understand inequalities that existed in our communities,” Davis said. “I started participating in a lot of facilitator training and DEI training that was offered online and in person to understand.”

Davis was hired as the Greenville’s first chief diversity officer in May 2023. He was excited to be part of building the position from the ground up.

Using the knowledge and skills he learned, Davis strives to help every city employee reach their desired potential. He is driven by the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

“There have been people that had taken the time to pour into me and to ensure my success and I want to, in turn, do the same for others,” Davis said.

He offers coaching to help employees become more aware of their values and skills that can be utilized in the workplace. He also helps build strategic partnerships internally and externally with the community.

“Ultimately, if we are moving towards the organization itself internally thriving, then we can ensure that our communities around us can do the same,” Davis said.

Outside of work, Davis raises his three children with his wife, Megan. He currently commutes to Greenville for his job, however, his family plans to officially move to the area in a few months.

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Charles Davis Jr. wears his passion on his sleeve.

Davis owns and operates upscale men’s boutique A Polished Man in downtown Greenville, is principal of Brushy Creek Elementary School in Taylors, and is on the board of the South Carolina Children’s Theatre.

Balancing that many professional roles in life would be a challenge to most people. Yet, to sit and talk to Davis, he handles the balancing act with grace.

As a kid growing up in Clio, a small town in the Pee Dee region, Davis was shy. Fashion was a way to break through his timidness, and he recognized that he felt better when he was well-dressed.

“I felt different whenever I looked my best,” Davis said. “And so for me, it was much bigger than just looking good. It was about the confidence that I felt to be able to show up and be the best version of myself.”

Davis credited his time at Morris College in Sumter with helping him grow out of his shell and into the man he always felt he was. He majored in elementary education, inspired by the art of teaching.

Davis has been in education for 24 years. First as a teacher, then as a guidance counselor, assistant principal and, eventually, principal. He has held that role for 11 years.

He added entrepreneur to his list of accomplishments when he and his wife, Tiffane, opened A Polished Man in 2021. The couple designed the store’s aesthetic to be like an art gallery- neat and pleasant to peruse- in the hopes that it would create an easy, rewarding shopping experience for patrons.

And it shows. It’s a space that encourages clients to find just the right look to ensure they feel confident when they leave.

Davis also created the Confidence Box Initiative in partnership with local schools. The initiative donates accessories from his store to young men to help bolster their self-esteem. Each box also includes a set of seven cards denoting encouraging affirmations.

For Davis, it was a way to give back and help boys grow into the men they will become through fashion, as it did for him years ago.

Meet Charles Davis Jr.

Age: 45

Position: Owner of A Polished Man, principal of Brushy Creek Elementary School

Other organizations: South Carolina Children’s Theatre, First Tee — Upstate South Carolina, The Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Clubs of America

Previous positions: Teacher, school counselor, high school counselor, assistant principal

Question and answer with Charles Davis Jr.

Q: What are some common threads you found between running A Polished Man and being an educator and administrator?

A: As a school principal, it’s important for me to be organized because I am leading a school of about 800 students and 100 staff members. And so I realize — which is a strength for me — I’m very organized. I certainly believe that my organization skills carries over even in being an entrepreneur and running A Polished Man.

Q: What is the legacy you’d like to leave for the next generation?

A: I want to make sure that I’m impacting the lives of people within the realm that I have been assigned to influence. I want students to walk away from my school … impacted by my influence … through my leadership and through making sure that the environment is conducive for them to grow and develop. From a business perspective, I also want to have impacted them. It’s all about impacting, in whatever capacity.

Q: What do you hope a client feels when they leave the store?

A: It’s important for us for all of our clients to feel welcome. We’re very passionate about making sure that we greet all of our clients and customers when they come in. We take the opportunity to listen to what they’re looking for [so that] we provide excellent customer service before they even look at any of the products that we have to offer.

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Natasha Pitts was raised to be part of something bigger than herself.

The ideology was instilled in her at a young age while growing up in Spartanburg. Born to a young, single mother, Pitts was raised with the help of her grandmother, Vera Nesbitt, who showed Pitts the importance of being involved by encouraging her to participate in choir and other activities at their local church.

“As I look back now, those are some of the highlights and the memories that I have with her,” Pitts said. “Those are a lot of the moments that I feel shaped my future without knowing.”

Pitts later discovered her passion for serving the community while working for the city of Spartanburg after graduating from the University of South Carolina Upstate. She spent 17 years working for the city in various roles, overseeing minority business development and, later, equity and inclusion.

Today, Pitts serves as Greenville Chamber of Commerce vice president of diversity and economic inclusion. She helps impact the business community by carrying out the chamber’s diversity and inclusion efforts such as the South Carolina Minority Business Accelerator.

“I go to work every day with the intention of making an impact — regardless of how big or how small,” Pitts said.

Pitts’ work doesn’t end with the Upstate’s business community. She is also involved with multiple organizations and nonprofits, including the Children’s Advocacy Center of Spartanburg, United Negro College Fund, United Way of Greenville County’s African American Leadership and more.

“By being a part of those organizations, I have been able to see firsthand the change that being involved can make,” Pitts said.

Outside of work, Pitts and her husband, James, raised their two children, Asia and Elijah, in Spartanburg. The importance of being involved and helping others was passed down. Pitts said an old African proverb her family likes is: “If you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go together.”

“It just lets us know that they understand that this journey that they’re on; it’s not about what we’re doing today,” Pitts said. “It’s about the impact that we can leave for the generation coming behind us.”

Question and answer

What do you like to do in your free time?

“I love to vacation, and it doesn’t even have to be an extravagant vacation. It can be a weekend at the beach, it can be a spa day.”

What drives you?

“I think it’s impact. It’s never personal. It’s never for my own personal gain or personal recognition.”

What are some of your passions?

“One of my passions would be helping people. Another one of my passions is family and spending time creating memories with family.”

About Natasha Pitts

Name: Natasha Pitts

Age: 42

Current position: Vice president of diversity and economic inclusion for the Greenville Chamber of Commerce

Past experience: Equity and inclusion manager, minority business development coordinator, alarm coordinator and support services admin for the city of Spartanburg

Involvement: Children’s Advocacy Center of Spartanburg, United Negro College Fund’s Masked Ball Planning Committee, United Way of Greenville County’s African American Leadership, CommunityWorks Women Business Center Advisory Board, Founders Federal Credit Union Regional Advisory Board

The post Natasha Pitts strives to be part of something bigger: Emerging leaders for Black History Month appeared first on GREENVILLE JOURNAL.

To honor and educate others about this history, the city and Greenlink have partnered to host a Black History Bus Tour Feb. 10 and 24. The free tours will highlight the history and significance of 11 sites located throughout the city.

The city has been working on developing the tour since summer 2023 after Fran Harden, a Greenlink bus dispatcher, brought forward the idea.

“My father’s stories of growing up here and his participation in the Civil Rights Movement is what inspired me with the idea of a Black History Month Tour. To share with others of what may have been forgotten today,” Harden said.

Each tour will be led by Councilmember Lillian Brock Flemming and Sylvia Palmer, the first African American teacher at Greenville Junior High School. 

“Greenville has a lot of Black history,” said Loren Thomas, the city’s multimedia manager. “It’s an opportunity to hear from people who have had some lived experiences as well as people who have that historical knowledge about the sites that we’re going to pass.”

Some of the featured locations on the tour include:

• Springfield Baptist Church –  Greenville’s oldest historically Black Baptist church founded in 1867
• Unity Park – the former site of Mayberry Park, Greenville’s segregated park for Black children 
• The Phillis Wheatley Community Center – a social and academic center for African American women established in 1919
• The McClaren Medical Shelter – a clinic opened by Dr. Edward McClaren in 1949 to serve Black residents in the Upstate

Both tours are now sold out, according to the city. Thomas said the city plans to continue developing the tour and make it the best it can be. People can submit suggestions on other locations that should be added to the tour in the future by emailing Blackhistory@greenvillesc.gov.

Greenville’s Black History Bus Tour

When: Feb. 10 and 24 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Where: The tour will begin at city hall located at 206 S. Main St.

Cost: Free

More information

Tour stops

Passengers on the city of Greenville’s Black History Bus Tour will see multiple historic sites including:

• Old Greenville County Courthouse and the site of Willie Earle’s trial 
• Working Man’s Benevolent Temple
• Claussen’s Bakery
• Sterling High School
• Beck High School
• The Phillis Wheatley Center
• Springfield Baptist Church
• Woolworth’s lunch counter/Sterling High School statue
• S.H. Kress Five and Dime Store’s lunch counter
• The McClaren Medical Shelter
• Unity Park

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Tragedy and adversity can push a person in one of two directions — toward anger and bitterness, or toward empathy and understanding.

For Joseph Fields, vice president of equity for Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County, life confronted him with that choice from an early age.

He believes his life might have followed a different path but for the grace of God and the influence of remarkable women — first and foremost his mother, Florine Jefferson.

Words of wisdom

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1986, Fields was barely 2 years old when his father was murdered. Seeking safety and community on little more than a hunch, his mother moved the family to Greenville when Fields was 5.

The family did find connection and belonging here but also further struggles. Fields said moving to South Carolina was a bit of culture shock, as it was the first time he was surrounded by people who didn’t look like him.

It was also the first time he was called the N-word.

“As a kid, your capacity is so small,” Fields said. “You fight, you get angry … and sometimes the response was shame even though you didn’t have anything to be ashamed about.”

Through it all, his mother taught him the lessons of dignity, self-worth and empathy that shaped his character and gave him the tools needed to transform adversity into compassion for others.

Underlying it all was a bedrock message of faith. Fields said he learned to trust God to use the struggles and traumas of life to forge him into the man he has become. Instead of bitterness, it has produced in him a profound sense of gratitude.

A winding road

Fields has relied on that faith and fortitude throughout his life.

School was a struggle — an ordeal, really — and by the ninth grade he had enough and dropped out.

But the intervention of his high school basketball coach showed him an alternative path. He earned his GED diploma, enrolled in college and joined Kappa Alpha Psi, which is one of the “Divine Nine” historically black fraternities and sororities of the influential National Pan-Hellenic Council.

The path from being a struggling student to becoming Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County’s vice president of equity was winding but guided by empathy and an ability to make the people around him feel seen and heard.

After years as a successful federal agent with the Department of Homeland Security, a training injury brought that career to a close and left Fields looking for a new opportunity to use his skills.

While a career in law enforcement might not seem like the ideal background for someone in charge of building community and increasing options for Black homeownership, Habitat’s leaders saw Fields’ empathy and tenacity as vital assets to the organization’s work.

His life has taught him the profound value of compassion, rootedness and connection and motivates him to help others find those anchors in their own lives.

“You know, once you have that vision, you can’t cut it off and you can’t give it to anybody,” Fields said.

3 questions with Joseph Fields

What keeps you up at night?

“Knowing that the job is not done and having the vision to want to push a culture and a city and a state just to be better.”

Who or what inspires you?

“The beautiful Black women in my family.”

What do you do to decompress/relax?

“Running. I’d run three, four hours straight if you let me … There’ve been times before a run I just felt like the world was right here (on my shoulders). And after the run it was just, ‘This is a beautiful day.’”

About Joseph Fields 

Age: 37

Position: Vice president of equity, Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County

Previous roles: Greenville Connects, community organizer; U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol agent

Other organizations: Kappa Alpha Psi

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Originally published February 18, 2021

Allison Ford’s abstract paintings are so vibrant, so layered and so well conceived in their use of white space that you’d think she’d been painting all of her life. But in fact, even though she’s sold hundreds of paintings and has her art hanging in galleries all along the East Coast, the Upstate artist only began painting seriously about five years ago.

It’s not that she wasn’t interested in art all along; it just took her a while to work up her courage.

“I grew up in Charleston, which I consider to be an arts town,” Ford says, “and that was something that was always of interest to me. I always dabbled in different art projects growing up, but I never really sat down to do anything seriously. In college, my roommate was a studio art major, so I would go to the studio with her because I was fascinated by the process of painting. But also because she was so good, I was intimidated by the process.”

Ford dabbled in printmaking and sculpting in college, but eventually shifted gears and earned a law degree from the University of Georgia. But she never forgot her love of art, and after her first child was born she decided to give painting another try. And she found herself once again in talented company.

“I took a class at the Greenville Center for Creative Arts,” Ford says. “Everyone in the class was a well-known artist except for me and this one other lady.”

This time, though, Ford didn’t feel intimidated. And she actually took some inspiration from her newborn child.

“I felt like I didn’t have anything to lose,” she says. “I knew that I didn’t know what I was doing, and I accepted that. And it just felt like a lot of pressure was off at that point; I just started to really adopt a childlike approach to painting. Children, they think their work is good without anyone else having a say about it; that was kind of eye-opening for me. Let’s just keep doing this and let’s not worry about what other people think. Some people are going to like your work, some people are not, and that’s fine.”

That approach paid off, and Ford developed an abstract, tasteful style that got her noticed.

“My first commission was before I even started selling artwork or was even thinking about it,” she says with a laugh. “I do think it was sort of an interesting transition when you realize that people will actually buy your work. You start to sell things, and then you have to get systems in place, and it grows from there.”

 

 

 

 

 

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But it’s not just about expressing herself or selling her work. Ford is a law clerk to a federal judge by day, and she has a young family to care for; painting serves a therapeutic purpose for her.

“Having the freedom to go where I want to creatively is so relaxing to me,” she says. “I’m able to give myself an outlet, so I’m able to give other aspects of my life my better self.”

“This piece is a loose abstract of a farm area,” Ford says. “There’s a house and a barn, and the land around it, a memory of my grandparents and growing up poor on borrowed land, working very hard to build a better a life for their future and their children. That was the inspiration for this piece. One thing I always want to keep in mind is my family history, My parents’ generation and my grandparents’ generation who had to work through unfortunate times in the civil rights era, segregation, working to have a better life, working to get off the farm. And that’s an experience that I want to share with my kids; I want them to know what our history is and where we’re going.”

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“We’re a small organization with a big mission,” Gail Wilson Awan says, as she walks down the second-floor hallway of the historic McClaren Medical Center. “A year ago, we were looking for our niche.”

Awan steps around an old door that’s off its hinges. Her colorful silk scarf catches on a finishing nail. Plaster crunches underfoot.

“And now it’s right here in front of us,” she says.

Awan and her team are a few short months into restoring what will become the McClaren Institute for Health and Quality of Life, the new home of the Urban League of the Upstate. 

“This building has existed for a long time,” Awan says. “There’s a long history in this place – a history of people partnering together, working together. Things survive for a reason. But now it’s time for the next phase. Now is this time.”

Back in 1949, Dr. Edward E. McClaren, one of the few Black physicians in the Upstate at the time, built the clinic out of his own pocket to serve a community that was not welcome in white hospitals.

“Dr. McClaren kept meticulous financial records,” Awan says. “He had to. Some of that, I’m sure, is just because of the nature of the person he was. But this was also during Jim Crow segregation. You could be questioned at any time, especially if you had status. He had status.”

The man who worked here, the building itself and the more than 200 women who gave birth here have affirmed Awan’s sense of purpose.

“Health and wellness,” Awan says. “If we don’t have that, we have nothing. That’s why I think this is such an important place.”

As president and CEO of Urban League of the Upstate, Awan leads an organization that fights for economic equality in communities from Pickens to Union counties. In any given day, she covers a lot of ground, literally and figuratively. She takes great comfort in knowing that in less than a year, the Urban League offices and a handful of small businesses will be housed here.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” she says. “But it’s not just about bricks and mortar. It’s more than that.”

The Urban League of the Upstate provides signature national Urban League programs including Project Ready, student academic support and youth development, career and workforce development opportunities, and affordable senior housing.

“Poverty doesn’t discriminate,” Awan says. “All our services are free to the public for those who need them. It’s that simple.”

The exposed beams, the cracked windows, and the crew working — these things converge with the layered past.

“I was thinking about that Kwanzaa principle of Ujima, collective work and responsibility,” Awan says. “Everybody uses their skills and their knowledge for the community. And that’s what we cannot erase about this place.”

She drapes her scarf over her shoulder.

“You’ve got to work to make the world a better place,” she says, “and keep working or die trying. That’s what it’s about. You try and try, and you know that what you put into it – some of it will linger. So the next generation comes along and picks it up.”

She smiles and nods.

“My dad was an athlete,” she says. “He was a sprinter. You know that passing of the baton thing? You go around the track, you run your laps, and you pass the baton, so it doesn’t get dropped. If you have a gift, a talent, you pass it on. You pass it on and then somebody at some point is going to say ‘good job.’ But until then, you keep going.”

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Look closely at Daydrielane Osorio’s work and a beautiful duality begins to emerge: the scenes depict fragile, fleeting moments in life, but the rare medium — known as carbon transfer printing — is a time-intensive process that produces prints that last for centuries.

“In terms of subject matter, I’m focused on portraits and people,” says Osorio, “because that’s my way of communicating and connecting with the world: through people. Not necessarily elaborate portraits, but the little nuances of a simple, uncluttered, everyday life.”

Osorio was born in Jamaica, where her father ran a photography studio. She studied graphic design, painting, printmaking and photography in her home country before honing her craft — and spending hours in the darkroom — at Bennington College in Vermont.

“There, I learned about historical processes and photographic techniques from the 1800s, and I was blown away,” says Osorio, who moved to Greenville nine years ago, where she met renowned master photographer and Clemson University professor Samuel “Sandy” King.

“He [Sandy] introduced me to the carbon-transfer process,” says Osorio. “It’s just perfection in photography as far as I’m concerned. Once you know how to take the photograph and master the printing process, it results in these beautiful, permanent archival prints.”

For Osorio, the magic is in the moment that all of her hard work is revealed.

“It’s a very tedious process with a rich history, and I’m still learning. It’s funny, I hated chemistry in school, but this is very chemistry-based. If you don’t get the right substance together under the right circumstances, you could spend hours working on one print and ruin it in five seconds,” Osorio laughs. “But every time I peel [the print] back and reveal the final piece, I get goosebumps. It’s so exciting.”

The artist’s subjects naturally reflect the communities where she spends her time: with other Black and Jamaican individuals, as well as with children — she is a mother and former preschool teacher.

 

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“I think what draws people to my work is how I see the world, which comes from my background being born and bred on a tiny island,” reflects Osorio. “I had a very simple life, but it was rich in terms of the environment, the people and the culture. I’m big on authenticity, and that’s what I love about having a camera and capturing a real moment permanently on paper — because once you see that singular moment [unfold], you know it will never come again.”

Browse Osorio’s prints or commission a portrait at daydreamlanephotography.com, or follow the artist @daydream_lane.

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“We used to be so proud because he was tall, stately, dressed well,” Peden recalls, looking back on the 1950s, when Black-owned offices thrived around East Broad Street. “It was something proud for Black folks to see at the time of segregation.”

A couple of buildings are all that’s left of Greenville’s historically overlooked Black business district, which once spanned roughly eight blocks off Main Street. The Greenville Historical Society refers to the area now as North of Broad.

John Wesley United Methodist Church at East Court Street is one of those buildings, where Black congregants began worshipping shortly after the Civil War. A block away stands what used to be known as the Working Benevolent Temple and Professional Building.

In 1922, an organization called the Working Benevolent State Grand Lodge of South Carolina erected the three-story brick building at East Broad and Falls streets. With chapters in Greenville, Richland and Charleston counties, the lodge served as a health, welfare and burial-benefit society for African Americans, according to a Historical Society PowerPoint.

Peden, who was born and grew up around Haynie Street — a short bus ride or walk away from the area — remembers the offices that once housed Black lawyers, doctors, dentists, finance professionals and the like. Now, the law offices of Nelson & Galbreath occupy the space.

The Temple building, as it’s commonly called, stands as a cornerstone of Kendra Williams’ tours of the area. And on a stunning spring afternoon, she points to the Temple’s timeworn cornerstone, etched with names of some of the most prominent Black Greenvillians.

Williams, who serves as executive assistant to Mayor Knox White, says she started offering the tours in January after hearing stories about the area that also included the Liberty Theatre, a movie and vaudeville house for Black audiences; the McBee Avenue Service Station; and a meatpacking plant, among others.

Another marquee site: the original Phillis Wheatley Center. Peden remembers playing basketball at the East Broad Street facility, once known as the Black YMCA, back when African Americans were barred from the whites-only YMCA.

Williams says she felt compelled to keep those memories alive at North of Broad.

“Blacks in Greenville contributed to what Greenville is today. There is history — they weren’t just indentured servants or slaves here, they’re not just the bellmen at the hotel. They actually contributed to the city in a great way,” she says.

Peden, who graduated from the all-Black Sterling High School in 1968, says the end of segregation in Greenville in 1972, when Sterling closed, marked the end of the Black business district.

Williams agrees.

“There was kind of a Catch-22 with the Black district and integration,” she says. “You want to be able to go anywhere at any time, but you also want to be able to have the resources to get into something that has been renovated downtown.”

Call it business gentrification. Rising real estate prices and developers putting up costly buildings and charging higher rent drove some out, she says. Still other businesses saw opportunities outside of downtown that hadn’t been available until then, she says.

“Or maybe,” she adds, “you were antagonized. Maybe you were ‘encouraged’ to move on.”

Still, Peden, whose father ran a barbershop there, remembers the district’s friendly, safe, family atmosphere. Now, though, with no formal recognition of North of Broad’s role in Greenville’s past, he says there needs to be a recognition of the impact the area had on Greenville residents and the city as a whole.

“It gives the image that we have always worked for somebody else as opposed to the fact that we were owners of businesses and land and property downtown, one block off of Main Street. And that’s what’s hurtful,” Peden says. “It’s not even acknowledged as being a part of downtown Greenville, and it’s one block from City Hall.”

And that, Williams says, is a travesty she and Peden and others are working to change — perhaps one tour at a time.

“The reality is Black history is American history. If you’re looking at something historical and you don’t see a Black person associated with it, you’re missing the history,” she says.

Scanning an area that in other cities might be called Black Wall Street, she adds, “This is Black history here in Greenville. It’s Greenville history.”

For more information about Kendra Williams’ North of Broad tours, visit http://www.bhigtours.com. The two-hour, 2½-mile tours take place three Saturdays a month, weather permitting. Cost is $20.

Selected sites

Working Benevolent Temple and Professional Building- Broad and Falls St.

• Served as the center of Greenville’s Black district
• Housed offices for African American doctors, lawyers, dentists, a newspaper, insurance firms and the first Black mortuary in Greenville
• The center for Greenville’s civil rights activities during the 1960s
• Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982

Phillis Wheatley Center – East McBee Avenue

• The center’s first location was on East McBee Avenue until a new site was built at 121 E. Broad St. 1924.
• During the 1930s, the center was known as the Black YWCA and included playgrounds, tennis courts and fencing.
• Music and dance lessons were provided, and families could access day care and recreational opportunities.
• Housed the first library in Greenville for Blacks.
• During World War II, the center served as a meeting place and recreation destination for Black GIs stationed at the Greenville Army Air Base, later Donaldson Air Force Base.

Liberty Theatre, 14 Spring St.

• Opened in 1919 with a capacity of 800.
• Served as a vaudeville and movie house for Black audiences.
• Beloved Greenville entertainer Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates discovered there. Ethel Waters performed there in 1922.
• Presented Jolly John Berringer’s Big Colored Show: “The smartest of colored actors ever assembled in one company.”

East McBee Avenue Greenville Public Library for Blacks

• Replaced the single room in the Phillis Wheatley Center, where Thomas Parker established the first library for African Americans in South Carolina in 1923.
• A sit-in staged at the public library on North Main in March 1960 marked the first local challenge to segregated facilities in Greenville.

Source: Greenville Historical Society

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“I really respect and admire our 5 a.m. crew,” says Jarrod Covington, district executive director of the Prisma Health Family YMCA. “All of our staff are important, but if the 5 a.m. openers aren’t here on time, the doors don’t open.” 

When Covington came to Greenville County in May of 2021, he found a receptive community with a well-established YMCA.

“So I did a lot of listening,” Covington says, “I came in saying, ‘Hey, I’m the new guy. Tell me about this great community. Tell me what you think of the Y. How has it impacted or how could it impact your life?'”

Each YMCA association is locally managed and oriented toward meeting local needs. After speaking with community members, Covington and his team had an idea to support kids in Southern Greenville County.

“We serve hundreds of kids everyday at Y summer camp. We asked volunteers if they’d mind reading to our kindergarten and first-grade group,” Covington says. 

It was a simple solution to engage volunteering, encourage reading and improve literacy. It was also a lot of fun. Each adult volunteer wore superhero capes and some even wore costumes.

“We had a retired teacher dressed as a mouse,” Covington says. “We had police officers and firefighters. We had Kiwanis Club members and two city mayors. They’d greet the kids at the door, then go inside and read to them.”

The Hometown Superhero Readers program will return in the summer of 2023, but Covington wants to “plus that.” He and his team are currently raising funds to give the kids more books. Covington and his team have recently kicked-off LIVESTRONG at the YMCA, a program for cancer patients and survivors, as well as a new esports program for kids and pickleball.

Covington’s co-workers think of him as the “plus-that guy.” 

“Sometimes I have team members who ask if we, you know, can we just celebrate what we did first,” Covington says. “And I own that feedback. But my mind is already on improvement. How can we do this better next time? What can we do differently? How can we do more?” 

Improvement comes in many forms. Sometimes small changes garner “huge results,” as Covington calls it. Other times, change is larger. Either way, change is seldom easy.

“There’s always going to be change,” Covington says. “We can choose to see change as a challenge or as an opportunity. A board member said to me once, ‘Let’s choose to see it as an opportunity.’”

Covington and his team deal with those opportunities by listening, planning and sticking to the YMCA’s core values of “caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.”

“I wish I could say the Y knows all, that we have all the answers, all the things people need, but I can’t,” Covington says. “What I can promise is that we stick to our mission to provide ‘programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.'”

Covington stands at the second-floor rail overlooking the gym and indicates the many activity rooms and doorways. There’s the backpack program, the mobile Y, food assistance program and more. There are daily, weekly and monthly schedules of activities. There’s the gym, open at 5 a.m. There’s pickleball at midday. After school, there’s karate, dance and Youth Beast Mode class (high-intensity training programmed to challenge your strength and endurance, hence the “beast” in the name).

A lot goes on at the Y.

“Right now, a lot of families are moving into the Greenville area,” Covington says. “And I can attest as someone who recently moved here, those people are wondering, ‘Where do I go? How do I meet people? How do I create a friend group?’ The Y is the perfect conduit into any community. It really is a place for all, a place where you belong. It opens doors in so many ways.”

Meet Jarrod Covington

• For more than 25 years, Covington has worked in multiple YMCA associations across the Southeast including Sumter; Winston Salem, North Carolina; Memphis, Tennessee; and Lexington, Kentucky.
• He’s served as a member YMCA USA Diversity Inclusion and Global Engagement Leadership Council and has trained leaders in DEI best practices at YMCAs across the country for eight years.
• He was recently selected as a member of Leadership Golden Strip’s Class No. 3
• Covington is a native of Sumter and a Winthrop University graduate, making the job at Prisma Health Family YMCA a homecoming of sorts.

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Here in the Upstate, another man by the name of Don — Don Jackson, in this case — decided to pick up a camera and take a job at a local news station, WYFF 4 (which then broadcast as WFBC).

Jackson didn’t plan on staying long, yet 51 years later, the region’s longest-serving photographer is still in the trenches, delivering headlines to millions of viewers each week.

“Oh, I had no desire to be in the news business,” the 71-year-old Jackson says with a chuckle. “I had a friend who was at WYFF, and the station had an opening and a training program. I had to learn to splice film, put glue on the film… when sound came along, you had to worry about matching up audio.”

Fast-forward to chip-cameras and TikTok, and Jackson has not only mastered five decades of technology, talent and top stories, but along the way has earned Emmy and Peabody awards, as well as numerous other accolades. Last month, the South Carolina Broadcasters Association named WYFF 4’s chief photographer an Honorary Life Membership Award recipient. The recognition salutes those who have made significant contributions to the industry.

With his typical humble nature, Jackson shrugs off the momentous achievement.

“I’m glad I stuck around,” he says, downplaying his rare longevity in an industry that’s demanding and fickle. “The news business gets in your blood. I really enjoy what I do. I also believe it’s hereditary. My grandfather worked until he was 80, and my mom and grandmother worked until about the same age.”

The 1969 Greenville High graduate initially worked at a couple of print shops in Greenville and Virginia, before becoming only the second Black TV news cameraman in the Upstate.

“I didn’t think much about it at all. It was a job I needed as a means to take care of family responsibilities,” he says. “I never felt like a trailblazer. I don’t seek the limelight.”

Yet his skill behind the camera has pushed dozens of coworkers to bigger markets and network limelight (the most recent of which is former WYFF alum Dana Griffin, who is now an NBC News correspondent).  He’s worked with seven general managers, eight news directors and hundreds of reporters and anchors.

He explains, “I tell young people, ‘There’s a major difference in doing news and doing TV. Tell me something that keeps me interested. The story’s not about you.’ Some get it, some don’t.”

Current News Director Akili Franklin has worked with the chief photographer for more than a decade.

“A lot of people don’t know who Don even is,” she confides. “But he’s been an integral part of mentoring and pushing and furthering our on-air talent for the last 51 years. Don personifies what WYFF has meant to this region. He’s gentle and kind — but forceful when he needs to be. His impact upon the newsroom, viewers and the broader community is immeasurable.”

Jackson treasures his front-row seat to history. He relishes stories big and small, whether that’s chatting with every U.S. President since Jimmy Carter, or covering high school football.

“I appreciate the recognition and all of that, but that’s not why I do the job,” he says. “I do it because I still enjoy it and I still have fun. I get to do things many other people don’t get to do, meet people most don’t get to meet, and go places many people have not gone. I’ve been very fortunate.”

As are viewers who have been lucky enough to watch his work for the last half century.

Editor’s note: Stephanie Trotter has had the honor of working with Jackson at WYFF 4 since 1994.

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Greenville saxophonist Steven Galloway is a master of smooth jazz. You can hear it in his original material. His most recent EP, “Rooftop Melodies,” is full of laid-back grooves and velvety tenor-sax playing. Live onstage, Galloway mixes it up, bringing in covers of artists like Patti LaBelle and Michael Jackson. His weekly Thursday night shows at Blues Boulevard Jazz in Greenville are typically packed with fans enjoying his singular touch on the sax.

His music has been played on BET, VH1 and ESPN, but Galloway truly feels at home on the concert stage.

“When I step onstage,” Galloway says, “my job is to make people feel good and experience the moment and forget about what they have going on during the day or what they have coming up. I let everything go. I give it my all, whether there are two people in the crowd or 3,000. I just make sure I interact with the crowd and make them feel good.”

Galloway actually wanted to be a drummer back when he was in middle school, and to this day, he’ll still hop behind the kit occasionally. He also plays piano. But once he saw his teacher playing saxophone in middle-school band class, there was no looking back.

“It was the first time I’d seen someone play the saxophone and play it skillfully,” he says, “and I was like, ‘Hey, I’ll go for that! I’ll play whatever saxophone you have.’”

Galloway says he was instantly drawn to the saxophone.

“It’s a very attractive instrument, and it drew my attention,” he says. “And once I pick up something, I just look at different inspirations, to see how I could be better at it.”

Those inspirational figures include Charlie Parker, Hank Mobley and Thelonious Monk, but one figure closer to home was veteran Columbia saxophonist and instructor Robert Gardiner. Galloway studied under Gardiner while pursuing a degree in music from Lander University.

“It was a very tough experience,” he says of studying with Gardiner. “He was never like, ‘You’re doing great!’ It was more constructive criticism that I needed to hear, to help me grow as a musician and mature as an adult. In and outside of the music realm he helped me mature a lot. He has a great reputation as far as his skill for playing, and he had me studying the greats. Basically, he introduced me to different genres of music to open my mind a little bit as far as my playing.”

In addition to his weekly Blues Boulevard Jazz gig, Galloway says he’s working on new music with fellow saxophonist and producer Vandell Andrew. But regardless of the forum, Galloway says his greatest goal is to affect people with his music.

“My goal is to give them a great experience and have them go out changed,” he says. “I feel like I would like to be like a drug, where people have to come back and get that fix.”

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Madison Petersen was a few months away from becoming the Class of 2021’s valedictorian at Legacy Early College when, midway through Black History Month, she delivered a speech that not only won her a $450 first prize, but a firm place in Mike Chatman’s memory.

“She was…” Chatman pauses to drive home the power of her presentation, “outstanding. She gave her oration without hardly ever looking at notes.”

Petersen remembers the Joseph Vaughn Oratorical Competition a bit differently. Though she had written an essay about encouraging young people to vote, she didn’t speak from any notes, she says.

“The fact that I was able to memorize a speech and get up there and present it in front of all those people really did wonders for my confidence,” says Petersen, a Greenville native who is now a sophomore at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University, an HBCU (historically Black college/university) in Greensboro. “And then even being fortunate enough to win, that was just all the more important,”

Or as Chatman recalls, she “blew us all away.”

The oratorical contest was first held in 2008 in Furman University’s Daniel Chapel and is named after the school’s first Black undergraduate, Joseph Vaughn, who enrolled there on Jan. 29, 1965.

“He was excellent with the English language,” says Chatman, chairman of the program’s co-sponsor, Alpha Greenville Foundation, along with Furman. The organization is part of Greenville’s Gamma Gamma Lamba chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation’s oldest African American fraternity, founded in New York in 1906.

Chatman himself belongs to a major part of Greenville’s history too. While he has overseen the oratorical competition for the last 10 years — this was his last, he says — he’s also the son of Luke Chatman. The elder Chatman was the last principal of Sterling High School, serving from 1968 until the day the school closed.

And it just so happens that this year’s oratorical contest falls on Saturday, Feb. 18, one day before the 50th anniversary of Greenville County Schools’ integration, which led to the closure of the all-Black high school, of which Vaughn also was an alumnus.

Held every year during Black History Month, the competition also pays tribute to one of the most famed orators in American history, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The organization recruits students from Greenville County Schools, scouring debate and theater departments for a maximum of 10 competitors. Applicants must submit an essay addressing that year’s theme.

This year’s subject is: “In unprecedented times like these, where many societal gains seem to be disappearing, what is the role of the high school student, as America and the world face uncertainty?”

Chatman explains, “It’s basically humanity: ‘Me, as a student, what can I do to help improve the situation for the country?’”

He remembers one year when a contestant hit a wall of uncertainty. Midway through his speech, the young man’s nerves shattered. After the others completed their speeches — no longer than seven and a half minutes, no shorter than four and a half minutes — organizers, friends and family encouraged him to try again.

“And he finished it, got a standing ovation,” Chatman says.

Furman Jackson, an English teacher at Northwest Middle School and president of the fraternity’s Greenville chapter, says of the competition, “When I walk away from it, it’s always mind-boggling to me the way the youth present themselves with the topic they’re given to speak on, the different approaches they use.”

And Petersen encourages those students coming up behind her to make their mark — and to let the oratorical experience make its mark on them too, despite the steeliness required for public speaking.

“I definitely would recommend it to anyone who just has the courage to get out there and try,” she says. “You don’t lose anything just by trying and taking a risk on yourself.”

Event details

Joseph Vaughn Oratorical Competition
10 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 18
Wade Hampton High School
100 Pine Knoll Drive, Greenville
For details, contact Alpha Greenville Foundation at contact@alphagreenville.org

About the Competition

This year’s theme: “In unprecedented times like these, where many societal gains seem to be disappearing, what is the role of the high school student as America and the world face uncertainty?”

Speeches must run no longer than seven and a half minutes and no shorter than four and a half minutes

Invitations to enter are sent in November to high school teachers and counselors throughout Greenville County Schools. The competition is limited to 10 participants

Finalists receive feedback on their essays just days before the event

How contestants are scored

Final competition

Physical – 10 points
Appearance, body language

Voice – 10 points
Flexibility, volume

Manner – 10 points
Directness, assurance, enthusiasm

Appropriateness – 10 points
Speech address purpose & audience

First round

Speech Development – 20 points
Structure, organization, support material

Effectiveness – 15 points
Achievement of purpose, interest and reception

Correctness – 10 points
Grammar, pronunciation, word selection

Speech Value – 15 points
Ideas, logic, original thoughts

Maximum 100 points for combined scoring

Prizes

Each finalist receives a certificate. Top prizes include:

Gold Medalist – Oratorical Champion Award
$450
Silver Medalist
$250
Bronze Medalist
$150

Source: Alpha Greenville Foundation

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It’s a role he never thought he would be in.

“I never really anticipated having a career in television,” he says. “I thought I was going to be a newspaper journalist because my great uncle was a reporter for the Charlotte Observer. He was a business reporter. And so I thought I was going to do more features that would be around small businesses but for print.”

Regardless of the forum, though, Gaston has always cared greatly about the small, good stories that we don’t often hear about in today’s news cycle.

“I always was passionate about storytelling and connections with small businesses and working on it from that angle,” he says. “So I really enjoy that ‘Your Carolina’ gets to do something a little different than the traditional news cycle of deaths, murderers and destruction. I really quickly learned that I did not want to do that. And there aren’t many shows like ‘Your Carolina’ that allow us to be a different type of storyteller for the community.”

And as WSPA’s man on the scene, Gaston says he’s impressed by the Upstate’s constantly growing and evolving music and arts scene.

“I’m constantly amazed by the level of work that’s being put out in this scene from musicians that start here,” he says. “I was on a plane recently and I heard The Marcus King Band playing, and I kind of sat back and was very astounded by how these artists that we have become so accustomed to on this local scene are really doing some of the best work in the country. So I think Greenville and the Upstate as a whole has a lot to be proud of when it comes to the arts community.”

Gaston sees his role on “Your Carolina” as a storyteller who brings to light aspects of the Upstate that might not otherwise be covered.

“I try to think of myself as a forager of different talents and different local businesses that may not always be on television screens,” he says. “I really try to dig deep into the community and really say, ‘Oh that local shop that I go into, they need that exposure. They need an invite to come on the show. They may not have a marketing manager or PR person that will reach out.’ So I think my role at the station is to bring some of those different types of community aspects to the table.”

As we celebrate Black History Month, Gaston is also reflecting on another role he plays as a Black broadcaster, a role that was in short supply when he was a child.

“Every day that I get to sit at a desk at a television station on a live daily TV show where my voice is heard and I get to share my opinions, that’s something that never gets old,” he says. “There’s a quote that says, ‘I am my ancestors’ wildest dream,’ and I really think they would find that to be true. Every time I’m out in public and someone comes up to me, maybe it’s a Black mother who says, ‘My kids watch you,’ and it’s important for them to be able to see someone on the screen that is not on a mug shot. Someone that’s an advocate for the community. Someone that is showing them a blueprint of what can be.”

“Every day that I get to sit at a desk at a television station on a live daily TV show where my voice is heard and I get to share my opinions, that’s something that never gets old. There’s a quote that says, ‘I am my ancestors’ wildest dream,’ and I really think they would find that to be true.” – Jamarcus Gaston

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