Whittaker family鈥檚 legacy celebrated at SC State Miller F. Whittaker Library鈥檚 anniversary
The university celebrated that fact on April 5 by observing the Whittaker Library鈥檚 anniversary in an event at the I.P. Stanback Museum and Planetarium.
The featured speaker of the event was Elizabeth Whittaker-Walker, a great-great-niece of SC State鈥檚 third president, for whom the library is named. She was among 12 Whittaker family members who attended the event. She detailed eight generations of her family while addressing her family鈥檚 lengthy history with the university.
She began her presentation with a moment of silence to recognize her enslaved ancestors.
鈥淚n Ghana, West Africa, there鈥檚 an Adinkra symbol called Sankofa. It means 鈥榞o back and fetch it,鈥� she said. 鈥淚n other words, in order to know where you鈥檙e going, you must know where you鈥檝e been.鈥�
Whittaker-Walker also spoke of her family鈥檚 commitment to education.
鈥淚n just about any Whittaker household you visit, you鈥檙e going to find a lot of books,鈥� she said. 鈥淕rowing up, it wasn鈥檛 a matter of whether or not you were going to go to college, that was assumed. You just had to decide which one.鈥�
As Whittaker-Walker noted in her remarks, her great-great-uncle was not the only member of the family who contributed to SC State鈥檚 history. Soon after the institution鈥檚 founding in 1896, Whittaker-Walker鈥檚 great-great-grandfather and President Whittaker鈥檚 father, , was the commandant of the campus military unit from 1901-1903.
Johnson Chesnut Whittaker was one of the first three Black cadets to attend West Point Military Academy, but he was wrongly dismissed from the academy in the late 1800s. He was posthumously awarded his commission by President Bill Clinton in 1995.
Whittaker-Walker is a great-granddaughter of Johnson Chesnut Whittaker Jr., President Whittaker's brother. She is a granddaughter of Peter 鈥淧ete鈥� Harrison Whittaker, who became dean of SC State鈥檚 Law School when the founding dean, Dr. Benner Turner, became the university鈥檚 fourth president following the death of President Whittaker in 1949.
To answer audience questions, Whittaker-Walker was joined at the podium by her cousin, Judge Ulysses Whittaker Boykin, one of the founders of Harvard Law School鈥檚 Black Law Student Association and a longtime jurist in Michigan, whom she affectionately called 鈥淯ncle Uly.鈥�
鈥淭hank you for hosting such a wonderful event,鈥� Whittaker-Walker said in reflecting on the anniversary celebration. 鈥淪outh Carolina State will always hold a special place in our hearts and this day will be cherished for many years to come.鈥�
Her great-great-uncle left an indelible legacy at SC State.
He designed several campus buildings and supervised student labor in their construction. In 1928 Kansas State. awarded Whittaker a professional degree in architecture after he submitted the drawings of Hodge Hall as his thesis.
During the anniversary celebration, Dr. William H. Hine, a retired SC State history professor and author of 鈥淭he History of SC State University,鈥� provided a historical prospective about President Whittaker and the library.
Hine spoke of the challenges President Whittaker faced when he became president in 1932 following the death of Dr. Robert Shaw Wilkinson, SC State鈥檚 second president. President Whittaker led the institution during the depression years and sometimes did not have enough money to make payroll.
Like so many other HBCUs of its day, the Colored Normal was essentially a high school, Hine said. Despite the challenges, President Whittaker and the faculty were able to transform SC State from the Colored Normal, Industrial, Agricultural and Mechanical College of South Carolina into South Carolina State College.
Like so many other HBCUs of its day, the Colored Normal colleges essentially were high schools according to Dr. Hine. Additionally, President Whittaker was charged with establishing the law school for Blacks at SC State, and he was intimately involved with the construction the campus鈥� first library building, Wilkinson Hall.
Following 13th SC State President Alexander Conyers鈥� concluding remarks, a buffet luncheon was provided.
A video and more photos from the event can be viewed at the .
Dr. Ruth Hodges, dean of the Miller F. Whittaker Library, provided information for
this article.