MORNING HEADLINES | The U.S. Department of Interior on Monday announced the Charleston Cigar Factory and four other spots around the country to be national historic landmarks recognizing women’s history.
The building was pivotal in Southern labor activism during the mid-20th century as African-American workers at the Charleston Cigar Factory, who were also Food, Tobacco and Allied Workers union members, staged sit-down strikes in front of the factory from October 1945 to March 1946 over unfair pay, work conditions and racial discrimination.
“The strike at the Charleston Cigar Factory illustrates the nationally significant strike wave and its immediate aftermath,” according to the National Park Service. “Perhaps most importantly, the strike formed a nexus between the labor and civil rights movements, an intersection that shaped the trajectory of labor activism during the second half of the twentieth century.”
Despite the building having gone through many renovations since it ended cigar production in 1973, the U.S. Department of Interior said it still maintains its original integrity, allowing the designation.
“These newly designated historic landmarks join a list of the nation’s premier historic and cultural places, all of which were nominated through voluntary and locally led stewardship,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
In other headlines:
CP NEWS: Charleston district sports new banners touting ‘Shop and dine local’. The banners are part of a collaborative project between the area’s business owners and the nonprofit group Lowcountry Local First. Its purpose is to promote a return to shopping locally for Charleston.
Charleston’s Museum Mile offers locals a chance to be tourists. The annual Museum Mile Month returns next month, offering discounted access in January to historic museums and other sites along a stretch of Meeting Street.
Charleston homeless encampment cleared out. Crews with the South Carolina Department of Transportation have been working to clean up beneath the Ravenel Bridge overpass between Morrison Drive and Meeting Street following a September request from city officials. That meant dismantling the small encampment and attempting to relocate the individuals sheltering there.
MUSC celebrates first upright MRI machine in the Lowcountry. The Medical University of South Carolina has unveiled its first upright MRI machine which will help the school study Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
Charleston Co. accepting applications for Urban Entitlement fund. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development allocates this annual funding to go towards any governmental, community, neighborhood, faith-based or nonprofit organization. Applications are available online, for anyone who may think their organization lines up with the objectives of the Urban Entitlement fund.
Funeral set for former U.S. Rep. John Spratt. The funeral for former U.S. Rep. John Spratt, who represented South Carolina’s 5th District for nearly 30 years, is Wednesday in his hometown of York.
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