06/22/2026
On a quiet sea island near Beaufort sits a place that helped change the course of American history — and most people have never heard of it. 📚
Penn School was founded in 1862 on St. Helena Island, making it one of the very first schools in the entire South created to educate formerly enslaved people. It was part of the "Port Royal Experiment," where freed men, women, and children in the Lowcountry began building new lives. For generations, it educated the Gullah Geechee community and helped preserve their unique culture and language. ✊
But the story didn't end in the 1800s. In the 1960s, the Penn Center became one of the only places in the segregated South where in*******al groups could safely meet — and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference held planning retreats there. From the dawn of freedom to the height of the Civil Rights Movement, this small South Carolina campus sat at the heart of the struggle.
Did you know about the Penn Center? 👇 Tag someone who needs to know this hidden piece of South Carolina history.
