Robert Smalls, Richard Riley Bound for S.C. Hall of Fame
By Nancy Gray
The official South Carolina Hall of Fame board of trustees has announced the 2010 inductees, one contemporary and one deceased. Robert Smalls, a former slave and Civil War hero who later became a state representative, senator and U.S. congressman, and Richard Wilson Riley, a former governor and U.S. secretary of education, were selected by the Confederation of South Carolina Local Historical Societies. This was the first year that the nomination of inductees was open to the public.
“I am extremely privileged to be able to honor both of these remarkable contributors to the state of South Carolina by inducting them into the official South Carolina Hall of Fame,” said Leo Twiggs, chairman, board of trustees.
A formal induction ceremony will be held 10:30 a.m. Feb. 9 at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. The ceremony is free and open to the public, and media are invited to attend. Portraits of both inductees will be unveiled and added to the gallery in the convention center lobby where the S.C. Hall of Fame is located.
Smalls
Robert Smalls (1839-1915) was born in Beaufort, S.C., on April 5, 1839.
At the start of the Civil War, Smalls was employed as a pilot on the Confederate steamship CSS Planter. On the morning of May 13, 1862, Smalls led the takeover of the ship by its slave crew, sailed past the harbor’s formidable defenses and surrendered the vessel to the Union fleet. The ship was received as contraband, and Smalls and his crew were welcomed as heroes. Later, President Lincoln received Smalls in Washington and rewarded him and his crew for their valor. He was given official command of the CSS Planter and made a captain in the U.S. Navy.
After the war Smalls returned to South Carolina and entered politics. He was a state representative from 1868-1870 and state senator from 1870-1874. In 1874 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served intermittently until 1886.
In 1889 President Benjamin Harrison appointed Smalls as the U.S. Collector of Customs for the port in Beaufort, an office he held until 1913. He died on Feb. 22, 1915.
Riley
Richard Wilson Riley, born Jan. 2, 1933, in Greenville, S.C., earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Furman University and his law degree from the University of South Carolina, joining his father’s law firm in 1960. He was a state representative from 1962-1966 and state senator from 1966-1976.
Riley was the first South Carolina governor to serve two consecutive four-year terms (1979-1987). As governor, he launched his most ambitious reform, a comprehensive effort to overhaul the state’s public school system. The 1984 South Carolina Education Improvement Act reformed the schools, boosting average scholastic aptitude test scores and the proportion of high school graduates pursuing college degrees.
After earning national recognition for his education improvements in South Carolina, President Bill Clinton appointed Riley as secretary of education in 1992, the only South Carolinian named to that position.
Riley served in this post until Clinton left office in 2001. During his tenure with the U.S. Department of Education, Secretary Riley helped launch historic initiatives to raise academic standards, improve instruction for the poor and disadvantaged, increase parental involvement in education, expand loans to help more Americans attend college and prepare young Americans for the work world.
Since then, Riley has served as a senior partner in the law firm of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP. He is also a distinguished lecturer in the political science department of Furman University and continues to be involved in education at the state and national levels.
Persons eligible for induction into the S.C. Hall of Fame are those born in South Carolina who obtained recognition elsewhere and those born elsewhere but who lived and obtained recognition in the state. One contemporary citizen and one deceased citizen may be inducted annually.
Past inductees include author Pat Conroy, President Andrew Jackson, jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, Sen. J. Strom Thurmond, astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr. and more than 70 others.
The official South Carolina Hall of Fame, a nonprofit corporation conducted under state charter, is sponsored by the state of South Carolina, city of Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. For more information, visit SouthCarolinaHallofFame.com or call 843-916-7238.
The South Carolina Hall of Fame-dedicated Feb. 11, 1973, by Gov. John C. West-was created to recognize and honor those contemporary and past citizens who have made outstanding contributions to South Carolina’s heritage and progress. On Sept. 21, 2001, Gov. Jim Hodges signed into law a bill designating the South Carolina Hall of Fame as the state’s official Hall of Fame.
The Confederation of South Carolina Local Historical Societies is the official organization for selecting nominees. Each of the confederation’s ten districts selects one contemporary and one deceased nominee annually, a total of ten contemporary and ten deceased nominees, for consideration by the board of trustees.
