Mamie Garvin Fields
*Mamie Garvin Fields was born on this date in 1888. She was a Black teacher, civil rights and religious activist, and writer.
Mamie Elizabeth Garvin was born in Charleston, South Carolina. She was the daughter of George Washington Garvin and Rebecca Mary Logan Bellinger. She attended school at Shaw University and Claflin College. She received a licensure to teach and a diploma in science. She wanted to be a missionary, but her parents wanted her to teach. She began teaching in 1908 at Pine Wood, a predominantly Black school. On her return to Charleston in 1909, she became one of the first Black teachers in a Charleston County public school. She later became principal of the Miller High School in Johns Island for two years.
After living in Boston for a few years, she returned to Charleston and married Robert Lucas Fields. The couple had two sons, Alfred Benjamin and Robert Lionel. In 1926, Fields returned to teaching at the Society Corner School. During the Depression, she founded the first vacation bible school for migrant workers in Charleston.
Fields retired from teaching in 1943. In 1916, Fields joined the City of Charleston Federation of Colored Woman's Club. She co-founded the Modern Priscilla Club of Charleston in 1927. After retirement, Fields remained active in women's clubs and volunteered in many civic and religious organizations. She was a member of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, whose mission was to "Lift as they Climb" through charitable, civic, and other activities. She was president of the South Carolina Federation of Colored Women's Clubs from 1958 to 1964. She was the superintendent of the Marion Birnie Wilkinson Home for Girls in Cayce, South Carolina. Fields won awards from several organizations, including women's groups and Black sororities. She won the state's Outstanding Older Citizen award from the South Carolina Commission on Aging.
Nearing her ninetieth birthday, she began working with her granddaughter on her memoir Lemon Swamp and Other Places (1983). The memoir covers her life and work in South Carolina from 1888. Mamie Fields died in Charleston on July 30, 1987.
To Become an Elementary School Teacher
To Become a Middle School Teacher
