Although the amount of people present at the discussion for the Black Cultural Center on Monday afternoon were few, those that were there were able to take a trip through the 1960s during the time of the civil rights movement.

Charles McDew is known nationally as a prominent activist for black rights, and freedom since his time as an undergraduate at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, S.C. Born and raised in Massillon, Ohio, McDew said he had never experienced racism until he traveled down to South Carolina for college.

One night, as he was driving his intoxicated friends home after a night at the bar, he was pulled over by a white police officer. Confused as to the reason, he demanded to know what he had done wrong.

The police man responded as to whether McDew had ever learned to answer “yes sir” and “no sir” to a white man, and when McDew responded in the negative, the officer physically struck McDew. McDew was upset and struck the officer back. At that point, the officer’s partner jumped into the fight.

“They beat me bloody, broke my arm, busted my mouth, and I was arrested for the first time in my life,” McDew said.

Within the next month following this incident, McDew was arrested six more times for numerous other infractions against whites. Because of this, his parents agreed he would spend just one more semester at SCSC, and would then be allowed to come back home. But within that one month of time, again, McDew found himself in another situation, although this time, he knew what he was in for.

A group of students from North Carolina A&T State University asked to be served in a restaurant, and were promptly arrested; this was the beginning of the sit-in movement. A few students at SCSC approached McDew, and asked him to be the spokesman for this civil rights movement.

“By that time I had gotten the reputation of being an ‘unstable negro.’ They wanted me to be the leader because they knew I wasn’t scared of white people,” McDew said.

McDew at first was quite hesitant in being a part of this movement, but was influenced after reading a famous quote by Rabbi Hillel: “If I am not for myself who will be for me? If I am only for myself, who am I? And if not now, when?”

This change of mind led McDew to become one of the co-founders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in 1960.

The SNCC had several different programs to promote black rights and privileges, among them was a program that focused on giving blacks the right to vote.