Seeking Your African-American Roots?

South Carolinian tells how you can find your heritage in her home state

3 min readAug 10, 2021

As a child, Dawn Dawson-House learned plenty about this country’s founding fathers. Missing were the exploits of South Carolina civil rights leader the Rev. Joseph Delaine and Robert Smalls, a former slave who represented the Palmetto State for five terms in Congress.

Those lessons were learned at the family dinner table as well as at church and other social gatherings around her hometown along the coast.

“The community of Beaufort won’t let you forget that African-American history is important,” Dawson-House said. “Our teachers, our families, our festivals and events, you were surrounded by African-American heritage. I found it interesting because it spoke to us.”

Since January 2021, Dawson-House has been the executive director of the WeGOJA Foundation. Pronounced we-GO-juh, the name is a fusion of three languages spoken by people of African descent who were brought to America as slaves.

WeGOJA works to document and promote African-American heritage sites in South Carolina. That work is done through historical markers, listings on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Green Book of South Carolina. Teacher guides are provided for classrooms and there are plans to provide toolkits for the large number of African-American families who gather here each year for reunions.

Dawson-House, who spent nearly 25 years in public relations for the SC Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, believes there’s no time like the present to embrace the stories of our past.

“The more we can share the story, the more we can build interest into advocacy, into action. We can start creating our authentic story better,” she said. “It’s not just for tourism, but for the public’s full understanding of our history and our full story, so it’s easier to make wiser choices when we talk about public decisions.”