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Annie Greene Nelson (December 1, 1902–December 23, 1993) was a writer and playwright. She was the first African American woman in South Carolina to publish a novel.[1][2]
Early life
[edit]Annie Greene was born at the Parrott Plantation in Darlington County, South Carolina on December 5, 1902, to Sylvester and Nancy Greene (née Muldow).[1][3][4][2] She was the eldest child of thirteen or fourteen children.[1][5] Sylvester Greene was a sharecropper and a music teacher.[2] Nelson recalled that she began reciting poetry at two years old and published a poem in a local paper as a child.[4]
Nelson began school on the Parrots' Plantation.[1] She later attended boarding school at Benedict College and earned a degree in education and nursing from Voorhees College in 1923.[1][5] While at Voorhees, she learned about and was inspired by Elizabeth Evelyn Wright.[6]
Writing career
[edit]In 1925, Nelson first published a poem, “What Do You Think of Mother,” in the Palmetto Leader. She later wrote three novels, After the Storm (1942), The Dawn Appears (1944), and Don’t Walk on My Dreams (1961).[1] A novel, Shadow of Southland, was serialized in 1952 in a Columbia newspaper, but was never issued as a book.[3] In 1976, she wrote an unpublished autobiography, To Paw with Love.[7] Nelson wrote two plays, Weary Fireside Blues, which was produced Off-Broadway, and The Parrots’ Plantation, which was staged at Brooklyn College.[1][5]
Just prior to her death, Nelson worked on a manuscript called Eighty, So What?[1]
Nelson sets her works in Pee Dee, South Carolina, recounting life for ordinary African Americans in her community.[1][4] Her work differs from that by other Black writers of the 1940s and 1950s as her fiction imagines a landscape "where blacks and whites live together in harmony."[8] She discusses the civil rights movement in Don’t Walk on My Dreams and about violence by Whites against Blacks in her autobiography.[4]
Later life and death
[edit]At eighty Nelson took courses in drama at the University of South Carolina to help her act for her one-woman show, Happenings on the Parrot Plantation[2].[1]
Nelson died in Columbia on December 23, 1993.[1]
Personal life
[edit]Over an almost twenty-year career, Nelson taught in Darlington and Richland Counties and worked as a nurse at Columbia Hospital, Providence Hospital, and Forest Hills Nursing Home.[1][5] She founded and taught at the first kindergarten for black children in Columbia.[6] She also served as the librarian at Waverly School in Columbia.[9]
Nelson married twice, to John Plunkett and then to Edward Nelson Sr.[6] She had six children.[1]
Awards
[edit]- 1994: South Carolina Black Hall of Fame[10]
- 1989: Lucy Hampton Bostick Award, Friends of the Richland County Public Library[1][5][11]
- 1989: Governor Carroll A. Campbell Jr. signed a proclamation honoring her for her literary accomplishments[5]
- 1982: Arts Award for Excellence in the Arts from the Columbia Urban League[2]
- 1980-81: Budweiser of Columbia Community Drama Award[2]
- P. Scott Kennedy Award for her contributions to African American theater[1]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Nelson, Annie Greene". South Carolina Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2025-02-18.
- ^ a b c d e f "Annie Greene Nelson." Notable Black American Women, Gale, 1992. Gale In Context: Biography.
- ^ a b Starr, William W. (February 5, 1989). "Literary Group Honoring Lady of Literature". Columbia, SC – via NewsBank.
- ^ a b c d Scholar re-discovers black novelist's work. (1988, Jul 06). Tri - State Defender (1959-1989) Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/scholar-re-discovers-black-novelists-work/docview/370561693/se-2
- ^ a b c d e f Starr, William W. (December 24, 1993). "'I wanted to share my stories' - A teacher, nurse, Nelson dies at 91 after love affair with writing". The Starr. Columbia, sC – via NewsBank.
- ^ a b c Reid, Richard (March 26, 2017). "Women's History Month: Voorhees produced state's first female African-American author". Times and Democrat. Orangeburg, SC – via Newsbank.
- ^ Burns, Amy Clarke. "Annie G. Nelson wrote her way into history". The Greenville News. Retrieved 2025-02-18.
- ^ Harrison, Malcolm E. (August 7, 1988). "A Childhood Flair Became a Writer's Protected Dream". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. pp. L/8 – via NewsBank.
- ^ White, Gina Price (February 2020). "Annie Greene Nelson". Retrospect: News from the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections at Winthrop University.
- ^ Flanders, Danny C. (June 5, 1994). "Black Hall of Fame Inducts 15 Honorees Chosen for Deeds, Example". The State. Columbia, SC – via NewsBank.
- ^ Starr, William W. (February 13, 1989). "Library Honors S.C.'s 'Literary Pioneer'". The State. Columbia, SC. pp. 4B.
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