The Dillon County Theatre held a black history program on Thursday night with Damon Lamar Fordham whose topic was “Black Folktales from Africa to South Carolina.
Mr. Fordham’s enthusiastic storytelling, enhanced by occasional musical interludes, beautifully illustrated the connections across oceans and generations within Black history. The audience ranging from young children to elders was captivated throughout the program and eagerly engaged in a thoughtful question-and-answer session afterward.
Fordham was born in Spartanburg, SC on December 23, 1964 to Anne Montgomery and was adopted by Pearl and Abraham Fordham of Mt. Pleasant, SC the following year. He received his Master’s Degree in history from the College of Charleston and the Citadel, and his undergraduate degrees at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. He is currently an adjunct professor of World Civilizations, United States, and African-American History at The Citadel in Charleston, SC and has taught US History and African-American Studies at the College of Charleston. He was a weekly columnist for the Charleston Coastal Times from 1994 to 1998, as well as the author of Black Folktales and Chronicles of South Carolina (Charleston: History Press, 2025), The 1895 Segregation Fight in South Carolina (Charleston: History Press, 2022), Mr. Potts and Me (Charleston: Evening Post Books, 2012) Voices of Black South Carolina-Legend and Legacy (Charleston: History Press, 2009), True Stories of Black South Carolina (Charleston: History Press, 2008) and coauthor of Born to Serve-The Story of the WBEMC in South Carolina in 2006…