Penn Center’s 2023 Heritage Days Celebration parade winners!

‘I Have a Dream’ at Penn School in SC

St. Helena Island is home to the Penn Center, originally called the Penn School, which was established in 1862 just six months prior to the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation was decreed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. and was one of the most unprecedented acts in United States history. It was the initial Civil Rights act in the United States that changed African- Americans' status from enslaved to free.

Please read about it, Pine Island litigation case

The Historic Penn Center is pleased to announce the appointment fo Dr. Robert L. Adams as its next Executive Director.

Navy ship with Confederate name now honors the Black Union Hero Robert Smalls.

What is Juneteenth? The history behind the oldest commemoration of the ablolishment of slavery in the US.

Penn Center hopes that you and your family have a Happy Juneteenth!

Culture and Community at the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District, a partnership between SC’s Penn Center and the UGA’s Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, has named Amiri Geuka Farris as its 2023 artist in residence.

To the community of the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District-members, funders, partners, supporters, friends, and volunteers-Happy New Year!

Please read about it, Penn Center’s monthly newletter.

The Penn Center is seeking a visionary and strategic Executive Director. Penn Center is a multi-service 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving Penn Center’s true history and culture through its commitment to education, community development, and social justice.

The Wilson Center’s partnership with the South Carolina’s Penn Center had its first year of public programs with students and faculty from colleges and universities across the Southeast.

Penn Center, Inc., is participating in the Summer Food Service Program. Meals will be provided to all children 18 years old and younger without charge.

The Penn Center (St. Helena Island, South Carolina) is honored to have received a generous and transformative gift from the novelist and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

Thank you to our outgoing trustees and welcome to our incoming trustees as we begin our work in 2022.

Listen to Deloris Pringle, trustee from the Penn Center, as she joins Matt McNeil on AM 950 in conversation about African-American history in South Carolina and the Penn Center's role in preservation efforts.

Funds will be used to transform the Museum and other visitor experiences across its 47-acre campus, create a new, onsite preservation and storage space that will safeguard the center’s artifacts; and establish a new director of exhibitions to guide the creation of exhibitions and interpretative experiences.

Come check out our all-new website!