This second phase of funding is significant not only for its scale, but for what it makes possible. The partnership invests directly in programs that connect Penn Center’s historic mission to present-day questions facing the Sea Islands, including land stewardship, cultural continuity, environmental change, and intergenerational knowledge sharing

Penn Center’s Mystery Play and nativity scene was featured in a December edition of The Post and Courier.

Beaufort High School senior and Penn Center employee Caleb Singleton reflects on Penn Center’s history and significance.

The Penn Center campus came alive in 2025 with nearly 100 groups and thousands of visitors. Here are some of the most memorable moments.

3RD ISSUE

CALENDAR BOOKLETS. This issue will honor our Veterans including Historic Leaders and those who

contributed to our Black Heritage and Black Owned Businesses.

Cost per booklet is $15.00. All proceeds will go to The Penn Club, Inc. to help enrich Penn Center, Inc.

and our heritage.

If you would like your Black Own Business to be advertised in our Black History Calendar

Booklet, FREE OF CHARGE, please contact one of the numbers below or contact any Penn Club

Member.

To pre-order your booklet(s) please call, E. Norman 843-592-0225 or email: puredesign@comcast.net

OR Elijah Abram, Sr. 843-986-3142 or email: abrammpma9@icloud.com. All checks/money orders

should be made payable to Penn Club, Inc. and mail to:

Earnestine Norman

c/o Penn Club, Inc.

P. O. Box 246

St. Helena Island, SC 29920

Obituary for Mother Blanche Sumpter

From left to right: Inez Miller, Marie Leroy, Elayne Scott, Gardenia Simmons-White, Barbara Gardner-Hunter, Queen Quet, Mary Mack, Carrie Major, Ernestine Atkins (not present), and Dr. Marie Gibbs, presiding over the ceremony..

From left to right: Inez Miller, Marie Leroy, Elayne Scott, Gardenia Simmons-White, Barbara Gardner-Hunter, Queen Quet, Mary Mack, Carrie Major, Ernestine Atkins (not present), and Dr. Marie Gibbs, presiding over the ceremony..

Foundation Awards $850,000 in Catalyst Grants to Two Local Nonprofits

February 5, 2024

By Mayci McLeod

Penn Center The Shout! Check out more information about Penn, upcoming events, and more!

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.