Benjamin Mack House

Front: Educator and civil rights leader Benjamin Mack (1916-1970) lived in this house from the late 1950s until his death in 1970. Mack was a graduate of Booker T. Washington H.S. and S.C. State Univ. He taught at Lower Richland H.S. in the 1940s, where he was known as “Professor B.J. Mack.” He married Gladys Hendrix of Batesburg, who operated a daycare center here. They raised two children. Mack also served as a Deacon at Ridgewood Baptist Church. Reverse: In the 1960s Mack served as the State Field Secretary for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in S.C. As part of his work with SCLC he taught courses in African American history for the Citizenship Education Program (CEP). With SCLC and CEP Mack worked with Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young, and Septima Clark. He remained committed to SCLC’s mission of non-violent direct action and helped plan both the 1963 March on Washington and 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.