Items and Collections

Creator
Leevy, Isaac Samuel, 1876-1968
Montgomery, John A.
Afro-American (Baltimore, Md. : National ed.)
Jenkins, H. Harrison
Leevy Johnson, Ruby Geneva (1917-2012)
The Palmetto Leader (Columbia, S.C.) 1925-196?
Black on News (Columbia, S.C.) 1972-1977
Goodwin Lumber & Supply Co.
John Alexander Montgomery Jr. (1906-1989)
Leevy's Funeral Home
Leevy's Standard Furniture Company
The Brüner Woolen Company
The Columbia Record (Columbia, S.C.) 1913-1988

Publisher
Columbia, S.C. : University of South Carolina. South Caroliniana Library

Date of Original
1905/1973

Subject
African Americans--South Carolina
Personal correspondence
Civil rights--United States
Education
Mail art
Southern States--Politics and government--1951
Advertisements
Christmas
New Year cards
Postal service
Racism in art
Racism in cartoons
Racism in language
Racism in popular culture
Voter registration

People
Leevy, Isaac Samuel, 1876-1968

Location
United States, South Carolina, Kershaw County, 34.33876, -80.59026
United States, South Carolina, Richland County, 34.0218, -80.90304
United States, South Carolina, Richland County, Columbia, 34.00071, -81.03481

Medium
newspaper clippings
correspondence
postcards
bulletins
manuscripts (documents)
notebooks
advertising fans
documents (object genre)
ephemera (general object genre)
programs (documents)

Type
StillImage, Text

Description
Isaac Samuel Leevy (1876-1968) was an African American entrepreneur and civic leader in Columbia, South Carolina best known for directing Leevy’s Funeral Home and staunchly supporting a two-party political system in the state as a Republican (until late in life) and Richland County Chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party.
From 1907-1932, he worked as a Merchant Tailor and Real Estate agent and owned and operated a department store, service station, furniture store, a hog farm, barber shop, beauty shop, automobile garage, and a dressmaking business before opening a mortuary and funeral home in 1932.
Leevy was involved in multiple interracial school boards and business boards and received honorary Master of Arts, Doctor of Humanities, and Doctor of Law degrees from South Carolina educational institutions. He was a founder of the Columbia branch of the NAACP candidate for the South Carolina Legislature, the U.S. Congress, and a delegate of the National Republican Convention in 1956 and was an early influence on grandson Isaac Samuel Leevy Johnson (1942-), who became a celebrated attorney and South Carolina House of Representatives member.
The I.S. Leevy collection contains a biography, newspaper clippings, personal correspondence and ephemera, and multiple school notebooks from Leevy’s time at Hampton Institute (Hampton Junior School) in Hampton, Virginia.

Metadata URL
https://digital.library.sc.edu/collections/isleevy

Language
eng

Contributing Institution
South Caroliniana Library
University of South Carolina. Libraries

Rights