By By Ian Grenier

Copyright postandcourier

The stories are so compelling that Malcolm Vanhannegeyn, the videographer, has to keep himself from getting pulled away from his work.

“You can’t help but to be intrigued and want to know more about the history,” he said.

A highlight of that history for the Cultural Layers project are the Black schools that served as cultural and social anchors for local communities, such as Booker T. Washington High School, an iconic campus for many Black Columbians that was shuttered in 1974 after desegregation.

Its auditorium, now part of USC’s campus is the only part of the building still standing. The high school once was so high-performing that it attracted White students in the few years between its integration and when it was closed by the Richland One school district. The university is set to renovate that building.

Much of the history of Ward One and other neighborhoods was unknown to the artists working on the project when they started the effort, and they want to make sure those stories — the joys and the hardships — are preserved for future generations.

For Gadsden-native Nora Williams, the photographer on the project, the work already has prompted her to ask her grandparents for their memories of Columbia, as the residents she’s working with bring their own grandchildren to interviews in order to pass on their history.

“Just to hear firsthand experience from people who lived through it, who have been through it, I don’t know. It just does something,” she said.