Louis Venters, Ph.D.
Historian &
Public History Consultant
SCHOLARSHIP & PUBLICATIONS
As a scholar of African diaspora history, southern U.S. history, and public history, my research and practice focus on the histories of race, religion, and social change in the United States; issues of equity and sustainability in rural and urban planning; heritage tourism, historical memory, and the intersection of cultural and environmental stewardship; and the empowerment of young people and historically disadvantaged communities.
My current projects underway or in the planning stages include a documentary biography of the late young South Carolina Baha'i and Black Lives Matter activist Muhiyidin Moye; the second volume of my full-length study of the Baha'i Faith in South Carolina; a volume of selected writings of Louis G. Gregory; and a student- and community-led multi-year project on the history and archaeology of the Francis Marion University campus and surrounding neighborhood.
I am the author of two monographs and co-author of a number of public history reports, site studies, and exhibits. Here are some highlights:
A brief introduction to South Carolina's first genuinely interracial religious community in its first century, 1910-2010. Features 70+ historic images and maps, most of which have never before been published.
Author, A History of the Baha'i Faith in South Carolina (2019)
Contributed a chapter entitled, "Hand in Hand: Race, Identity, and Community Development among South Carolina's Baha'is, 1973-1979" and collaborated on the volume's introduction and conclusion.
Contributor, The Baha'i Faith and African American History (2018)
The first-ever mobile travel guide to SC African American cultural sites, with over 300 listings across the state's 46 counties.
Winner of the 2017 Palmetto Award of Excellence from the SC Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators!
Consulting historian, The Green Book of South Carolina (2017)
New website, visitor brochure, and tour guide training for a small museum honoring Charleston, SC native Louis G. Gregory, one of the founders of the U.S. Baha'i community and a pioneer of interracial reconciliation.
Consulting historian, Louis G. Gregory Baha'i Museum (2017)
“A richly detailed study of the rise of the Bahá’í Faith in South Carolina. There isn’t another study out there even remotely like this one.” --Paul Harvey, coauthor of The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America
Sixteen large wayside signs, site selection and placement, and three brochures for a self-guided driving tour of sites associated with Gen. Francis Marion and the Revolutionary War in the Pee Dee and Santee basins of eastern and coastal South Carolina.
Principal researcher & author, Francis Marion Trail Commission Driving Tour (2011)
Author, No Jim Crow Church: The Origins of South Carolina's Baha'i Community (2015)
Successful nomination to the National Register of Historic Places documenting the history of a Columbia, SC elementary school that was part of the state's "equalization campaign" to forestall racial integration in the 1950s.
Co-author, Florence C. Benson Elementary School Nomination (2009)
Seventeen large wayside signs, site selection, and recommendations for infill development and park improvements for revitalization of the West End, the ca. 1900 neighborhood around the former Newberry Cotton Mills, Newberry, SC.
Principal researcher & author, proposed West End Mill Village interpretive trail (2006)
A book-length document commissioned by the city of Camden, SC featuring a narrative history, inventory of extant resources, GIS reconstruction of black Camden in the 1940s, and recommendations for preservation and interpretation.