 |
Voices from South Carolina: Biographies
With the presidential contenders heading south to what used to be a Democratic stronghold, NOW's David Brancaccio gets the lay of the land from a religious leader and a labor leader — both political watchers — who remember a day when the Democrats reigned supreme in the south.
 |
|
 |
|
Rev. Joseph A. Darby
A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Reverend Joseph A. Darby is a Graduate of Booker T. Washington High School, attended South Carolina State University, and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. A fourth generation minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Rev. Darby is currently Pastor of Morris Brown A.M.E. Church, Charleston, South Carolina - the largest congregation in the Seventh Episcopal District of the A.M.E. Church.
Rev. Darby is a former President of both the Greater Columbia Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and the Greater Columbia Interfaith Clergy Association. He has also served as a Board member of the Family Court of the Ninth Judicial Circuit's Drug Court Program, a member of the State Superintendent of Education's African-American Achievement Committee, the Racial/Cultural Advisory Council of the South Carolina School Boards Association, the Daniel J. Jenkins Institute for Children. Rev. Darby is currently a Board Member for the Reid House of Christian Service and is First Vice-President of the South Carolina Conference of Branches of the NAACP.
Rev. Darby's numerous honors and awards include a Top Achiever Award in the 1993 South Carolina Black Male Showcase, South Carolina Business Vision magazine' 1997 South Carolina's 25 most influential African-Americans award, the 1999 South Carolina Christian Action Council's Howard G. McClain Christian Action in Public Policy Award, the 1999 NAACP Southeast Region Medgar W. Evers Leadership Award.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Harris L. Raynor
Harris L. Raynor is the Regional Director of the Southern Region and an International Vice President of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE).
The Southern Region is the largest region of UNITE, representing some 30,000 workers in the states of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Mississippi.
Mr. Raynor has been employed in various capacities by ACTWU, a predecessor to UNITE, since 1984. From 1978 to 1984, Mr. Raynor was with United Furniture Workers of America where he directed that union’s OSHA and Job Training Departments as well as serving as an international representative. Mr. Raynor was a public school teacher in the Central Harlem School District of New York City from 1970 to 1978.
Mr. Raynor currently serves on the Advisory Council of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University and is a trustee of the Unite Multi-Employer Retirement and Insurance Funds.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
