The Film Archives's video: The Sweet Hell Inside: The Rise of an Elite Black Family in the Segregated South 2001

Read the book: https://amzn.to/3MIomuj Elise Forrest Harleston (February 8, 1891- 1970) is known as South Carolina’s first female African-American photographer. She was also one of the first Black female photographers in the United States. Elise Beatrice Forrest was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on February 8, 1891, to Elvira Moorer and Augustus Forrest, who worked as an accountant. Elise’s paternal grandmother had been a “free person of color.” Elise Beatrice Forrest became Elise Forrest Harleston after she married successful African-American painter Edwin Augustus Harleston, who was nine years her senior. Elise and Edwin Augustus Harleston met in Charleston, South Carolina in 1913, when Elise was 22 years old. Both Elise and Edwin were graduates of the Avery Normal Institute, a private school for Black youth [2] that was established in 1868. Elise graduated from the Avery Normal Institute in 1910.[3] After graduating, she worked as a teacher in South Carolina. In the early 20th century, it was against the law for African Americans to work in Charleston’s public schools, so Elise worked in rural South Carolina.[2] However, she soon grew tired of the experience and returned to Charleston, where she then worked as a seamstress at the Union Millinery & Notion Company.[1] At the time, Edwin wanted to further his knowledge of painting, and he was set to study abroad. Edwin had plans to open a photography and painting studio upon his return, so he encouraged Elise to enroll in photography school so the two could marry and open a studio together.[4] In the fall of 1919, Elise traveled to New York City and enrolled at the E. Brunel School of Photography.[4] There, Elise was one of only two other African-American students, and she was the only female.[5] Upon her completion of the E. Brunel School of Photography, Elise then enrolled, with Edwin’s encouragement, at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1921.[4] There, she had the opportunity to take graduate courses with C.M. Battey, who was the head of the Photography Division.[5] Under his tutelage, Elise became a part of the artistic community that challenged racist stereotypes of African Americans, and her works reflected the image of the "New Negro". Soon, Edwin and Elise both returned to Charleston.[4] They married on September 15, 1920.[1] In the spring of 1922, as promised, they opened Harleston Studio: 118 Calhoun Street in Charleston. Their studio lasted from 1922 to 1932.[6] There she produced and sold a series of portraits of Charleston's black street vendors.[7] Edwin was the painter, and Elise was the photographer. As Edwin was a portrait painter, Elise would often photograph his subjects, and he would paint from her photographs, such as the subject of his prize-winning drawing A Colored Grand Army Man.[8] This allowed his clients to save many hours of painful posing. Despite this, more credit is provided to Edwin for his work than to Elise for her contribution to the Harleston Studio.[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elise_Forrest_Harleston Edwin Augustus Harleston (March 14, 1882 – May 10, 1931)[1] was an American artist and founding president of the Charleston, South Carolina, branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was excluded from the whites-only artistic movement known as the Charleston Renaissance. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 14, 1882.[2] He was one of five surviving children of Louisa Moultrie Harleston and Edwin Gaillard Harleston, a prosperous former coastal schooner captain who owned the Harleston Funeral Home.[3][4] His mother traced her lineage through several generations of free people of color, while his father was descended from a white planter and one of his slaves.[4] Harleston won a scholarship to study at the Avery Normal Institute, from which he graduated as valedictorian in 1900. He went on to Atlanta University, where he studied chemistry and sociology and took courses with W. E. B. Du Bois, who became a lifelong friend.[4][5] After graduating in 1904, Harleston stayed on for a year as a teaching assistant in both sociology and chemistry while planning the next step in his education.[4] Although he was admitted to Harvard University,[5] he decided instead to attend the Boston Museum of Fine Art's school. There he studied under the painters William McGregor Paxton and Frank Weston Benson from 1905 to December 1912.[2][6] Edwin also attended the Art Institute of Chicago over the summer. Harleston returned to South Carolina in 1913 to help his father run the funeral home, continuing to do so until 1931, the year both he and his father died.[3] He became active in local civil rights groups and in 1917 rose to be president of Charleston's newly formed branch of the NAACP. One campaign he led succeeded in getting the local public school system to hire black teachers.[2][6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Harleston