USC marks 50th year of university’s integration

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Two of the three students who integrated South Carolina’s flagship university 50 years ago are retracing their steps. Robert Anderson, James Solomon and Henrie Monteith became the university’s first African-American students since reconstruction on Sept. 11, 1963. Anderson died in 2009, but the others are taking part in several commemorative events to mark the anniversary on Wednesday. A series of events is planned through the coming year. Former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young is speaking Wednesday evening at the Koger Center in Columbia. In 1972, Young was the first African-American from the deep South elected to Congress since Reconstruction. President Carter appointed him U.N. ambassador five years later. In 1981 he was elected mayor of Atlanta. The commemoration is free and open to the public.