A personal story of redemption that demonstrates the power of collective action
Kamau Marcharia [Kam-I-oo March-aria], a name given to him by his grandfather when he was 14 and that means "Black warrior" in Swahili, was born Robert Lewis in Saluda County, South Carolina. He later moved with his parents and eight brothers to Albion, New Jersey, where the family lived in dire poverty, lacking electricity or an indoor bathroom. At 19 he was sent to prison on charges of assault and spent eleven years behind bars despite being a minor at the time of the alleged crime. Upon his release he founded the Ad Hoc Parole Committee to help incarcerated individuals properly advocate for parole. Upon moving back to South Carolina, Marcharia became a community activist, fighting for racial equality and against local corruption. Working as director of the grassroots group Fairfield United Action (FAU), Kamau was an advocate for the citizens of Fairfield County. FAU filed suit against local banks to force compliance with the federal requirements of the Community Reinvestment Act, exposed the corruption and racial bias of local law enforcement, and challenged mining companies that threatened to displace local residents. From 1999-2017, Marcharia simultaneously served on the Fairfield County Council. Though written as a first-person memoir, the manuscript was co-written with Keith Gilyard, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English and African American Studies at Penn State University. The manuscript is 55k words and explores a remarkable activist's life and career, while also filling a gap in the catalog of South Carolina's civil rights figures.
Kamau Marcharia is a grassroots political activist and local political leader who has worked as a community organizer for more than fifty years. For many of those years, his work has been centered South Carolina, especially in the African American communities of Saluda, Fairfield, and Orangeburg Counties. From 1999 – 2017 he also served as a member of County Council in Fairfield County. [YouTube Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkr5FtddcVQ]
