Juanita Goggins

Education

She graduated from South Carolina State College, a historically black college, where she also earned a master"s degree.

Career

She was re-elected and served a total of three terms before resigning for unspecified health reasons in 1980. Born in rural Anderson County, South Carolina in 1935, Juanita was one of ten children of sharecroppers. She was the only one to earn a four-year college degree.

Motivated by her interest in education, Goggins became active in the civil rights movement and politics.

Rock Hill was the site of civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s to end segregation in public facilities. In 1972 she was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, where she was the first black woman to represent the state of South Carolina.

(She has erroneously been reported as the first black woman appointed to the Civil Rights Commission, but that honor was held by Frankie Muse Freeman, appointed in 1964) As a nationally known, groundbreaking figure, Goggins was invited to the White House during the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Defeating a white man, Goggins was elected in 1974 to represent Rock Hill in the state House of Representatives, and re-elected to serve a total of three terms.

She also helped pass a 1977 law that provided for education funding in South Carolina.

lieutenant was still in use at the time of her death. The Associated Press wrote: "Her proposals to expand kindergarten and to reduce student-teacher ratios in the primary grades were adopted after she left politics in 1980, citing health issues." Her last surviving sibling, Ilese Dixon, later said of her: "She was not bashful or anything. She liked to talk. I used to say she could sell an Eskimo ice.

She was just lively and smart.

She thought she could fix the world." She moved to Columbia, where she worked for a time as a state social worker She also established a nonprofit tutoring service.

She became increasingly reclusive within her neighborhood of mostly elderly black people. She had let one neighbor in only once in 16 years.

After being mugged in the neighborhood, she did not go out as much and he used to get groceries for her, leaving them at her door.

Her son Horace West. Goggins, Junior. and the property manager, Linda Martin, had tried to arrange help, including monitoring from social services, but Juanita Goggins refused the assistance. She died in February 2010 of hypothermia, freezing to death in her home, although the heat was working. Neighbors contacted Goggins" landlord after they had noticed that her lights had not been turned on for some time.

The coroner stated that he found indications that she had suffered from dementia.

She is believed to have died on February 20, 2010, however, her body was not discovered for 11 days.

Achievements

• In 2009, part of Highway 5 in Rock Hill, South Carolina was named in her honor.

Membership

That year she was appointed as a member of the South Carolina State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights.