South Carolina Progressive Network (SC Progressive Network)

Background

The South Carolina Progressive Network is a 1996 offshoot of the educational and arts collaborative Grass Roots Organizing Workshop (GROW), which was founded by civil rights activists Modjeska Simkins and Brett Bursey. While GROW continues to exist by way of art workshops and Black history educational events, SC Progressive Network operates in the political sphere by promoting Black voter mobilization. ^{2 1}

SC ProVote

The South Carolina Progressive Voter Coalition (SC ProVote) is South Carolina Progressive Network’s political action committee. While SCPN maintains that it will endorse no specific political party, it aligns itself with political candidates that support its views. ³

In May 2001, members of SC ProVote launched a campaign to revive and take control of the United Citizens Party (UCP) with the intention of building it into a viable third-party political force. UCP was founded in 1969 to support Black candidates running for office; it fell into disuse in 1972 and remained inactive for 16 years. In 1988 it was revived by the New Alliance Party, which changed its name to the Patriot Party, and threw its support behind third-party candidate Ross Perot’s 1992 and 1996 presidential runs after which it ran out of steam again. SC ProVote members resurrected the party and returned to its original name, hoping to utilize South Carolina’s “fusion” voting rule, which allows candidates to appear on the ballot multiple times if they are nominated by more than one political party. ^{4 5}

Modjeska Simkins School for Human Rights

The Modjeska Simkins School for Human Rights is a left-wing education and community organizing training center maintained by the South Carolina Progressive Voter Coalition. Inaugurated in 2015, it hosts in-person and online classes, and is funded by SC Progressive Network’s sister organization, the South Carolina Progressive Network Education Fund. The school’s website offers free access to some literature, such as A People’s History of the United States of America by left-wing popular historian Howard Zinn. The SCPN Education Fund will only consider candidates for its board if they are graduates of this school’s curriculum. ^{6 3}

Missing Voter Project

The Missing Voter Project is a “get out the vote” initiative formed in 2004. It focuses on young, Black voters, and trains and provides poll-observer credentials to its volunteer members. Stating that its work is dealing with “a racist election system,” this project runs door-to-door, email, and phone campaigns in Saluda and Fairfield Counties, with plans to expand statewide. ⁷

Leadership

Co-Founder

The late Modjeska Monteith Simkins was the co-founder of the South Carolina Progressive Network (SCPN). Simkins worked as an activist and civil rights advocate for decades, co-founding the South Carolina NAACP State Conference in 1935. She was forced out of leadership in 1957 while purportedly under suspicion of being a communist. ¹

Simkins was also the founder and public relations director of the South Carolina Citizen’s Committee and the Richland County Citizen’s Committee, both of which worked for the racial integration of public services in South Carolina. ⁸

Executive Director

Brett Bursey is the co-founder and executive director of the South Carolina Progressive Network as of 2025. He was listed as the director of the Modjeska Simkins School for Human Rights as of March 2024. In 1970, he was convicted of destruction of property after allegedly throwing a brick through the window of a draft board building. ⁹ In 2004, he was arrested and convicted of trespassing while protesting the war in Iraq. ¹⁰

As of March 2024, Bursey was listed as a board member of the Southern Partners Fund, and was a former South Carolina Labor Party Candidate for District 69. ^{11 12}