The South Carolina Progressive Network (SC Progressive Network) is a left-of-center group focusing on racial advocacy, voter mobilization, economics, and community organizing. SCPN is composed of individual members, not organizations; it is the sister organization of the South Carolina Progressive Network Education Fund, its charitable arm. It also runs a political action committee, the South Carolina Progressive Voter Coalition (SC ProVote), which worked to revive the defunct United Citizens Party.  ¹

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 3}

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. ⁴

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. ^{5 6}

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. ^{7 8}

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. ⁹

People

Modjeska Monteith Simkins

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. ¹⁰

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. ¹¹

Brett Bursey

Brett Bursey is the co-founder and former executive director of the South Carolina Progressive Network and the director of the Modjeska Simkins School for Human Rights. He has a history of civil rights advocacy and left-of-center political activism stretching back to 1966. In 1970, he was convicted of destruction of property after allegedly throwing a brick through the window of a draft board building. ¹² In 2004, he was arrested and convicted of trespassing while protesting the war in Iraq. ¹³

Bursey is a board member of the Southern Partners Fund, and a former South Carolina Labor Party Candidate for District 69. ^{14 15}

Brandon Upson

Brandon Upson is the executive director of the SC Progressive Network, and the chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party Black Caucus. He is the founder of activist groups Amplify Action and the Unity Initiative, and a former deputy campaign director for MoveOn.org. ^{16 17}

1. “SC Progressive Network Deposits $250,000…” SC Progressive Network. February 6, 2024.  Accessed March 29, 2024.  https://www.scpronet.com/wordpress/
2. “Calendar.” SC Progressive Network. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://www.scpronet.com/calendar
3. “SC Progressive Network Deposits $250,000…” SC Progressive Network. February 6, 2024.  Accessed March 29, 2024.  https://www.scpronet.com/wordpress/
4. “About.” SC Progressive Network. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://www.scpronet.com/hp
5. “United Citizens Party.” Ballotpedia. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://ballotpedia.org/United_Citizens_Party
6. Bursey, Brett. “Is South Carolina Ready for a Progressive Third Party?” SC Progressive Network. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://www.scpronet.com/point/0006/p04.html
7. “Booklets.” Modjeska Simkins School Website.  Accessed March 29, 2024. https://www.scpronet.com/modjeskaschool/booklets/
8. “About.” SC Progressive Network. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://www.scpronet.com/hp
9. “Our Campaign.” Missing Voter Project. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://missingvoterproject.com/
10. “SC Progressive Network Deposits $250,000…” SC Progressive Network. February 6, 2024.  Accessed March 29, 2024.  https://www.scpronet.com/wordpress/
11. Hall, Jacquelyn. “Oral History Interview with Modjeska Simkins.” Documenting the American South Archive. July 28, 1976. Accessed March 30, 2024. https://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/G-0056-2/excerpts/excerpt_6207.html
12. “Brett Allen Bursey v Jack M. Weather ford.” JUSTIA. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/528/483/178899/
13.  “United States v Bursey.” Center for Constitutional Rights. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/united-states-v-brett-bursey
14. “Meet our Board.” Southern Partners Fund. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://southernpartnersfund.org/meet-our-board/
15. “Brett Bursey.” Accessed March 29, 2024. Ballotpedia. https://ballotpedia.org/Brett_Bursey
16. “Progressive Network’s New Director Promises Big Ideas and Bold Actions.”  November 1, 2023. Accessed April 1, 2024. https://www.scpronet.com/wordpress/2023/11/01/networks-new-director/
17. “Brandon Upson.” Linkedin. Accessed April 1, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bupson/details/experience/