Good People: The Salters Project

My name is Jennifer Stowe, known to my family affectionately as Jenny. My mother grew up in Salters, an unincorporated rural town in South Carolina, alongside her 15 siblings. Growing up, most of the families around were like hers – hard-working Black farming families with lots of kids. My mom gave me the gift of growing up visiting Salters and the surrounding area from Atlanta, GA, where we lived. In and between visits, I delighted in hearing stories about what it was like to be raised "down home."

I'm embarking on this project in honor of my late grandparents, Margaret Olivia Frazier Beaufort and Johnny Beaufort, and the beloved community they built and sustained in the midst of the Jim Crow South.

I plan to listen to family, longtime residents, and neighbors who shaped Salters to better understand what they saw and overcame.

Good People: The Salters Project features photographs, quotes, and recorded stories that community members are willing to share. It's an offering to Salters and my family, who have expanded my understanding of home, deepened my belief in preserving Black stories, and taught me the importance of carrying our land and water in my memory.