Damon L. Fordham

My name is Damon Lamar Fordham and I am the author of "True Stories of Black South Carolina" and "Voices of Black South Carolina." Both are available from Amazon and are published by the History Press. They contain interesting and obscure stories and anecdotes of South Carolina's Black history.

I was born December 23, 1964 in Spartanburg, South Carolina (some of my family members-the Montgomery family of that city-appear in Brenda Lee and Beatrice Hill's "South of Main," their history of Blacks in Spartanburg). I was adopted nine months later by Pearl and Abraham Fordham (1922-1984) near Charleston and I finally met my birth family in 2000 I was 35. I received the key to the city of Spartanburg in 2001 for some of my earlier writings and my work with young people.

My adopted father was a schoolteacher, loved to tell stories, and was well informed about current events and history. This led to my interest in these things. Some of Dad's stories appear in my books. My current book is "Mr. Potts and Me," (Evening Post Books, 2012), a semiautobiography about a lonely kid who befriends a tale-spinning old man who gets him through life with his stories, is based largely on my father's folk tales. I am currently working on that book's sequel "American Storyteller-A Novel of Folklore." This will take the tale from the storytelling old man's tale spinning ancestor in slavery up to the adulthood of the little boy. Sort of an epic of African-American folklore. I plan to get this before the public in 2014.

I appear weekly telling Black history stories and commentary on Osei Chandler's "Roots Music" show on South Carolina public radio. I have also sppeared on the South Carolina ETV documentaries "Where Do We Go From Here" (2000) "All The Children of All The People" (2001) and on BBC Radio 4's "The Real Amos & Andy" (2003). I've also made a number of appearances on P.A. Bennett's "Connections" show on South Carolina ETV.

My undergrad degree is from the University of South Carolina in Columbia SC, and my MA from history is from the College of Charleston. I currently teach US, African, and African American History at Virginia College and Springfield College in Charleston, SC. I play the harmonica, love mentoring young people, and spending time with the love of my life, Ms. Jayne A. Roper. I am also available for speaking engagements, for which samples appear on You Tube and I could be contacted through my Facebook page. I look forward to hearing from you.