A Champion of Greenville is Dead
- Charles Reams
- Jan 20
- 3 min read
Ruth Ann Butler is dead.
She will be fondly remembered for her trailblazing work at the Greenville Cultural Exchange Center at 700 Arlington Avenue in Greenville.
Butler died on January 15, following a long illness. She was 81.
Passive resistance was the substance of her lifetime of work. She vigorously participated in non-violent sit-ins and philanthropy, but the hallmark and crowning achievement was the establishment and maintenance of her beloved Cultural Exchange Center.
Her death was confirmed by the Butler family on Wednesday evening, as the Nicholtown-area native had spent the past few months in a non-verbal state after an accidental fall.
Throughout the years, Butler was a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement in Greenville and founded the Greenville Cultural Exchange Center, which raised awareness of contributions made by Black people in the Upstate, which also promoted economic empowerment within the community and doubled as an education and research center near West Greenville.
Her impact was meaningful, and her death brought sorrow to those who knew her.
"There was a time many years ago when the Urban League of the Upstate was going to be closed for financial reasons," said Gail Wilson Awan, president of the Urban League of the Upstate. "It was Ruth Ann Butler who wouldn't let that happen on her watch.
"Not only was she an advocate for the Cultural Center, but an advocate for work and change in Greenville, providing many with information, research, and connections to helping people in our community. Through those connections and more, I'm proud to have called her my friend.”
James Jordon, CEO & president of Jordon Construction, also praised Butler's contributions to Greenville.
"Her leadership, passion, and unwavering commitment to education and historical preservation have left an indelible mark on Greenville," said Jordon, whose upcoming museum project will host Butler's Black history collection.
"Through her work with the Greenville Cultural Exchange Center, she championed the importance of heritage, inclusion, and empowerment, inspiring countless individuals along the way."
Prior to her death, Butler resided near the West Greenville area. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
Here is more on the life and legacy of Ruth Ann Butler, a key player in the growth, empowerment, and civil rights activism and legacy of Greenville:
Ruth Ann Butler was born on Christmas Day, 1943.
She grew up near Ackley Road during the 1940s and 50s and survived many of the civil rights and segregation issues of her time, battling them head-on in her youth while just a young woman at Sterling High School, an all-black school in Greenville. It was at that time that she got involved in the Civil Rights Movement by participating in lunch counter sit-ins while just a student.
In 1959, she took part in a march from Springfield Baptist Church to the Greenville Downtown Airport, protesting the airport’s telling the first Black Major League Baseball player, Jackie Robinson, to sit in the “colored” waiting room, marking one of the early moments of the Civil Rights Movement in Greenville.
The next year, Butler joined with several of her Sterling High peers to sit in the all-white lunch counter at Woolworth’s in downtown Greenville, in an attempt to help break the city's racial barrier.
"I was part of the group that decided we "We didn’t get office jobs. We weren’t allowed to go to certain colleges – only black colleges. We were not hired in certain positions because we were blacks," she added.
History Worth Telling: Ruth Ann Butler recalls her involvement in the civil rights movement in Greenville
Documenting Black history in Greenville through the Exchange Center
After graduating from Benedict College, Butler returned to the Upstate and became the unofficial historian of Black history in Greenville.
In 1987, she opened the Greenville Cultural Exchange Center at 700 Arlington Avenue after purchasing the former Austin Music Academy building from John Hunter, a former classmate of Butler's at the former Sterling High School.
Her vision turned the Victorian-style property into a museum, community center, and archive of the area's Black leaders and prominent figures who helped shape the history of Greenville.
Although the building had been defunct since 2023, recent plans to re-open the museum have resurfaced in what is known as the South Carolina Empowerment & History Museum project, which is headed by Jordon Construction and slated to open in the summer of 2025.
The future South Carolina Empowerment & History Museum building is being renovated and re-established as a home for The Ruth Ann Butler Collection which features historical items, documents, and pictures stewarded by The Urban League of the Upstate. These artifacts include:
"She made educating others and acknowledging people other than herself, her life's work.” Jordon added. "It takes a phenomenal person to do that.”
