A Brief History Of Alcoholics Anonymous In South Carolina
Our hope is that when this chip of a book
is launched on the world tide of alcoholism, defeated drinkers will seize upon
it, to follow its suggestions. Many, we are sure, will rise to their feet and
march on. They will approach still other sick ones and fellowships of Alcoholics
Anonymous may spring up in each city and hamlet, havens for those who must find
a way out.
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Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 153
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In the archives of the
General Service Office in New York there is a letter dated November 13, 1942,
from an attorney in Spartanburg named John L. Apparently, this is the earliest
written inquiry to the office from someone in South Carolina. The group that
later was established because of this inquiry marks the beginning of Alcoholics
Anonymous in our state. John L. wrote in part, “A group of us are interested in
the book published about 1939 by your society and are interested in forming a
local chapter.” Other correspondence in the New York archives indicates the
group experienced difficulty getting started, but eventually did hold its first
official meeting on September 15, 1944, at the Cleveland Hotel in Spartanburg.
There were six members in attendance.
In the summer of 1946, Marvin M. moved to Spartanburg from Atlanta, Georgia and
discovered the group no longer existed. He resurrected the group and the members
began calling it the Central Group. The group, however, again had problems
meeting consistently and became inactive. In 1955, a new Central Group was
started and began holding meetings regularly at 202 Pine Street and later at 109
Wall Street. In the early 1950s, several Central Group members in Spartanburg
formed a nonprofit organization named
Alconon Inc. The organization later obtained funding and was able to purchase
property and construct a facility at 349 East St. John Street. Members attending
meetings at the location started the second group in Spartanburg and named it
the St. John Group. In the early 1970s, the Central Group and the St. John Group
merged and became known as the Central-St. John Group.
Information in the South Carolina General Service Committee Archives indicates
Mary D., a woman in Columbia, wrote the then named Alcoholic Foundation in New
York in late November 1944. Mary informed the office that she and two other
members of Alcoholics Anonymous had started an A.A. group in the city. Her
letter named the other two members as David H. and John C. The group was holding
meetings in the private dining room of the Jefferson Hotel, where John C. was
employed. The group later began referring to itself as the Columbia Group and
moved their meeting location to 819 Harden Street in the mid-1940s. On January
31, 1947, an organization named A Corporation of Alcoholics (ACOA) was
registered with the South Carolina Secretary of State’s office, as a nonprofit
organization. Following the organization’s construction of a facility at 2015
College Street, the Columbia group began holding their meetings there in the
fall of 1947. Other groups were started in Columbia and in the surrounding area
during the late 1940s and early 1950s and members renamed the group the Central
Group.
General
Service Office records show that William H. of Charleston, South Carolina began
corresponding with the New York office as early as 1943. He stated in one of his
letters that he had been sober for over ten years outside of A.A., but would be
glad to help get Alcoholics Anonymous started in Charleston. As often occurred
when starting new groups in A.A.’s early days, William H. experienced a great
many problems. After several failed attempts, he was able to have the group hold
its first official meeting on March 26, 1946, at St. Phillip’s Episcopal
Church’s Parish House. The group later dissolved. In 1948 two other groups in
Charleston, the Mid-Town Group and Tidewater Group, started meeting.
Directories and other
material in the South Carolina General Service Committee Archives reveal
Alcoholics Anonymous grew rapidly in South Carolina during the late 1940s and
early 1950s. Groups were started in cities across the state, including
Greenville (1945), Anderson (1946), Bennettsville (1947), Laurens (1948),
Greenwood (1948), Conway (1950), Greer (1951) and Lancaster (1952). The material
also shows the first state convention in South Carolina was held in Charleston,
July 16-18, 1948, at the Francis Marion Hotel. Approximately 100 A.A. members
attended the convention. By the end of 1952, the membership of Alcoholics
Anonymous in South Carolina had reached 917 with 44 groups registered with the
New York office. John J., from Cheraw, became the first delegate elected from
South Carolina. He attended the 1952 and 1953 General Service Conferences in New
York.
The growth of Alcoholics
Anonymous in South Carolina continued throughout the 1950s and 1960s. In 1959,
the membership increased to 1,015 and there were 64 official groups. In 1969,
there were 1,294 active A.A. members attending meetings in 84 registered groups
in South Carolina, which was officially designated as Area 62 by New York. In
the mid 1960s, Area 62 divided itself into three regions known as the Upper
Region, Central Region, and Lower Region. The state was further was divided into
districts in the mid-1970s.
Each
group and district in the state elects representatives to the Area Assembly,
which is responsible for conducting the state’s A.A. business. In June 2001,
assembly members voted to amend the area’s structure and procedures and
eliminated both the regions and regional nominating committee used in elections.
Following this decision, all eligible Area 62 members have been invited to stand
for area offices and elections have been conducted according to the Third Legacy
Procedure described in the A.A. Service Manual.
The first Intergroup office, named the Greater Columbia Intergroup of Alcoholics
Anonymous, opened in Columbia in September 1979. Other Intergroup offices opened
in the 1980s in Greenville, Charleston, and Myrtle Beach. These offices provided
members easy access to meeting information and allowed for the quick purchase of
literature. In the 1980s and 1990s, in addition to standard speaker and
discussion type meetings, A.A. meeting schedules show that “Big Book” study
meetings, “Twelve and Twelve” meetings, and meetings for young people, women,
gays, and other specialized groups became commonplace across South Carolina.
Meetings also began to be held in the mornings, at noon, in the afternoons and
late at night. Moreover, nonsmoking meetings became the norm in most places.
Today, groups can be found everywhere in South Carolina, from large metropolitan
areas, which have scores of groups and hundreds of meetings, to small towns such
as Denmark, Estill, Ridgeway, and Greeleyville, which have only one or two
meetings a week.
On March 20-23, 1997, the 50th
Annual South Carolina State A.A. Convention was held at the Adams Mark
Hotel in Columbia, South Carolina, with nearly 800 members in attendance. In
April 1997, at the 47th General Service Conference in New York, Betty
S. from Columbia was elected Southeast regional trustee. In October 1999, Darwin
H., from Conway, South Carolina, was elected as delegate to the 50th
General Service Conference.
When
Alcoholics Anonymous was first published in 1939, Bill W. expressed the
hope that our Fellowship would one day reach everywhere and that it might
provide a means of recovery for alcoholics who wanted to recover. As we enter a
new millennium, data shows that we have grown in South Carolina from one group
and six members in 1944 to over 300 groups and approximately 7,000 members in
the year 2004. It is evident that Bill’s hope has been realized to a large
extent in our state. May God continue to bless us.
Anonymous
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