South Carolinians tell their ‘American story’ as 250thanniversary commission comes to town

BY SYDNEY DUNLAP SDUNLAP@FREE-TIMES.COM

MAY 27, 2026

 COLUMBIA — During a brief moment of sun on an otherwise rainy day, Clarence Felder stood in a historical costume — which he brought himself — in front of several lights, a camera and a boom microphone on the First Citizens Green. 

There, in what looked like a pop-up movie set on the Main Street green space, Felder told a story about his sixth great-grandfather Henry Felder, a Swiss-speaking immigrant who settled in the South Carolina backcountry and later raised a militia company during the Revolutionary War. 

And while his grandfather’s story is already a part of South Carolina’s long history, Felder will soon get to be a part of it, too, as his and other South Carolinians’ filmed interviews will join those from around the nation in “Our American Story,” a storytelling project that will be preserved at the Library of Congress. 

Now their story, and those of other South Carolina interviewees, have the chance to join the history book. While all conversations from around the country will be recorded and archived, a portion of them will be preserved at the Library of Congress where they’ll become “a permanent part of the American record,” according to the America250 website.