Oral history interview with William Ackerman, 1996.

ArchivalResource

Ackerman, William, 1915-1999,. Oral history interview with William Ackerman, 1996.

Oral history interview with William Ackerman, 1996.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49915297

The son of Harry Ackerman, who emigrated before 1900 at about the age of 19 from Hungary, and Lena Klein, also from Hungary, William Ackerman was born in California, Pennsylvania, in 1915. His parents had met in Philadelphia, married, and then set up a series of grocery and department stores in coal mining towns in Pennsylvania. Ackerman grew up mostly in Brownsville, PA, a coal-mining town that had about 35 orthodox Jewish families, all from the same area in Hungary. Harry Ackerman became a millionaire and then lost most of his money, due to coal strikes in the 1920s. His son William attended Hebrew school, became a high school football player, and attended Dickinson College on a football scholarship. There he got his law degree, and he practiced law for two years before entering the service in World War II. He served at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C., where he met Jennie Shimel from Charleston. After four years in Europe, he returned to the States and married Jennie Shimel, daughter of Assistant U.S. District Attorney, Louis Shimel. To keep his son-in-law in town and to overcome Ackerman's disinclination to study to pass the SC State Bar Examination, Shimel had lawmaker Solomon Blatt pass a law to make that unnecessary. Practicing as an attorney for years, Ackerman became active in many facets of Charleston life. A progressive and liberal candidate, he lost the Democratic Party nomination for Mayor to incumbent J. Palmer Gaillard in 1970 by less than 100 votes. Ackerman was a key player in the development of suburban Charleston, buying and developing the area now called South Windemere, west of the Ashley River in Charleston and creating a shopping center there. He gives many details on how that came about and relates another story of Solomon Blatt having the state of South Carolina sell Ackerman the marsh acreage he wanted for a very low price. Ackerman was president of the Jewish Community Center when it moved West of the Ashley, as well, and he acknowledges his role in changing the Jewish demographics of Charleston.

Sound recording : 1 sound cassette : digital.Transcript : 50 p. ; 28 cm.

College of Charleston, Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library