Cleveland Sellers - Later Life

Later Life

After his release from prison, Sellers earned a Master's degree in education from Harvard University in 1970. He ran unsuccessfully for office in Greensboro, North Carolina while aiding the 1984 presidential campaign of Reverend Jesse Jackson. Sellers earned his Ed.D. in History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1987.

He served as Director of the African American Studies Program at the University of South Carolina. His scholarly interests include recording the history of protest tradition, civil rights history, and the experiences of Africans in the Diaspora. He focuses on the oral history of African Americans who shaped the history of South Carolina, including cultural groupings and the languages of Gullah, Creole, and Ghegee. He also has studied the survival experiences of African Americans, sometimes recorded in folklore but often unrecorded.

In 2008, Sellers was selected as president of Voorhees College (Denmark, South Carolina), where he graduated from high school.