Elizabeth Laney is a professional historian, genealogist and public speaker specializing in African American History and the Reconstruction Era, particularly in the State of South Carolina. Honing her skills at historic sites including Drayton Hall Plantation, Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site and Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site in South Carolina, as well as the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Washington, D.C, she cultivated a passion for history and interpretation which continues today.

Laney holds bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology and History from Appalachian State University, as well as master’s degrees in History from the University of South Carolina and Museum Studies from George Washington University. She is published in the Journal of the SC Historical Association and is the curator of “Shaking the Jug: The Tuskegee Airmen at Walterboro Army Air Field,” a permanent exhibition at the Colleton Museum in Walterboro, SC. 

Laney currently serves as a Research Associate with the Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era (ISRE) at the University of South Carolina – Beaufort. There she conducts research on the 1st SC Volunteers of African Descent / 33rd US Colored Troops and the extraordinary women who supported the regiment as laundresses, nurses and cooks.