Congressional Gold Medal Recipient

CONGRESS HONORS CIVIL RIGHTS PIONEER 

REV. JOSEPH ARMSTRONG DE LAINE SR.



Rev. Joseph Armstrong De Laine, Sr.

108th CONGRESS 1st Session

H. R. 3287

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES November 19, 2003 Received

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AN ACT To award congressional gold medals posthumously on behalf of Reverend Joseph A. DeLaine, Harry and Eliza Briggs, and Levi Pearson in recognition of their contributions to the Nation as pioneers in the effort to desegregate public schools that led directly to the landmark desegregation case of Brown et al. v. the Board of Education of Topeka et al. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

The Congress finds as follows: (1) The Reverend Joseph Armstrong DeLaine, one of the true heroes of the civil rights struggle, led a crusade to break down barriers in education in South Carolina. (2) The efforts of Reverend DeLaine led to the desegregation of public schools in the United States, but forever scarred his own life. (3) In 1949, Joseph DeLaine, a minister and school principal, organized African-American parents in Summerton, South Carolina, to petition the school board for a bus for black students, who had to walk up to 10 miles through corn and cotton fields to attend a segregated school, while the white children in the school district rode to and from school in nice clean buses. (4) In 1950, these same parents, including Harry and Eliza Briggs, sued to end public school segregation in Briggs et al. v. Elliott et al., one of 5 cases that collectively led to the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision of Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al. (5) Because of his participation in the desegregation movement, Reverend DeLaine was subjected to repeated acts of domestic terror in which-- (A) he, along with 2 sisters and a niece, lost their jobs; (B) he fought off an angry mob; (C) he received frequent death threats; and (D) his church and his home were burned to the ground. (6) In October 1955, after Reverend DeLaine relocated to Florence County in South Carolina, shots were fired at the DeLaine home, and because Reverend DeLaine fired back to mark the car, he was charged with assault and battery with intent to kill. (7) The shooting incident drove him from South Carolina to Buffalo, New York, where he organized an African Methodist Episcopal Church. (8) Believing that he would not be treated fairly by the South Carolina judicial system if he returned to South Carolina, Reverend DeLaine told the Federal Bureau of Investigation, `I am not running from justice but injustice', and it was not until 2000 (26 years after his death and 45 years after the incident) that Reverend DeLaine was cleared of all charges relating to the October 1955 incident. (9) Reverend DeLaine was a humble and fearless man who showed the Nation that all people, regardless of the color of their skin, deserve a first-rate education, a lesson from which the Nation has benefited immeasurably. (10) Reverend DeLaine deserves rightful recognition for the suffering that he and his family endured to teach the Nation one of the great civil rights lessons of the last century. (11) Like the Reverend DeLaine and Harry and Eliza Briggs, Levi Pearson was an integral participant in the struggle to equalize the educational experiences of white and black students in South Carolina. (12) Levi Pearson, with the assistance of Reverend Joseph DeLaine, filed a lawsuit against the Clarendon County School District to protest the inequitable treatment of black children. (13) As a result of his lawsuit, Levi Pearson also suffered from acts of domestic terror, such as the time gun shots were fired into his home, as well as economic consequences: local banks refused to provide him with credit to purchase farming materials and area farmers refused to lend him equipment. (14) Although his case was ultimately dismissed on a technicality, Levi Pearson's courage to stand up for equalized treatment and funding for black students served as the catalyst for further attempts to desegregate South Carolina schools, as he continued to fight against segregation practices and became President of Clarendon County Chapter of the NAACP. (15) When Levi Pearson's litigation efforts to obtain equalized treatment and funding for black students were stymied, Harry and Eliza Briggs, a service station attendant and a maid, continued to fight for not only equalized treatment of all children but desegregated schools as well. (16) As with Reverend DeLaine and Levi Pearson, the family of Harry and Eliza Briggs suffered consequences for their efforts: Harry and Eliza both were fired from their jobs and forced to move their family to Florida. (17) Although they and their family suffered tremendously, Harry and Eliza Briggs were also pioneers leading the effort to desegregate America's public schools.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

(a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED- In recognition of the contributions of Reverend Joseph A. DeLaine, Harry and Eliza Briggs, and Levi Pearson to the Nation as pioneers in the effort to desegregate public schools that led directly to the landmark desegregation case of Brown et al. v. the Board of Education of Topeka et al., the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the presentation, on behalf of the Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design, to Joseph De Laine, Jr., as next of kin of Reverend Joseph A. DeLaine, and to the next of kin or other personal representative of Harry and Eliza Briggs and of Levi Pearson. (b) DESIGN AND STRIKING- For the purposes of the awards referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (hereafter in this Act referred to as the `Secretary') shall strike 3 gold medals with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.

SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medals struck pursuant to section 2, under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, and at a price sufficient to cover the costs thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold medals.

SEC. 4. STATUS AS NATIONAL MEDALS.

(a) NATIONAL MEDALS- The medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code. (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS- For purposes of section 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items.

SEC. 5. FUNDING.

(a) AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS- There is authorized to be charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund such amounts as may be necessary to pay for the cost of the medals authorized by this Act. (b) PROCEEDS OF SALE- Amounts received from the sale of duplicate bronze medals under section 3 shall be deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund. Passed the House of Representatives November 18, 2003. Attest: JEFF TRANDAHL, Clerk. Reverend Joseph A. DeLaine
 - Civil Rights Leader Reverend Joseph A. DeLaine To the South, the United States Supreme Court's decision to end segregation in the nation's public schools was a calamity; for a middle age Methodist minister from Clarendon County, South Carolina, it was the fulfillment of a lifelong crusade. The Reverend Joseph Armstrong DeLaine, who died in 1974, was one of the true heroes in the civil rights struggle to break down the barriers of segregation. DeLaine's commitment to his faith and to the cause of civil rights began at an early age. Expected to become a farmer or a craftsman, he enrolled instead at Allen University in Columbia, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1931. To finance his education, DeLaine worked as a laborer and ran a dry cleaning business near the campus. DeLaine remained at Allen to pursue a bachelor of divinity degree at the universities Dickerson Seminary. He combined preaching with teaching and was a public schoolteacher in South Carolina for 17 years. As a teacher at the Macedonia Baptist High School in Blackville, DeLaine saw that discrimination was not just racial. Despite his being a popular and effective teacher, the school's trustees would not give him a permanent appointment unless he left the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Of this incident, he wrote: "A person who hates another because of looks is just as bad as one who stupidly hates anther's faith in the church of his choice." DeLaine's name will always be associated with Clarendon County. In 1943, he was instrumental in obtaining the county's first NAACP chapter and became its president. "He had so much integrity and the people had absolute confidence in him," recalled Robert Pamer, NAACP chapter president of Sumter County. "He was a humble man, but fearless." Courage and dedication were essential qualities that the early pioneers of the civil rights movement had to possess. During his activist years in the 1950s, DeLaine received death threats. Both his home and his church were burned to the ground, and he fought off an angry mob who came to remove him from his parsonage. The origins of the now famous Clarendon County School Segregation Case began in the late 1940s when DeLaine, along with other African-Americans, sought to secure equal educational opportunities for black children. Many participants in the movement lost their jobs. DeLaine, his two sisters and a niece were all fired from their teaching positions. In 1950, for his own safety, he was moved form Clarendon County to another pastorate in Lake City. In May 1951, this first legal challenge to the validity of the "separate but equal" doctrine in public schools was heard in Charleston before a panel of three federal judges. Among them was Judge J. Waties Waring who issued the dissenting opinion that segregation in South Carolina's public schools was unconstitutional. Upon appeal to the United States Supreme Court, Briggs v. Elliott, as the case was known, was returned to the lower court for a review of South Carolina's efforts to improve the conditions in black schools. Ultimately, Briggs v. Elliott became one of five cases which were considered and heard collectively under the name of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Success came at a price for DeLaine. In Lake City, he was subjected to a reign of terror that eventually persuaded him to leave the state. "I am not running from justice but INJUSTICE," he told the FBI. He was relocated to upstate New York, where he organized and became pastor of an AME church in Buffalo. Appropriately, the new church was called the DeLaine-Waring AME Church, after the two men who had done so much to revolutionize the educational system of South Carolina.  Forty-five years after his alleged crime and more than 25 years after his death, the Rev. Joseph Armstrong DeLaine--a civil rights pioneer whose early work led to the desegregation of America's public schools--


was cleared of all charges today by state officials here in a bittersweet and emotional ceremony.


Cecil J. Williams / University of South Carolina, Courtesy Levine Museum of the New South When the Rev. Joseph A. DeLaine Sr.'s (left, with his family) home went up in flames, the fire department refused to put out the flames, claiming the house was 20 ft. across the town line