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Congressional Gold Medal Recipient
Rev. Joseph A. De Laine
Thurgood Marshall
Briggs v. Elliott timeline Black parents living near Summerton in rural Clarendon County helped change the way children go to school across the nation. 1942: The Rev. J.A. DeLaine, a school teacher and principal, helps form a Clarendon County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
For Immediate Release:
Thursday, June 26, 2003 Contact: Andy Davis or Nu Wexler
(202) 224-6654 Senate Approves Legislation to Award Rev. De Laine with
Congressional Gold Medal Medal would honor De Laine's heroic sacrifices to desegregate nation's public schools WASHINGTON, D.C. - Last night, the Senate unanimously approved legislation advanced by U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham to posthumously award Reverend Joseph A. De Laine the Congressional Gold Medal for his sacrifices to desegregate the nation's public schools. Once approved by the House of Representatives, the legislation, S. 498, will go to the President for his signature. "Rev. De Laine's untold sacrifices to bring equality to American education deserve our highest praise and our national gratitude," Sen. Hollings said following the Senate's approval. "His courage and his commitment to justice have left a lasting effect on the fabric of our nation, and the Senate has resoundingly agreed that the Congressional Gold Medal is a fitting tribute for his contributions." "I was very honored to assist Senator Hollings with legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Reverend De Laine," said Sen. Graham. "Senator Hollings has been a tireless advocate for this legislation which is most deserved. The civil rights struggle to bring about school desegregation and other needed changes required bravery and self-sacrifice from many. Reverend De Laine is a deserving recipient of this award because he literally risked his life and property to advance the cause of equal justice under the law and quality education for all children of South Carolina. His courage and sacrifice during a dark chapter of our state's and nation's history has forever improved the quality of life for all future generations." Rev. De Laine's crusade to break down barriers in education led to the case of Briggs v. Elliott, South Carolina's suit that, along with four others, became the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954. Upon the bill's enactment, the Congressional Gold Medal would be presented to Joseph A. De Laine, Jr., the son of Reverend Joseph A. De Laine, at a future ceremony. Joseph A. De Laine, Jr., was chosen by Congress as one of South Carolina's two representatives on the Brown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Commission - a group that will plan the 50th Anniversary commemoration of the 1954 landmark decision. De Laine, Jr. currently resides in Charlotte, N.C. On March 3, Sen. Hollings introduced the legislation co-sponsored by Sen. Graham. Jointly, Hollings and Graham assembled 80 Senate co-sponsors for the legislation, which won unanimous approval from the Senate Banking Committee on June 18. Rep. Jim Clyburn is leading the effort to move the legislation in the House. ### For Immediate Release:
June 14, 2002 Contact: Andy Davis (202) 224-6654 CORRECTION: BILL AWARDS 'CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL', NOT 'MEDAL OF HONOR' Hollings Introduces Bill to Present De Laine With Congressional Gold Medal WASHINGTON, D.C. Last night, U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings introduced legislation,
S. 2622, to present posthumously Reverend Jospeh A. De Laine the Congressional Gold Medal for his sacrifices to desegregate our public schools. His crusade to break down barriers in education forever scarred his own life, but led to
Briggs v. Elliott, South Carolina's suit that, along with four others, became the landmark
Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., co-sponsored the legislation. "Eight years before
Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, Rev. De Laine, a minister and principal, organized
African-American parents to petition the Summerton, South Carolina, school board for a bus and gasoline so their children would not have to walk 10 miles to attend a segregated school," Sen. Hollings said. "A year later, in Briggs v. Elliott, the parents sued to end segregation. It was a case that as a young lawyer I watched Thurgood Marshall argue before the Supreme Court as one of the five cases collectively known as Brown v. Board of Education. For this Senator, their arguments helped to shape my view on racial matters." "For his efforts, Rev. DeLaine was subjected to a reign of domestic terrorism. He lost his job. He watched his church and home burn. He was charged with assault and battery with intent to kill after shots were fired at his home and he fired back," Sen. Hollings continued. "He had to leave South Carolina forever; relocate to New York, where he started an AME Church, and he eventually retired in North Carolina. Not until the year 2000, 26 years after his death and 45 years after the incident in his home was Rev. De Laine cleared of all charges." Upon the bill's enactment, the Congressional Gold Medal would be presented to Joseph A. De Laine, Jr., the son of Reverend Joseph A. De Laine. Joseph A. DeLaine, Jr., was recently chosen by Congress as one of South Carolina's two representatives on the Brown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Commission a group that will plan the 50th Anniversary commemoration of the 1954 landmark decision. De Laine, Jr. currently resides in Charlotte, N.C. Last month, Senator Hollings addressed 100 descendants at the Briggs v. Elliot Descendants Reunion Banquet in Summerton, South Carolina, where he announced that he would introduce this legislation to honor posthumously Reverend Joseph A. De Laine. A copy of Senator Hollings' speech to the descendants of the Briggs v. Elliot case is provided below. KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY SENATOR ERNEST F. HOLLINGS
BRIGGS V. ELLIOTT DESCENDANTS RE-UNION BANQUET
MAY 11, 2002
SUMMERTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
I want to give you an insight into exactly what happened to your parents 50 years ago in Summerton, South Carolina, that led to the desegregation of our nation's schools by the Supreme Court of the United States. I speak with some trepidation, because right now I can see Harry Briggs' son walking down that dirt road all the way here to Scotts Branch School, and that school bus passing, all for the white children. Yet all your families were asking for was a bus. But they were told: "you don't pay any taxes, so how can you ask for a bus?" What they didn't say is you didn't have a job, whereby you could make a living and be able to pay the taxes. They didn't say that. I think of the threats, the burnings, the shooting up of Reverend John De Laine's home. I think about how they turned him into a fugitive. He had to leave his home in South Carolina, never to return. Harry Briggs had to leave his home and go to Florida to earn a living. It's not for me to tell the descendants of the Briggs v. Elliott case how they have suffered. I didn't try this case don't misunderstand me. My beginnings with Briggs v. Elliott started in 1948 when I was elected to the House of Representatives in Columbia. The previous year James Hinton, the head of the NAACP in the state gave a speech in Columbia. He talked about the need to get separate but equal facilities. He got Rev. De Laine from Summerton in the audience all fired up. Rev. De Laine, who was the principal here, put together a petition signed by 20 parents, of 46 children - the Summerton 66. I'll never forget the day after I was sworn into the Legislature the superintendent of schools in Charleston County took me across the Cooper River Bridge, down the Mathis Ferry Road, to the Freedom School, the black school. He said I want to show you what we really do -- he used the word at that time "for a Negro education." This was a cold November Day, and we went into a big one- room building. That's all they had -- one room, with a pot belly stove in the middle. They had a class in this corner, a class in that back corner, a class up front in this corner, and a class here. Of course, they didn't have any desks, and very few books, and one teacher teaching the four classes. When I went to Columbia I was with a bunch of rebels. I introduced an anti-lynching bill. I had never heard of lynchings down in Charleston, but then they had one. As we debated the bill, a fellow who was the grand dragon of the Klan got up with all these Klansmen in the Gallery, and he mumbled and raised cane. Speaker Blott got some order. But several House members walked out. They said they wouldn't be seated in the Legislature with a fellow like that. We passed the anti-lynching bill. I'm trying to give you this background, so you'll understand the significance of what your parents did. We had just had the case, whereby blacks could participate in the Democratic primary. And we had just given women the right to vote. And in 1949 and 1950, I struggled because there was no money in the state for separate but equal schools, or anything else. I said we ought to put in a 3 percent sales tax to pay for things. Governor Thurmond opposed it, and the senators particularly opposed it. But I made the motion for a one-cent tax on cigarettes; a one-cent tax on gasoline; and a one-cent tax on beer. Beer, cigarettes, and gasoline. We formed a House Committee with six of us to work on it. We worked all summer. It's a long story, but let me cut it and say by December we had it all written. I knew the incoming governor, Governor Byrnes. I felt it would be good to ask him to see if he could help me with this measure. The second week in January, before he was sworn in, he called me and said: "You've got to come to Columbia, I'm going to include this in my Inaugural address." Over time, I made 79 talks on the proposal, until we finally passed the sales tax, which provided some money for separate but equal schools. When the Briggs v. Elliott case came up, before Judge Waring in Charleston, he questioned separate but equal. Then in December 1952, the case went to the Supreme Court. Governor Byrnes had served on the state Supreme Court, and he wanted to make sure we won the case. In my mind, he was absolutely sure that under Chief Justice Vinson the state would win it. But to make sure, he set aside Mr. Bob McC. Figg, who had done all the work, and selected John W. Davis, as the attorney for South Carolina against Thurgood Marshall, who was representing Briggs and the NAACP. Mr. Davis had been the Solicitor General of the United States. He had been the Democratic nominee for president in 1924. He was considered the greatest constitutional mind in the country. The second thing the Governor did was to call me up and say: "I'm appointing you to go to Washington, because you know intimately this law here that built the schools. You have to go to Washington in case any questions of fact come up." So we took a train to Washington. We came in at 6 o'clock that morning at Union Station, and we sat down for breakfast. I'll never forget it, because Thurgood Marshall walked in. He and Bob McC. Figg had become real close friends. So he sat down and was eating breakfast with us, and we began swapping stories. Mr. Marshall said "Bob, you know that black family that moved into that white neighborhood in Cicero, Illinois They have so much trouble. There are riots, and everything else going on." And he said: "Don't tell anybody, but I got hold of Governor Adlai Stevenson." Stevenson was the governor of Illinois at the time. And he said: "I sent that family back to Mississippi for safe keeping." And Thurgood added, "for God's sake, don't tell anybody that or it will ruin me." I said: "for God's sake, don't tell anybody I'm eating breakfast with you, or I will never get elected again." I tell you that story so you can get a feel for 1952, for what it was like 50 years ago. We had wanted Briggs to be the lead case before the Supreme Court. It was one of five cases that they would hear collectively. But soon after our breakfast, we found out that Roy Wilkens from the NAACP had gotten together with the Solicitor General and moved the Kansas case in front of the South Carolina case. Some reports said the reason was because they wanted a northern case. That was not it. There was another case from the state of Delaware, which was just as north as the state of Kansas. Kansas was selected because up until the sixth grade, yes, it was segregated. But thereafter it was a local option, and the schools were mostly integrated. Before the court John W. Davis obviously made a very impassioned, constitutional argument. But Thurgood Marshall made the real argument, there wasn't any question about it. He had been with this case. He had the feel, and everything else of that kind. I can still hear and see Justice Frankfurter on the Court leaning over and saying, "Mr. Marshall, Mr. Marshall, you've won your case, you've won your case. What happens next"? And Thurgood Marshall said, well, if he prevails, then the state imposed policy of separation by race would be removed. The little children can go to the school of their choice. They play together before they go to school. They come back and play together after school. Now they can be together at school. The state imposed policy of separation by race in South Carolina would be gone. Another lawyer arguing the case was George E. C. Hayes, and when I heard him that was my epiphany. Mr. Hayes got everyone because he used a jury argument before the Supreme Court. He said: as black soldiers we went to the war to fight on the front lines in Europe, and when we come home we have to sit on the back of the bus. I had been with the 9th Anti-Artillery Aircraft unit in Tunisia in Africa for a month. And then I was in Italy and Germany and crossed over to what is now Kosovo. So I served. I knew exactly what he was talking about. And I said this is wrong. The next year Chief Justice Vinson died. It was reported at that time that Justice Frankfurter said for the first time that he believed there was a God in Heaven when Vison passed away. They appointed Mr. Earl Warren as Chief Justice, who dragged everybody back to the Court to re-argue the case in December of 1953. He didn't want to hear about separate but equal. He wanted the case re-argued on the constitutionality of segregation itself. Then on May 17th, 1953 the decision came down - it was unanimous, segregation was over in this country. So the lawyers immediately got together to discuss how to implement the decision. Since the decision said to integrate schools with all deliberate speed, there was arguments back and forth on how we could comply with this order with all deliberate speed and not start chaos all over the land. Some school authority down in Charleston came up with the idea that with all deliberate speed meant we would integrate the first grade the first year; we would integrate the first and second grades the second year; the third year would be the first, second, and third grades. Over a 12-year period, we would then have the 12 grades integrated. When the head of the NAACP in New York heard that he said: "Noooo Way. We are not going to be given our constitutional rights on the installment plan." And that ended that. But nothing was done for about 10 years, until Martin Luther King came along. When I became Governor, I started working on other areas that needed to be integrated, beginning with law enforcement. I'll never forget all the white sheriffs who were against all the blacks. We only had 34 black sheriffs. We have about 500 today. And we literally broke up and locked up the Ku Klux Klan. I remember on the day I was sworn in as Governor, waiting for me was a green and gold embossed envelope, with a lifetime membership into the Ku Klux Klan. I never heard of such a thing. I asked the head of law enforcement, do we have the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina? He said, "Ohhh yes. We have 1,727 members." I asked, you have an actual count? And he said: "Ohhh yes, we keep a count of them." He said he could get rid of them, but no Governor had helped him in the past. I said, I'll help you. What do we do? He said: "I need a little money." So we infiltrated the Klan, and the members began to know, or their bosses at businesses knew because they would say to these people: "You know on Friday night, your man, so and so, has been going to these rallies." The next thing you know, they quit going to the rallies. So by the time we integrated Clemson with Harvey Gantt, it went very, very peacefully. And there were less than 300 Klansmen. Then, of course, as Senator I took my hunger trips. This is the effect those arguments before the court had on me. I took those trips with the NAACP to 16 different counties. As a result, we embellished the food stamp program, we instituted the women infants and children's feeding program, and the school lunch program. The attendance in schools went way up when we started that. As your Senator I had the privilege of employing Ralph Everett. He was the first black staff director of any committee in the United States Senate. We have both Andy Chishom and Israel Brooks as the first black Marshalls of South Carolina. Matthew Perry, the first black district judge of a federal court ever appointed, I appointed. The first black woman judge to the federal district court, Margaret Seymour, I appointed her. So we have made a lot of progress along that line. But to give you a feel for how things have changed, I remember speaking at the C.A. Johnson High School in Columbia, the largest black high school in the entire state, the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated. At the event, there was a mid-shipman, a senior at the Naval Academy, who stood up and made one of the finest talks I ever heard. I turned to the principal, because it was his son, and I asked: who appointed your son to the Naval Academy? He didn't answer. We walked down the row, and I can see me now, asking him again. He still didn't answer. When I got to my car, I said evidently you don't understand my accent from Charleston. Who appointed your son to the U.S. Naval Academy? He said, "Senator, I didn't want to have to answer that question. We couldn't get a member of the South Carolina delegation to appoint him. Hubert Humphrey appointed him." What goes around, comes around. Today, I have more minority appointments to West Point, Annapolis, and the Air Force Academies than anybody. Recently I had Chuck Bolden, who is a major general in the marine corps and a former astronaut, ready to return to NASA as the number two person there. But the Pentagon raised the question about taking such a talent during a time of war and moving him to the civilian space program. So we said the heck with it, he's too needed in the military. That is the effect Briggs v Elliott had on this public servant. There isn't any question that without the courage of your parents, our society would be a lot worse off today. I was there a few years back when the Congress of the United gave the Congressional Gold Medal to
Rosa Parks. She deserved it, and we wouldn't take anything from her for not moving her seat. But in the 1950s the worst they could have done to her was to pull her off the bus. These descendants lost their homes. They lost their livelihoods. They almost lost their lives. As far as continuing their life in the state of South Carolina, they could not do it. Without their courage, without their stamina, without their example in starting the Briggs v. Elliott case, we never would have had a civil rights act. We never would have had a voting rights act. We never would have had all the progress we've made over the many, many years. So I wanted particularly to come back and to publicly thank each of you descendants. And I want to announce that I am putting forward a bill that would honor posthumously Rev. De Laine with a Congressional Gold Medal. I need 66 co-sponsors in the Senate. We have to have similar support on the House side. But Cong. Clyburn, he can get way more votes than I can. I don't think he'll have any trouble. We'll try to work it out so that in '04, the 50th anniversary of when the decision came down, we'll be able to make that presentation. I just want to end by saying because of the courage of your parents, we made far more progress in the United States of America. Our country is a far stronger country. We are more than ever the land of the free and the home of the brave because of Briggs v. Elliott. And I thank you all very, very much. ### For Immediate Release:
Monday, March 3, 2003 Contact: Andy Davis (202) 224-6654 Hollings Re-Introduces Bill to Present De Laine With Congressional Gold Medal Medal would honor De Laines heroic sacrifices to desegregate our public schools WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings re-introduced legislation to present posthumously Reverend Joseph A. De Laine the Congressional Gold Medal for his sacrifices to desegregate our public schools. His crusade to break down barriers in education forever scarred his own life, but led to Briggs v. Elliott, South Carolina's suit that, along with four others, became the landmark
Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954. Sens Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John Edwards (D-N.C..), Zell Miller (D-Ga.), Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) co-sponsored the legislation. "Eight years before Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, Rev. De Laine, a minister and principal, organized African-American parents to petition the Summerton, South Carolina, school board for a bus and gasoline so their children would not have to walk 10 miles to attend a segregated school," Sen. Hollings said upon re-introducing the bill. "A year later, in Briggs v. Elliott, the parents sued to end segregation. It was a case that as a young lawyer I watched Thurgood Marshall argue before the Supreme Court as one of the five cases collectively known as
Brown v. Board of Education. For this Senator, their arguments helped to shape my view on racial matters." "For his efforts, Rev. De Laine was subjected to a reign of domestic terrorism. He lost his job. He watched his church and home burn. He was charged with assault and battery with intent to kill after shots were fired at his home and he fired back," Sen. Hollings continued. "He had to leave South Carolina forever; relocate to New York, where he started an AME Church, and he eventually retired in North Carolina. Not until the year 2000, 26 years after his death and 45 years after the incident in his home was Rev. De Laine cleared of all charges." Upon the bill's enactment, the Congressional Gold Medal would be presented to Joseph A. De Laine, Jr., the son of Reverend Joseph A. De Laine. Joseph A. De Laine, Jr., was chosen by Congress as one of South Carolina's two representatives on the
Brown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Commission a group that will plan the 50th Anniversary commemoration of the 1954 landmark decision. De Laine, Jr. currently resides in Charlotte, N.C. Last year, Senator Hollings addressed 100 descendants at the Briggs v. Elliott Descendants Reunion Banquet in Summerton, South Carolina, where he announced that he would introduce this legislation to honor posthumously Reverend Joseph A. De Laine. A copy of Senator Hollings' speech to the descendants of the Briggs v. Elliott case is available on the Senator's website at
http://hollings.senate.gov/~hollings/statements/2003303829.html. ### Contact: Andy Davis or Nu Wexler
(202) 224-6654 Testimony of Sen. Ernest F. Hollings To Present A Congressional Gold Medal to Reverend Joseph A. De Laine Wednesday, June 18, 2003 Mr. Chairman and Senator Sarbanes, after 37 years in the Senate, this is the very first time I have come before this Committee to seek a Congressional Gold Medal. I have waited so many years because I believe deeply that Congress should present its highest award sparingly, and that our expression of national appreciation should go to only the worthiest of the worthy. Joseph A. De Laine is such a nominee. His circumstances are all the more remarkable because it has taken half a century of hindsight to see that his effort to break down barriers to education during a very troubled time in our history has made this nation, more than ever, a land of opportunity. My legislation to posthumously bestow the Gold Medal to Reverend De Laine was co-sponsored by 80 of my fellow Senators, Democrats and Republicans. I thank them all, in particular, my colleague from South Carolina, Senator Graham, for his efforts. I also thank this Committee for speedy consideration of this legislation, as next year we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the landmark
Brown v. Board of Education case that desegregated our public schools and it would be appropriate to honor Reverend De Laine at that time. Reverend De Laine's efforts started eight years before another Gold Medal winner,
Rosa Parks, refused to move to the back of the bus. He was a minister and principal in Summerton, SC. Seeing that
African American children had to walk 10 miles to attend a segregated school, he organized their parents to petition the school board for a bus and gasoline. A year later, in Briggs v. Elliot, the parents sued to end segregation. It was a case that as a young lawyer I watched Thurgood Marshall argue before the Supreme Court as one of the five cases collectively known as Brown v. Board of Education. For this Senator it was a great awakening; their arguments re-shaped my view on racial matters for ever more. For his efforts Reverend De Laine was subjected to a reign of domestic terrorism. He lost his job. He watched his church and home burn. He almost lost his life. He was charged with assault and battery with intent to kill after shots were fired at his home, and he fired back simply to mark the car. He was forced to leave South Carolina forever; relocate to New York, where he MORE started an AME Church; and he eventually retired in North Carolina. Not until the year 2000, 26 years after his death and 45 years after the incident in his home was Reverend De Laine cleared of all charges. He lived a scarred life, but our society would be a lot worse off today without his courage. Without his example, we never would have had a
Civil Rights Act. We never would have had a
Voting Rights Act. We never would have all the progress we've made over the many, many years. In this Chamber, we vote often to increase funding for the schools, to provide more teachers, more testing, and the like; but that pales to what this private citizen did for our nation's children, black and white, 50 years ago. This award has always gone to people who gave our nation immeasurable benefits; in this Senator's opinion, this nominee is in that very special and unique class. He deserves our highest accolade. I ask my colleagues to support this legislation. ###
Briggs v. Elliott timeline
Black parents living near Summerton in rural Clarendon County helped change the way children go to school across the nation.
1942: The Rev. J.A. DeLaine, a school teacher and principal, helps form a Clarendon County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. June 1947: NAACP chapter leaders meet at Benedict College in Columbia. DeLaine is inspired by state NAACP president James Hinton, who argues black residents need to go to court to get school buses for their children. 1947: Led by DeLaine, black parents ask the white county superintendent for a school bus. When the request is denied, they pool their money and buy a second-hand one. But gas is expensive, and the bus keeps breaking down. 1948: Parent Levi Pearson, a farmer with three children who walk nine miles to school, agrees to be part of a legal test case for his friend DeLaine. With help from NAACP attorneys Harold Boulware of Columbia and Thurgood Marshall of New York, Pearson files a lawsuit. The attorneys' brief argues the Pearson children are suffering "irreparable damage" because they do not have access to the free bus service enjoyed by the county's white schoolchildren. The case is thrown out of court on a technicality: the farm straddles two school districts, so Pearson has no legal standing. Pearson is elected head of the local NAACP. He loses the bank credit he needs to buy supplies, and white buyers refuse to buy his timber. Early 1949: State NAACP leaders meet in Columbia. Modjeska Monteith Simkins of Columbia, South Carolina's matriarch of civil rights, crafts a petition asking the all-white Clarendon County school board for educational equality on all levels. DeLaine and NAACP members hold meetings to gather signatures for the petition. People who sign know they will anger local white businessmen and risk their jobs, their ability to borrow money and possibly their families' safety. October 1949: Twenty residents sign the document in the home of Harry and Eliza Briggs. In November, the parents file the petition with the school board, whose chairman is R.M. Elliott. May 1950: When the school board and state superintendent don't respond, the parents sue in federal district court in Charleston. Dozens more residents join the case. The school district answers the suit, contending public school facilities for the races are equal. July 1950: Marshall changes tactics and asks the court to abolish segregation and merge black and white schools. The change brings the case before a three-judge panel. From here, any appeal would go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. 1951: The S.C. Legislature passes a three-cent sales tax to build schools, no longer arguing facilities for African-Americans were equal to those of whites. The state becomes the first to establish a legislative committee to fight desegregation, the S.C. School Committee. Upon its recommendations, the Legislature took such steps as blocking state aid to any school that was integrated. February 1951: The state of South Carolina enters the case on behalf of Clarendon County. May 28, 1951: The three-judge panel in Charleston hears arguments. DeLaine and hundreds of black Clarendon County residents attend. South Carolina's attorney, Robert Figg, agrees separate school facilities are unequal and promises the state's new building program, funded by the sales tax, will change that. The court says it will check the state's progress in providing new facilities. June 21, 1951: The parents get a partial victory. The judges say the separate schools are obviously not equal. But they do not agree to desegregate schools. Judges John J. Parker and George Bell Timmerman wrote "it is a late day" to call segregation unconstitutional. Judge J. Waties Waring filed a dissent, saying "segregation in education can never produce equality." The plaintiffs appeal in July to the U.S. Supreme Court, using Waring's dissent as the basis for their argument. Waring, under pressure from strangers, friends and family members, leaves his native South Carolina and moves to New York. December 1951: The high court returns the case to the district court in Charleston for a review of a progress report filed by Clarendon County. County school officials say they are planning to build three new schools for black students; they have equalized teacher salaries, equipment and curricula; and black children now go to school on buses. The county's and state's attorneys argue their separate facilities soon will be equal and the case should be dismissed. March 13, 1952: The two remaining District Court judges rule, agreeing with the state's and county's attorneys. The NAACP's attorneys appeal again to the U.S. Supreme Court in May, arguing again separate facilities can never be equal. Lawyers for the state say they know of no law that would cast doubt on the state's right to segregate its schools. John W. Davis, the nation's most-respected appellate attorney, joins South Carolina's case. November 1952: At the urging of Gov. James F. Byrnes, a majority of South Carolinians voted to amend the state constitution, ending the requirement of a public school system for all children. In 1954, the Legislature acted on the voters' wishes. Mississippi did the same. December 1953: The court hears arguments in five school desegregation cases, including Briggs v. Elliott. May 17, 1954: The nine-member court reverses the long-held "separate but equal" doctrine, ruling unanimously that segregated schools are unconstitutional. In doing so, it struck down a 19th century case, Plessy v. Ferguson, that states used to justify separate schools for the races. May 31, 1955: The court says the states must move with "deliberate speed." Oct. 10, 1955: Shots are fired from a car into DeLaine's house. DeLaine shoots back. South Carolina issues a warrant for DeLaine's arrest, charging him with assault. DeLaine and his family flee to New York City. He cannot return to South Carolina because one of the four men in the car refuses to allow police to drop the assault charge. 1956: Legislatures in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Virginia adopt resolutions declaring Brown v. the Board of Education "null, void, and no effect." 1963: Charleston schools were ordered to admit 11 black students and did, but the schools used test scores to deny more transfers. Handfuls of black students begin attending white schools scattered across the state. 1968: Waring dies in New York. February 1970: The Greenville County school district complies with a court order and becomes the first district to integrate, even though it is the middle of the school year. Fall 1970: All S.C. public school districts integrate. White "segregation academies" open throughout the state. 1974: DeLaine dies in Charlotte, where he had lived since retiring in 1971. 1986: Harry Briggs, who lent his name to the Summerton case, dies. He could not get a job in South Carolina after signing the petition. He worked in Florida for 10 years, sending money home to his wife and five children. "It was really sad for my family," his wife Eliza once said. "My children didn't have their daddy around. He said if it didn't help our children, it would help the rest of the children coming along." Briggs, who had worked at a gas station, was given a carton of cigarettes on Christmas Eve and fired. 1998: Eliza Briggs dies 12 years after her husband. State Sen. John Land, D-Clarendon, said at her funeral: "Because of that quiet dignified lady, we have a better community, a better state. Because of her, we live in a better country." Resident Ida W. Richardson said she always tried to let Summerton's kids know "what Mrs. Briggs, her husband and the others did for our country. They didn't realize they were going to make history. They just did what they thought was right to do." 2000: The S.C. parole board grants DeLaine a posthumous pardon. 2001: Annie Gibson, the last of the original petitioners in Briggs v. Elliott, dies. May 16, 2003: Children and grandchildren of people on both sides of the lawsuit meet in Summerton to mark the 49th anniversary of the Brown decision. They sign a proclamation declaring Summerton the birthplace of the nation's struggle for integration. And they pledge to work together for economic development and prosperity. Source: S.C. Department of Archives and History, Richard Kluger's book Simple Justice, The State newspaper's archives
Briggs v. Elliot The Briggs case was named for
Harry Briggs, one of twenty parents who brought suit against R.W. Elliot, the president of the school board for Clarendon County, South Carolina. Initially, parents had only asked the county to provide school buses for the black students as they did for whites. When their petitions were ignored, they filed a suit challenging segregation itself.
Reverend J. A. DeLaine, a school principal, was instrumental in recruiting the parent plaintiffs and enlisting the help of the NAACP. Thurgood Marshall, lead counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc., and Harold Boulware, a local lawyer, filed Briggs v. Elliot in the fall of 1950. A three-judge panel at the U.S. District Court was presented with substantial psycholog-ical evidence and expert testimony presented on
African-American school conditions. The court denied the plaintiffs request to abolish school segregation. Instead , they ordered the school board to begin equalization of the schools. In a lone dissenting opinion, Judge Julius Waring adamantly opposed segregation in public education. Facing retaliation from irate segregationists, Waring left the state soon after. J.A. DeLaine and Harry Briggs also lost their jobs as a result of their involvement with the case.
Linda Brown Smith, Ethel Louise Belton Brown, Harry Briggs, Jr., and Spottswood Bolling, Jr., all plaintiffs in school desegregation cases, in 1964 ~
Eight-year old Linda Brown who crossed railroad tracks to take a bus 21 blocks to a black school when there was a white school five blocks from her home ~
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Articles & Breifings
