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Show 3 - Under Color of Law
Entire contents copyright © 1997 Southern Regional Council. All Rights Reserved. May not be reproduced without written permission.

WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN?
A Personal History of the Civil Rights Movement in Five Southern Communities

Hear an excerpt of this script in RealAudio

WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN?

A Personal History of the Civil Rights Movement in Five Southern Communities

EPISODE 3: UNDER COLOR OF LAW

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA

Written By: George King with Vertamae Grosvenor

CLAUDE SITTON

Go back to a guy named Joseph Albert Delaine, a black preacher in Clarendon County, South Carolina... who, if anyone is the father of the Civil Rights movement, . . . the man they called "The Rev." And it all came about because the blacks in Clarendon County, South Carolina had no schoolbus.

 

JAMES FELDER

It all started over a bus. If the white folk had given us a bus, we’d probably still be in segregation, see [laughs].

 

SERIES THEME MUSIC: "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?"
[The Staple Singers]

NARRATOR

You are listening to Will The Circle Be Unbroken?, a personal history of the civil rights movement in five southern communities and the music from those times.

 

America's Civil Rights Movement had no one moment, no one place of origin. Its seeds of protest were spread throughout the first half of the twentieth century in countless acts of resistence by ordinary men and women, black and white.

 

For those who fought for democracy abroad, World War II affirmed a new resolve to challenge segregation back home.

 

 

MUSIC
"There’s a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere"
[Elton Britt]

 

NARRATOR

Returning soldier J. L. Miller remembers a meeting with a neighboring farmer, Levy Pearson.

J.L. MILLER¹

At the time I had met Mr. Levy Pearson in 1944, I was home on furlough and he was telling me that, "When you boys come back this time, why we're going to have things better for you." And Mr. Levy was determined, if it cost his life.

NARRATOR

Local N.A.A.C.P leader Billie Fleming...

 

BILLIE FLEMING¹

And because of the courage that was mustered, because of the gallantry of the young men who served in the armed forces of this nation, the parents of Clarendon County decided that they would no longer accept those conditions for the education of their children. And God instilled within them a spark of hope and a desire to do something for their children. And that is my thinking of how the movement began.

 

MUSIC
(reprise)

 

NARRATOR

Clarendon County occupies an area of rolling fields and woodland southeast of Columbia, South Carolina’s capital. In the late 1940’s, the population of the county was 70% black. Under the "separate-but-equal" education system, the school board spent $179 on each white child and $46 on each black child.

 

Again, Billie Fleming...

 

BILLIE FLEMING

You would find it hard to believe the conditions that black children faced in public schools of Clarendon County. They took the money that was needed for white education, provided brick buildings, school bus transportation, the best teachers, cafeterias and everything that they needed to run a school system for whites. Then they took what was left and operated a system of public schools for black people.

 

NARRATOR

Organizer Eugene Montgomery...

 

EUGENE A.R. MONTGOMERY¹

I very clearly remember some six-year-old twins who had to walk to school eight miles one way, and the bus with the white children passed right by them five days a week.

 

NARRATOR

Mattie Delaine...

 

MATTIE DELAINE²

That made us feel very badly because, um, we had to walk. It didn't matter what kind of weather it was. We had to walk to and from school.

 

EUGENE A.R. MONTGOMERY¹

In the black schools, there were very few seats. I remember one that had two-by-eight for seats and it was propped up by two fifty-five gallon cans.

 

BILLIE FLEMING

Throughout the county, church groups, Masonic organizations, other neighborhoods would have to get together and build schools for their children, and I wish it were possible for you to have seen the quality of these buildings.

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MATTIE DELAINE²

The children had to do the cleaning. The boys had the fire to take care of, the heating of the building, and the girls had to do the cleaning.

 

BILLIE FLEMING

In many instances parents had to go to lumber mills and get curled lumber, get handouts and lumber that was so badly warped that they couldn't sell, take this lumber and build buildings to use as school houses. In many instances Masonic lodges had to be used, churches had to be used. The state provided no bricks and mortar for black children whatsoever.

 

NARRATOR

Parents were forced to use all the resources at their disposal.

 

BILLIE FLEMING

Many of these people had to get up in the mornings and transport their children twelve miles into Manning to attend high school.

 

NARRATOR

Joseph Delaine, Jr....

 

JOSEPH A. DELAINE JR.

Mr. Levy Pearson was using his own truck to transport children from around the Davis Station area to the Scott's Branch School.

 

BILLIE FLEMING

Many of them had to give up their horse and buggies for the day. Many of them had to go in their pockets, spend their little earned money to pay room and board for children to stay in Manning with people who would accept rural children and provide them a place to stay while they attended school.

 

NARRATOR

The frustrated parents met to talk over the situation.

 

BILLIE FLEMING

So then that group got together, went to the county superintendent of education and told him that they wanted a bus. He laughed at 'em. "You niggers will not get a bus." He intimidated those people, he infuriated them.

 

MUSIC
"God Bless The Child"
[Billie Holliday]

 

NARRATOR

Local minister and teacher, Joseph Albert Delaine, called the parents to a meeting.

 

Rev. Delaine's son, Joseph Delaine Jr...

 

JOSEPH A. DELAINE JR.¹

I believe in 1945 or early '46, there was a meeting at the New Light Baptist Church in that area, where about seventeen parents got together and purchased a bus for about $800 to take their children to school.

BILLIE FLEMING

Now, when these people bought the bus, you must understand this, listen carefully please. When they bought the bus, they then went back to the man and said, "All right, we have a bus. Now we want the county to just give us some money for the operation of the bus."

 

NARRATOR

Eugene Montgomery...

 

 

EUGENE MONTGOMERY²

By the time winter got there, it was a secondhand bus, so they were beginning to have problems mechanically with the bus and they went to the school superintendent about some funds to repair the bus and to buy gas.

 

BILLIE FLEMING

You know, back in those days farmers had a little money in August and September when they were selling tobacco and cotton, and selling crops. But then over in February and March, when the monies were gone, things were rather lean with them.

 

NARRATOR

Clarendon County's superintendent also turned down the request for gas money. Reverend Delaine sought counsel from state NAACP leader James Hinton. Hinton knew that the national office was interested in a test case to challenge the South's segregated educational system. They needed a plaintiff, and DeLaine, mindful of the dangers, persuaded Levy Pearson to file the suit.

 

JOSEPH A. DELAINE JR.

Mr. Levy Pearson and his son, James Pearson, filed lawsuit for bus transportation of black children to school. That case was thrown out of court on a rather flimsy reason in my estimation, and that was that his property crossed two school lines - one being the school of the Summerton district and the other outside of that district- and his house was situated on the portion of land outside of the Summerton district. Therefore, it was ruled that he could not file the suit.

 

BILLIE FLEMING

Levy Pearson found himself in a position where his credit was completely stopped. Levy Pearson was a farmer. Cotton gins refused to gin his cotton. He was not able to borrow money from banks or other lending institutions. Fertilizer dealers refused to sell him, even for cash money, fertilizer. Oil distributors refused to deliver oil.

 

Levy Pearson was selling timber at one time and the men came in and cut the trees and as they were preparing the trees to load, some of the white neighbors passed and saw the men there working, went into town, and they got the man that was buying the timber and threatened him that if they moved those trees, he would be ostracized and completely cut off from the white community. The men walked away and left Mr. Pearson’s trees on the ground and he couldn’t sell them. So life for him was lonely. It was depressing. It was degrading, and it was a great sacrifice.

 

MUSIC
"Nobody Knows, Nobody Cares"
[Marion Williams]

 

NARRATOR

In spite of white intimidation, Rev. Delaine and Levy Pearson persisted. They founded a Clarendon County branch of the NAACP and at a meeting in Columbia met civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall. Marshall said, "If you can get me twenty plaintiffs’ names on a petition, I will change education for blacks forever in Clarendon County."

Accepting the challenge, Pearson and Delaine set out to find the twenty petitioners.

 

J. L. Miller recalls their visit to his farm…

 

J. L. MILLER¹

Mr. Levy Pearson looked at Rev. Delaine and he said, "Rev, now here’s a boy you can use if you can get him to work." And I’m bashful to say it, he said, "He’s got it up there." I had no choice. We locked hands. And God knows. We locked hands and took a vow that we would fight to the bitter end if every one of us had to die. When I found out that they were that determined, and I knew what had happened to me, I had no choice.

 

NARRATOR

Another who signed on early was Eliza Briggs…

 

ELIZA BRIGGS

We had seventeen people to sign the petition. And later on they had another meeting and about one hundred twenty signs. But, maybe later on I would say that those parents took their name off the petition because the white man told them that if they don’t take their name off the petition that they’ll have to move.

 

NARRATOR

Eugene Montgomery…

 

EUGENE MONTGOMERY²

The names that appear on the final petition are the names of those that we felt could stand the pressure. There were a lot of others who wanted to be on the petition but for one reason or another we didn’t allow them to be a part of the suit.

 

ELIZA BRIGGS

So many of the people were living on a white man’s place. So they had to move or else take their name off the petition.

 

EUGENE A. R. MONTGOMERY¹

Bill Reagon and I rode half the night knocking on people’s doors to simply tell them, "I’m sorry, we can’t – we can’t have your name on here because you’re on another man’s place. So I think we ended up, I think, with twenty-some people we finally funneled down in the original suit.

 

MUSIC
"The Hucklebuck"
[Paul Williams]

 

NARRATOR

After eight months, Rev. Delaine and Levy Pearson had their twenty names.

 

 

EUGENE A. R. MONTGOMERY¹

We had a meeting at Reverend Delaine's house around the table, and the question was raised as to how do you list these names, who comes first, who comes last and this sort of thing. So the 'Harry Briggs' -- is his name -- is prominent in the suit because his name alphabetically was the first name of the plaintiffs.

NARRATOR

Mathew Perry...

 

MATTHEW PERRY

Briggs was the parent of two or more children who wanted to enroll in the previously all-white schools of Clarendon County. Elliott is the last name of one of the trustees of the school district.

 

MUSIC
Reprise

 

NARRATOR

On May 16th ,1950, NAACP lead counsel Thurgood Marshall and Columbia attorney Harold Bouleware filed Briggs v. Elliott in United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.

 

Attorney James Felder...

 

JAMES L. FELDER

All they wanted was a bus. So they filed a petition asking the school board for a bus. School board denied the petition. So then they filed a law suit in Charleston in the federal district court asking for separate facilities, but equal. Just give us some more books and some more science equipment and a bus.

 

NARRATOR

Once again the plaintiffs felt the consequences of their legal challenge.

 

Again, Billie Fleming:..

 

BILLIE FLEMING¹

If you go back and look at the true history of the Clarendon County movement, there were only four of us involved in it who had college educations. Most of the people were semi-illiterate, poor dirt farmers, who had a little tract of land. There were men like Harry Briggs who lost a job and had to move away.

 

EUGENE MONTGOMERY²

Harry Briggs was working in a service station in Summerton and Harry lost his job. And you had those kinds of reprisals. Anybody whose name appeared could be pressured.

 

HARRY BRIGGS

I guess we just didn't know. But however, we thought we were going through with it for the benefit of the children. The children needed more rooms, school, and what not, and better education. So we decided some oughta suffer for the good.

 

NARRATOR

Joseph Delaine Jr...

 

JOSEPH A. DELAINE JR.¹

When one individual spoke, something would probably happen to retaliate or a threat to that person.

BILLIE FLEMING²

Reverend Delaine was fired from his job as a school teacher. His sisters were all fired.

 

JOSEPH A. DELAINE JR.¹

I guess 1950 is when our home was burned. Now, after the '51 period, I think that's when you got into the real organization of White Citizens Council and Klan where they were deliberately pinpointing people who were involved with the movement and making a concerted effort to retaliate on everyone.

 

MUSIC
"Peace In The Valley"
[Red Foley]

 

NARRATOR

Despite the threats and harrasment, the plaintiffs would not back down. Few could have predicted the consequences of the law suit in rural South Carolina.

 

MUSIC
Reprise

 

BILLIE FLEMING

When the case was begun, it was certainly not with any idea of going for integration. It was to make the state of South Carolina provide equal educational opportunity for black children. This was the original intent. But when we went into the district courts at Charleston, Judge J. Waites Waring looked at it and said, "You wasting my time, you’ve got the laws on the book which give you separate but equal, but as long as you have separate you never will have equality. So go back and amend your case and come back and challenge segregation itself." Then this took on a whole new philosophy, this was a whole new ball game.

 

NARRATOR

On Judge Waring's advice, Thurgood Marshall changed tactics. Now, twenty Clarendon County petitioners were challenging the whole concept of segregation under the Constitution of the United States. Briggs v. Elliott was heard by a panel of three federal judges in Charleston, South Carolina.

 

Matthew Perry, a young attorney at the time, remembers the hearing...

 

MATTHEW PERRY

Dr. Kenneth Clark testified. Gave his opinion about the harms of enforced racial segregation. Made a fantastic witness. Fantastic. It was an interesting trial. The courtroom was packed. The press was there in mass. The eyes and ears of the nation were turned on the trial. And ultimately two of the judges decided the maintenance of racially separate schools did not violate the rights of the plaintiffs. Judge Waring wrote quite a dissent -- a ringing dissent. One that rang out loudly and found its way into the hearing and consciences of the nine justices of the Supreme Court.

 

NARRATOR

Although the case was lost in Charleston, Marshall appealed Briggs v. Elliott, and four other cases, to the United States Supreme Court. Collectively, they became known as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Judge Waring's dissent was key to the Supreme Court's decision.

 

James Felder...

JAMES L. FELDER

The Brown decision that came down from the Supreme Court was his dissent. They simply picked up his decision. Because when we had the three judge court here that heard the case, it was a two-to-one decision. The Supreme Court, in effect, upheld him. They picked up his dissent which became the unanimous decision.

 

MATTHEW PERRY

By all rights, the case ought be known as Briggs v. Elliott. Somehow, through an accident of docketing, Brown v. Board got docketed with a superior docket number (chuckles) to Briggs v. Elliot. And so, the public knows these cases as Brown v. Board of Education.

 

NARRATOR

The Briggs case was the only one of the five from a deep South state. Matthew Perry, now a federal judge, asserts that Briggs v. Elliot was the case that truly unlocked segregation.

MATTHEW PERRY

Actually, Briggs v. Elliot was your major thrust case. Thurgood Marshall argued Briggs v. Elliott in the Supreme Court. Other lawyers argued the other cases. Bob Carter argued Brown v. Board. Bob Carter's a very fine lawyer – an excellent lawyer. But your major giant in the field, Thurgood Marshall, argued the Briggs v. Elliott case in the Supreme Court. The nation's premiere appellate lawyer, John Davis, was hired by South Carolina to oppose him.

 

MUSIC
"How High The Moon"
[Les Paul & Mary Ford]

 

NARRATOR

Matthew Perry vividly remembers May 17, 1954...

 

MATTHEW PERRY

I was in court in Spartanburg when a colleague, another lawyer - a white lawyer with whom I was on fairly friendly terms - came over and whispered to me, in the courtroom: "Matthew, the Supreme Court of the United States has just outlawed segregation."

 

I stood up out of my chair. I nearly exulted out loud. It was a fantastic moment! And, of course, within minutes... why, the radios, there was nothing on the news but that. The news spread throughout the country and it was a very, VERY momentous decision.

 

NARRATOR

Victory in Brown v. Board of Education--or Briggs v. Elliott, as some still remember the landmark case--forever changed South Carolina, and the South.

 

MATTHEW PERRY

We used Briggs v. Elliott to desegregate the state parks and recreational facilities in South Carolina.

 

I used Briggs v. Elliott to successfully argue against the donation of public funds to parents in order that they could send their children to private, nonsectarian schools.

 

NARRATOR

The Briggs case was also influential in a bus desegregation case.

Newspaper editor John McCray...

 

JOHN MCCRAY

The Rosa Parks case. You can ask almost anybody, "Was that the first case dealing with segregation on city buses?" And they'll say, "Yes, Rosa Parks." But it wasn't. That case was modeled after the Sarah Mae Fleming case in Columbia, South Carolina.

 

MATTHEW PERRY

Our case was called Fleming v. the South Carolina Electric & Gas Company. South Carolina Electric & Gas Company operates the buses (laughs) in Columbia and Charleston. And the South Carolina statute, at the time, required blacks to seat themselves from the rear.

 

Sarah Mae Fleming Brown entered and tried to sit up front one day. She was required to vacate, and when she refused to do so, she got arrested. That was before our very famous lady in Montgomery did it. And we tried her case here, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled with us.

 

FOURTH CIRCUIT COURT OPINION, JUDGE PARKER

[read by actor]

"We do not think that the separate but equal doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson can any longer be regarded as a correct statement of the law. That case recognizes segregation of the races by common carriers as being governed by the same principles as segregation in the public schools. The recent decision in Brown v. Board of Education which relates to public schools leaves no doubt that the separate but equal doctrine approved in Plessy v. Ferguson has been repudiated."

 

MATTHEW PERRY

Now the bus company did not appeal the case to the Supreme Court. So our case, of course, was on the books and had been on the books a year to two when Rosa Parks came along. But her case, you see, hers went directly to the Supreme Court. And so, hers is the case that got the national recognition.

 

MUSIC
"C.C. Rider"
[Chuck Willis]

 

BILLIE FLEMING

I once heard Mrs. Rosa Parks say...

 

NARRATOR

 

Again, Billie Fleming...

 

BILLIE FLEMING

Mrs. Rosa Parks said, when she sat on that bus that day, and she was tried, and she was weary, and when she was asked to move, she thought about those people in Clarendon County, South Carolina. Those gallant people who had the nerve to face the white people here and say, "No longer will we accept that kind of life. And if those gallant people in Clarendon County could do what they did, then I could certainly sit on a bus here in Montgomery, Alabama."

 

So, I think that the whole movement was given its beginning with the nerve of those gallant people here in Clarendon County who instituted this suit which ultimately lead to where we are today.

 

MUSIC
"Well, You Needn’t"
[Thelonius Monk]

 

CREDITS

Key to Archival Collections

1	South Carolina Educational Television, Columbia, SC
2	Grace Jordan McFadden interviews, University of South Carolina Library, Special Collections, Columbia, SC