Civil Rights Movement in SC

8-7.2: Analyze the movement for civil rights in S.C., including

the impact of the landmark court cases Elmore v. Rice and

Briggs v. Elliot; civil rights leaders, Septima Poinsette Clark, Modjeska Monteith

Simkins, and Matthew J. Perry; the S.C. school equalization effort & other resistance to school integration; peaceful

efforts to integrate beginning with colleges &

demonstrations in S.C. such as the Friendship Nine & the

Orangeburg Massacre.

Recap: Treatment of African Americans • Post Reconstruction Era:

– US civil rights movement continued on from colonial times– Jim Crow Laws– Voting Restrictions– Discrimination in the workplace– Limited social, political, & economic opportunities

• African Americans sought recognition of their rights as outlined in the Declaration of Independence in the 13th, 14th, & 15th amendments– 20th Century organizations for equal treatment of African

Americans:• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)• Congress of Racial Equality• National Association of Colored Women• National Urban League

Civil Rights Movement Intensifies Post WWII

• “Victory abroad, victory at home” (Double V) campaign of African Americans

• Influence of mass media• Martin Luther King Jr.- Peaceful approach • NAACP- Legal approach; laid ground work for

change• Elmore v. Rice- white primary unconstitutional

Integrating Schools

• Brown v. Board of Education(1954)– Clarendon County, SC started as a request for a bus to take their children to an all-

black school– Parents at Scott’s Branch School felt that the “separate but equal” doctrine (Plessy v.

Ferguson) required school districts to pay for gas & repairs to the used bus parents had bought to transport their children

– Original case was dismissed due to a technicality • Modjeska Monteith Simkins & the NAACP:

– Brought a new case against the school system: Briggs v. Elliot– State of SC agreed that separate schools for blacks was unequal, but claimed that the

state had initiated a building program that would bring black schools up to par with white schools

– Court ruled for the school– NAACP appealed the case to the Supreme Court

• Briggs v. Ferguson was one of five cases that became part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision

• Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson• Ordered integration of schools with “all deliberate speed”NAACP Vintage Film Part III: Brown vs. Board of Education (9:11)

SC Resists Integration• Effort to improve black schools to be comparable to

white schools to keep under the “separate but equal” doctrine

• Brown ruling was met with widespread , sometimes violent, opposition & delay

• Governor Byrnes encourage resistance • White Citizens Councils were established to

coordinate intimidation efforts towards blacks who petitioned equal treatment & “traitor” whites who supported the effort

Thurman’s Southern Manifesto• SC Senator Strom Thurman authored

the Southern Manifesto• Signed by all 3 Congressmen from the

Deep South• Document condemned the Brown

decision for upsetting the relationship of whites & blacks in the south

• Encouraged resistance to desegregation– “white flight” private academies– School choice– Plans for voluntary closing of public

schools• Took till early 1970’s before full-scale

integration occurred in most SC schools

Brown Decision Prompts other Civil Rights Actions

• Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott– Supreme Court ruled city buses

could not be segregated– SC bus companies ignored this

ruling • Greensboro, NC lunch counter

sit-in prompted SC students to follow their example throughout the state & initiated a new tactic (Friendship Nine, Rock Hill, SC)

• Grassroots demonstrations echoed th4e national movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr.

SC Begins to Integrate• Need for economic investment led SC to change• Mass media showed protests & violence in other southern

states which did not promote investment in the south• 1963, SC slowly began & deliberately integrated public

facilities• First Clemson College, then SC State, state colleges were

integrated without violence • Mostly peaceful integration of public facilities in SC

– Except the violence of the Orangeburg Massacre• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 & Voting Rights Act of 1965

were enforced in SC & public schools were finally desegregated

South Carolinians’ Involvement • Septima Clark- equal pay for teachers• Modjeska Simkims- helped with Elmore v. Rice & Briggs v.

Elliot• Matthew Perry-Civil Rights Lawyer• Friendship Nine- “Jail No Bail” tactic (1960’s )-3:35• 1968, SC State College students protested at a bowling alley in

Orangeburg– police were called in to keep the peace after several days of protests– police opened fire on the students– injured dozens, killing three– Officers were acquitted; one wounded student was convicted of

“riot” b/c of his activity at the bowling alley several nights before the shooting

– Press & national media paid little attention to the event– Overshadowed by riots that followed the assassination of Martin

Luther King, Jr. in April