Bailiff: All rise.

The Honorable Judge Avatar Host, presiding.

Thank you.

Bailiff.

This court is now in session.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to this edition of History In A Nutshell.

In this audience requested episode, we're going to take a look at a key component of one of the most crucial U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century.

As impactful and necessary as the Brown v. Board of Education case was with ending segregation in education someone had to make that bold first step to get the social movement going.

And that first step took place in Clarendon County, South Carolina with the Briggs versus Elliott court case.

Briggs v. Elliott was the first case in the U.S. to challenge segregation in education, and the first of five cases which eventually led up to Brown v. Board of Education.

Follow along with me as we explore the triumphs and challenges of Briggs v. Elliott and its impacts on ending segregation in education.

The story of the Briggs v. Elliott court case begins in Clarendon County, South Carolina with, of all things, a school bus!

In 1946, 17 Clarendon County parents purchased a used school bus for $700 to transport Black children to school.

At this time, only White children were provided bus transportation to schools.

The Black children who attended Scott's Branch School in Summerton, for example, had to walk 9 miles one way to get to school every day.

The Black school children needed transportation, and Clarendon County parents had to provide buses on their own since school officials refused to help.

The buses they got were old and dilapidated, but it was all they could afford.

The second bus they purchased was nicknamed "The Sunshine Bus", since it constantly broke down and would only work during days with fair weather.

Clarendon parents pleaded for funding for gas and maintenance.

But the school board of Clarendon School District 26, led by Chairman Roderick Elliott, ignored their pleas.

Lack of proper transportation was just one example of how unequal conditions were for Black schoolchildren compared to White schoolchildren in 1940s Clarendon County.

White children attended school in climate-controlled brick buildings with electricity, running water, lunch-rooms, plumbing, paved playgrounds, among many other examples.

Black schoolchildren had to attend school in abandoned hunting or Masonic lodges.

Buildings constructed by missionaries, or cabins built by whatever local parents had on hand.

Most of their schools had outdoor privies, no running water or electricity, a single firewood stove for heat, and kerosene lamps for light.

Basically, Black citizens were on their own to provide school facilities or shared in the cost of construction of Rosenwald schools.

It was not just the Black school kids who suffered under these conditions.

Teachers also had their own issues with the disproportionality.

In White schools, there was a teacher for every grade and class sizes of no more than 30 students.

In Black schools, some teachers had between 60 to 80 students per class.

As for funding, South Carolina spent around $221 annually per White student, compared to only $45 for Black students.

Statewide, White teachers earned on average about $2,057 a year, compared to a Black teacher's $1,414 a year.

Even though Black teachers taught far more students and sometimes taught multiple grades!

Why were conditions so poor for Black students and teachers compared to Whites?

The South Carolina State Constitution of 1895 specifically stated: "Separate schools shall be provided for the children of the white and colored races, and no child of either race shall ever be permitted to attend a school provided for children of the other race."

Technically, under the Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine of "separate but equal", buses should have already been provided.

But like many other things, they were not.

In other words, this was simply another symptom of the Jim Crow south.

Naturally, Black citizens all over the American South were weary from years of Jim Crow conditions.

They needed motivated individuals to lead the charge in challenging segregation in education.

Enter the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Charles Hamilton Houston The NAACP's first special council, set an equalization strategy into motion suing for facilities and funding for Black students that were equal to those of White students.

James Myles Hinton, Sr., president of the South Carolina Conference of Branches of the NAACP, issued a challenge to find someone who would take the initiative in combating these unfair school bus practices.

For the residents of Clarendon County, it would be Reverend Joseph Armstrong "J.A."

DeLaine who would directly represent them.

Reverend DeLaine was a highly respected Methodist minister in the Summerton community, and also served as principal and head teacher at Bob Johnson Elementary School.

Bob Johnson Elementary is where Rev.

DeLaine met Levi and Hammet Pearson two concerned brothers who only desired better educational opportunities for their children.

In June 1947, Rev.

DeLaine and the Pearson brothers met with Columbia attorney Harold R. Boulware, Sr., to begin the process of drafting a lawsuit against Clarendon County School District 26 for better transportation.

With the help of Thurgood Marshall, chief legal counsel for the NAACP a formal lawsuit was filed against Clarendon County School District 26 on March 16th, 1948.

Unfortunately, the lawsuit had to be dropped due to a legal technicality the day before trial was to begin.

So now what?

Thurgood Marshall was consulted again but according to Marshall, the NAACP was no longer interested in investing further energy and funds in an outlying town infested with illiteracy, poverty and white supremacy.

Challenging segregation on small local levels like the Pearson case was not going to work.

The NAACP urged citizens to think bigger.

The end goal is no longer just bus transportation, but fully desegregated schools.

The state NAACP pitched a new goal: "Equal Everything."

Buses, books, buildings, funding... Everything the White students had.

On November 11, 1949, the NAACP's Equal Everything Petition arrived from New York City, but the accompanying letter warned that signing the petition in a public meeting may be dangerous.

Someplace more discreet was needed.

Just down the road from the Saint Mark A.M.E. Church was the home of Harry and Eliza Briggs.

Harry Briggs, Sr. would be the first to sign this new petition.

In total, 107 parents and children signed it.

Reprisals from angry White citizens followed.

Harry Briggs was fired from his job and was refused work in surrounding counties.

Other signers of the petition also received various forms of harassment.

The petitioners were constantly threatened with violence and were under surveillance from spies and moles within their ranks, who reported to outside White groups.

A crop duster aircraft dropped handbills containing death threats to Rev.

DeLaine from the Ku Klux Klan.

"Court appearances would be perilous", and "The Klan is going to take you for a ride if you don't shut your mouth."

On May 16th, 1950, the NAACP filed Briggs v. Elliot in federal court in Charleston, and it landed in the courtroom of Judge Julius Waties Waring.

Judge Waring was a man whose views on race shifted during his tenure on the bench.

Generally, he supported the white power structure in the state... At first.

But over time he came to oppose what he called "slavocracy."

Due to his changed views, once he started challenging white supremacy, he lost his place in Charleston's political sphere.

Time Magazine labeled him "The Man They Love to Hate."

During these early proceedings, Judge Waring agreed with the petitioners and the NAACP to drop the initial case and have Thurgood Marshall refile.

They no longer were going to sue for equal facilities, but to challenge segregation head on.

South Carolina's political elite began to panic that this case would hurt the integrity of segregation, not just in Clarendon County, but all schools in the state.

South Carolina Governor James F. Byrnes stated: "This is a white man's country and will always remain a white man's country.

South Carolina will not now, nor for some years to come mix white and colored children in our schools."

Byrnes threatened that if segregation would not be legally protected they will completely abandon the public school system.

On May 28th, 1951, at Charleston's Broad Street Courthouse, the Briggs v. Elliot trial began.

Thurgood Marshall, and the attorney for the defense, Robert M. Figg, presented their arguments to a three judge panel.

Judges Waring, John J. Parker and George Timmerman.

Marshall argued that SC schools were unequal physically, and "segregation of pupils in and of itself is a form of inequality."

Figg argued that up to that point, the High Court still accepted that segregation did not violate the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

Figg went further by stating that while these inequalities are acknowledged, it had more to do with Clarendon County being rural rather than racist.

All the state wanted was a reasonable amount of time to raise money to build and furnish equal but separate schools.

The trial concluded on June 23rd, 1951.

The judge panel reached a majority decision: Black schools in South Carolina were inferior to White schools, and the state must work to equalize educational facilities.

The plaintiff's request to abolish segregation, however, was denied.

The Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson was upheld in the decision.

Separate schools were a valid exercise of legislative power.

To begin the process of equalizing South Carolina schools, Gov.

Byrnes and the state legislature established a $0.03 sales tax, the first in South Carolina's history to help pay for new school programs.

The story of Briggs v. Elliot doesn't end here.

To say that Judge Waring was livid by this majority decision would be an understatement.

"Segregation in education can never produce equality, and that it is an evil that must be eradicated... Segregation is per se inequality."

The Briggs v. Elliott decision was appealed to the United States Supreme Court, but this case was not alone in challenging segregation in education.

Four other cases were being adjudicated at the same time.

Briggs v. Elliott and these other cases were consolidated into one: Brown v. Board of Education.

On May 17th, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court decided once and for all that segregation in education is unconstitutional.

Unfortunately, segregation in education would not end.

The Brown v. Board decision did not outline exactly how segregation would end or when this was to take place.

Southern states took full advantage of this.

White Citizens' Councils popped up all over SC with the collective goal of preserving segregation.

These WCCs perpetuated violence and economically retaliated against Black citizens.

Rev.

DeLaine himself, as well as the families who petitioned, were chased out of SC by these WCCs.

DeLaine spent the rest of his life in New York, never returning to South Carolina.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased pressure on southern states to desegregate schools.

The act allowed the Department of Justice to file further desegregation lawsuits, and threatened to withhold federal funding from schools which refused to comply.

Schools in SC finally fully desegregated in 1970.

Although Briggs v. Elliott is often overshadowed by the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education it is an important chapter in South Carolina's fight for civil rights, and is a testament to the determination and efforts of advocates seeking better educational opportunities for everyone.