Briggs v. Elliott plaintiffs and supporters. Seated (left to right): Celestine Parson, Roland Pearson (child), Plummie Parson, Jessie Pearson (child), Sarah Ragin, Mary Oliver, Esther Fludd, Annie Gibson, Maxine Gibson, Rebecca Richburg and James Bennett. Standing (left to right): Gilbert Henry, Joseph Lemmon, Bennie Parsons, Charlotte Pearson, Edward Ragin, Rev. E.E. Richburg, Eliza Briggs, Rev. J.A. De Laine, Harry Briggs Jr., Catherine Briggs, Rev. J.W. Seals, Harry Briggs Sr., B.B. De Laine, Levi Pearson, Robert Georgia Sr., Hammett Pearson, Lee Richardson and Jessie Pearson.

Abbreviated History of Briggs v. Elliott

Briggs et al. v. Elliott et al. (Briggs v. Elliott; Briggs) was a lawsuit filed in 1951 by 20 plaintiffs. It claimed that enforced racial segregation laws violated the equal protection guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. The plaintiffs were parents of students in School District No. 22 of Summerton (Clarendon County), South Carolina, while the defendants were the seven officials in charge of the district’s schools.

 Although Briggs was filed as a challenge to segregation, it arose from previous unsuccessful efforts for improved educational facilities for black children. Initially, a lawsuit was filed in November 1950 by School District 22 parents for equalization of educational opportunities. During the pretrial hearing, Judge J. Waties Waring made a cogent observation concerning that the plaintiffs were seeking a right they already had under South Carolina law. The outcome would most likely be a ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor—however, it would also result in the reaffirmation of “separate but equal” doctrine. The case was withdrawn. A petition was drafted and filed in federal court as Briggs et al. v. Elliott et al. It sought both a declaration that South Carolina’s laws relating to public school segregation violated the 14th Amendment and correction of the unequal opportunities.

Briggs was argued before a three-judge federal court in May 1951. The split verdict, issued in June 1951, denied the plaintiffs’ claim. Judge Waring filed a scathing dissenting opinion. In December 1952, appeals of Briggs and four other public school segregation cases were heard individually by the US Supreme Court. A collective decision—now known as Brown v. Board—unanimously found that segregation in public schools is “inherently unequal” and deprives citizens of the equal protections guaranteed by the 14th and 5th Amendments. The announcement was made on 17 May 1954.

In May 1955, Briggs was remanded to the District Court with the charge of overseeing orders and decrees consistent with the Supreme Court’s opinion and proper to admit the parties to these cases to public schools on a racially nondiscriminatory basis with all deliberate speed.

Aftermath of Briggs

  • The actions of Briggs plaintiffs, supporters, and leaders led the way that finally broke through the previously impregnable fortress of Jim Crow. Briggs’ evidence and arguments concerning the pervasive negative effects of segregation, combined with the dissenting opinion of Judge Waring, were significant influences on the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision. In turn, the decision itself opened the floodgates for millions of Americans to enjoy civil rights guaranteed to them by the United States Constitution.

  • No South Carolina public school was integrated until 1963. In 1965, ten years after the “all deliberate speed ruling,” the first black students enrolled in Summerton High School. The next year, Summerton’s previously white schools closed permanently.

  • For more than sixteen years (1949–1966), Briggs plaintiffs and supporters paid a steep price for their unflinching bravery. They suffered job losses, evictions, loss of essential credit, economic reprisals, and random acts of terror and violence. Many moved away from Clarendon County.

  • Rev. J.A. De Laine, to whom the people primarily turned for leadership, was sued, his house was burned by arson in 1951, the church he pastored was burned by arson in 1955, and he was threatened with death several times. After defending himself and his wife from gunfire on his home in 1955, he fled for his life and settled in New York.

  • Although guarded by U.S. marshals 24 hours a day after his home was attacked, Judge Waring became an inviting target for assassination and received frequent death threats. Alienated from the white citizens of his home city because of his dedication to the U.S. Constitution and equitable implementation of the law, he retired and moved from South Carolina to New York in 1952.

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