Briggs V. Elliott - Background

Background

At the time Brown reached the Supreme Court, South Carolina was one of 17 states that required school segregation. South Carolina law required incomplete segregation. Article 11, section 7 of the 1895 Constitution of South Carolina read as follows: "Separate schools shall be provided for 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." Section 5377 of the Code of Laws of South Carolina of 1942 read: "It shall be unlawful for pupils of one race to attend the schools provided by boards of trustees for persons of another race."

No one questioned that the Clarendon County schools were unequal. At the beginning of the appellate hearing at the U.S. District Court, the defendants admitted upon the record that "the educational facilities, equipment, curricula and opportunities afforded in School District No. 22 for colored pupils are not substantially equal to those afforded for white pupils."

The case began in 1947 as a request to provide bus transportation. In addition to having separate and very inferior facilities, black children had to walk to school, sometimes many miles. In the neighboring Jordan community, some children walked as many as 18 miles round-trip to school each day, and children had to frequently gather wood for heaters within schools. Knowing this, Summerton residents Harry and Eliza Briggs joined with 21 other families to find a school bus suitable for their children, but frequent maintenance led them to ask the local school superintendent, R.M. Elliott, for their own bus. Surmising that the white children rode buses -- the white schools in Clarendon County used 33 buses at the time for white students -- the Briggs family and many others contended black students could have at least one. Elliott refused, saying black citizens did not pay enough taxes to warrant a bus and that asking white taxpayers to fund that burden would be unfair.

In 1949 the NAACP agreed to provide funding and sponsor a case that would go beyond transportation and ask for equal educational opportunities in Clarendon County. The first step was to craft a local petition for educational equality. This was done by Rev. Joseph Armstrong DeLaine and Modjeska Monteith Simkins, the noted South Carolina civil rights worker. Simkins organized a national charitable effort for the relief of the oppressed blacks of Clarendon County. Eventually, more than 100 Clarendon residents signed the petition.

Named first in the suit, Harry, a service station attendant, and Eliza, a maid, became the main named plaintiffs. Elliott was named the defendant.

DeLaine was a teacher at a local school in Silver and was soon fired. His wife Mattie was also fired from her position at Scott's Branch, as were all the other signers. The Briggses both immediately lost their jobs. Mr. Briggs relocated to Florida for the next ten years to support the family. DeLaine also relocated to New Jersey, and his family home in Clarendon County was burned twice.