Briggs v. Elliott

The Briggs v. Elliott case began as a simple request to provide bus transportation. In addition to having separate and very inferior facilities, black children had to walk to school, sometimes many miles. 

PHOTO: Mr. Harry Briggs and wife Eliza, plaintiffs in the landmark case of Briggs v. Elliott, and Rev. J.A. DeLaine after they had been forced to leave South Carolina due to the repercussions of helping to initiate a petition to acquire school buses for black children in Clarendon County.

Levi Pearson (1892 - 1970) | Road Trip
Levi Pearson (1892 - 1970) | Road Trip

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Levi Pearson, and other parents whose children attended Scotts Branch High School, wanted the county to provide buses for their children. Mr. Pearson was encouraged by Rev. Joseph Armstrong DeLaine...
Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) | Road Trip
Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) | Road Trip

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Thurgood Marshall's entire legal career was devoted to pursuing equal justice for all. He argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court and won 29 of those cases, including his most significant, Brown v...
Lee County - Dennis High School
Lee County - Dennis High School

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Constructed in 1936, Dennis was the first high school for African Americans in Lee County, including Bishopville and nearby rural areas. In contrast with the much larger Bishopville High School, which...
Clarendon County - Summerton High School
Clarendon County - Summerton High School

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The building that housed Summerton High School from circa 1936 to the mid-1960s is located at 12 South Church Street in Summerton. In the middle of the twentieth century, the all-white high school was...
Brown v. Board of Education | Road Trip

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The Plessy v. Ferguson decision set the precedent that "separate" facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they were "equal." In 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education case...
Eliza Briggs | Road Trip

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Eliza and Harry Briggs, Sr. are listed as the first petitioners on the lawsuits from the 1940s and 1950s. Harry, a gas station attendant in Summerton, and his wife, Eliza, lost their jobs and were...