BACKGROUND INFORMATION: THE SEAT OF JUSTICE

 

THE SEAT OF JUSTICE CHRONICLES SOUTH CAROLINA'S UNIQUE ROLE IN THE LANDMARK BROWN V. SCHOOL BOARD DESEGREGATION DECISION

The Seat of Justice tells the remarkable true story of how a group of concerned parents in rural Clarendon County, South Carolina in the late 1940's and early 1950's brought a series of lawsuits asking for fair treatment in their public schools. One of these suits, Briggs v. Elliott was the first lawsuit in the country demanding desegregation of the public schools. This case would be combined with 4 other cases to become the lead case in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit. Thurgood Marshall, lead attorney for the NAACP, came to South Carolina to represent the children and their parents in this case. The first trial was held at the Federal Courthouse in Charleston in March, 1948.

The play's narrator is the late Mrs. Ruby Cornwell (featured left), a leading civil rights advocate who sat on the front row at this trial in Charleston. Mrs. Cornwell passed away in 2003 at the age of 100, having shared her story with journalists, historians and playwright Julian Wiles, the author of The Seat of Justice.

The play tells the story of the many brave people who came forward to risk their lives, their liberty and their sacred honor in the pursuit of social justice. Notable among these were Levi Pearson (featured right), who brought the first suit in 1947. For his trouble, he found it difficult afterwards to find anyone to gin his cotton. Another leader in this case, the Reverend Joseph A. De Laine, a teacher and preacher in Clarendon County and a leader in organizing the plaintiffs for the case, was subsequently fired from his teaching job and saw his church and home burned to the ground. Later, after shots were fired into his home, he fled the state of his birth, never to return. Harry Briggs, an auto mechanic who was first to sign the parents petition (thus his name leads in the case of Briggs v. Elliott) was later fired from his job of 15 years. Through the struggles of Pearson, Briggs, DeLaine and scores of others, the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case would eventually strike down the flawed concept of "separate but equal" and bring a new birth of freedom and opportunity to millions of American children.

 

 

TIMELINE: Briggs v. Elliott and the journey to Brown v. Board of Education

 
1942: The Rev. J. A. De Laine, a resident, active pastor and elementary school principal in Clarendon County, helped form the Clarendon County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

June 1947: During a summer school session at Allen University in Columbia, De Laine was greatly inspired by James Hinton, Executive Director of the State Conference of the NAACP, who argued that black residents needed to go to court to get school buses for their children.

1947: Seventeen parents of the Davis Station community purchased a bus for the transportation of their children to the Scott's Branch High School in Summerton. Maintenance and operational costs were expensive and the parents could not afford the upkeep so they decided to ask the county to help with these costs. They turned to community leader, pastor and elementary school principal, the Rev. J. A. De Laine to make their case. De Laine approached Roderick Elliott, the school board chairman, who turned down their request. Nearby, the newly completed white high school in the county had a brand new fleet of buses for their students.

March 1948: Inspired by the Rev. James Hinton, now state president of the NAACP, and the Rev. DeLaine, who had helped found the Clarendon County NAACP chapter, Levi Pearson a farmer from the rural Davis Station area of Clarendon County filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of his three children. He was represented by the NAACP's legal team, Harold Boulware from the state office and Thurgood Marshall from the national office. In court, Boulware and Marshall argued that Pearson's children suffered "irreparable damage" because they did not have the access to good and safe transportation enjoyed by the county's white children. The case faltered on a technicality: since Pearson's farm straddled two separate school districts, the state was able to show that Pearson paid taxes in one district but his children actually attended school in another district. The legal team had no choice but to withdraw the suit.

January 1949: De Laine and Pearson attended the NAACP state conference meeting in Charleston to bring attention to the plight of black schools in Clarendon County and to seek support for further litigation to alleviate these conditions. Harold Boulware urged them to meet again with Thurgood Marshall to discuss a new suit.

March 1949: The Rev. De Laine, the Rev. J. W. Seals and five members of the Pearson family met with Marshall in Columbia. An agreement was reached at this meeting that the NAACP would entertain the development of a new federal lawsuit to demand not only school bus funds but also the full "equalization of educational opportunity" in Clarendon schools for black children.

April 1949: Led by the Rev. De Laine and others, meetings were held at four locations around Clarendon County to explain the proposed litigation to the black community and to identify potential plaintiffs.

May 1949: Since Clarendon County had many school districts at the time, Marshall and his team suggested the case be narrowed to one district. They chose Clarendon County School District No. 22, since it had separate white and black high schools—the Scott's Branch High School for black students and Summerton High School for white students.

November 1949: A petition was circulated in the community seeking the full "equalization of educational opportunities" for all the children of Clarendon County. Ultimately, 114 signatures of parents and children filled this petition. Turned down again by the Clarendon County School Board, Marshall and his team filed a new federal lawsuit in the US District Court in Charleston. The case was assigned to Federal Judge Waties Waring, a Charleston native who had grown up with the customs and norms of segregated South Carolina society. But some years earlier, after presiding over the Isaac Woodward case in 1947, he had become a stalwart defender of equal rights. Isaac Woodward, after being honorably discharged from the United States Army in 1946 and still in his uniform, was on a bus heading to his home. When the bus stopped in Aiken, SC, Woodward had an altercation with the white bus driver when Woodward asked for time to use the restroom before the bus left. The driver waited but was livid. At the next stop in Batesburg, SC, the irate driver had Woodward dragged from the bus and arrested by the town police chief, Linwood Shull. During the night, Shull brutally beat and blinded Woodward. A national outcry followed the news of this brutal attack and when the state of South Carolina refused to act, a Federal case was brought against Chief Shull. Judge Waring, from a prominent Old Charleston family, presided. At the trial, the US Attorney presented a half-hearted case and the all-white jury quickly cleared Shull. (Blacks at the time were precluded from serving on juries). The case, however, transformed Judge Waring. He began to look at, what at the time was called "the race question," in new ways. He later wrote, "I was shocked by the hypocrisy of my government...in submitting that disgraceful case....". Over the next few years, to the consternation of the South Carolina legal establishment, Waring became a stalwart defender of equal rights. In 1947, he ruled that the state had to pay black and white teachers equally. In 1948, when the state Democratic Party alleged it was a private club and could deny ballots to black voters, Waring ordered their primaries open to all...regardless of race.

July 1950: A new suit narrowed the case to just 20 plaintiffs—each plaintiff a parent of a child attending school in Clarendon County District 22. This second petition, with these 20 names, was prepared. When this too was turned down by the school board, yet a new case was filed in Charleston, this one dramatically taking segregation head-on. It demanded the elimination of segregated facilities in the public schools of Clarendon County. The case would be known as Briggs v. Elliot, the first desegregation case filed America. The case was named for Harry Briggs, alphabetically the first name on the new petition and for R. M. Elliott, Chairman of Clarendon County District 22 School Board. Because the case would be focusing on constitutional issues, a panel of Federal Judges was assigned with two additional judges joining Judge Waring.

1951: Realizing the inequality of the black schools in South Carolina, Governor Jimmy Burns moved to pre-empt the federal lawsuit. At his urging, the South Carolina Legislature passed a three percent sales tax (the state's first) to build and update schools. By updating facilities, the state hoped to soon be in a position to argue that schools were separate and equal for black and white students. At the same time, legislation was passed to block state aid to any public school that became integrated.

February 1951: The State of South Carolina, bringing its full legal forces to bear, entered the case on behalf of Clarendon County.

March 1951: With tensions high because of the pending lawsuit, Rev. De Laine's home in Summerton was destroyed by fire. Arson was suspected but never proved.

May 28, 1951: The three-judge panel heard the Briggs v. Elliott arguments in Charleston. In the opening statements by Robert Figg, the attorney for the state of South Carolina, he surprisingly conceded to the court that the state realized that separate school facilities in the state were not yet equal but argued the state's school sales tax and new building program would soon rectify that and make the pending case moot. The court, however, decided that the plaintiffs could still make their case and it moved forward.

June 23, 1951: At the end of the trial, though all three judges agreed the schools were not equal for black and white children in the state, Judges John J. Parker and George Bell Timmerman agreed to give the state time to rectify this condition and noted that, "it is a late day" to call segregation unconstitutional. Judge J. Waites Waring, however, firmly disagreed with his colleagues by issuing a fiery dissent concluding that "segregation per se is inequality" and is blatantly unconstitutional.

July 1951: Using Judge Waring's dissent as the basis for their argument, Marshall and his team appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court. While Waring's dissent would help move the case forward, personally Waring and his wife, Elizabeth, were totally ostracized from Charleston Society. Their strong political beliefs and their recent remarriage (they were both divorcees—a scandal in conservative Charleston) led them from Charleston to New York where they resettled. Before departing Charleston, after a long and distinguished career, Judge Waring retired from the bench.

January 28, 1952: The Supreme Court returned the Briggs case to the Federal District Court in Charleston to review a progress report filed by Clarendon County. At this hearing, Clarendon County school officials reported that they were planning to build three new schools for black students and that they had equalized teacher salaries, equipment and curricula plus buses were now being provided to black students. They argued that the county's separate facilities for black and white students would soon be equal and the case should be dismissed.

March 13, 1952: The new three-judge panel ruled in favor of the county school board. Judge Armistead M. Dobie, having replaced the retired Waring, made the ruling unanimous. But Thurgood Marshall and his legal team did not give up. Once more, they appealed this new Briggs v. Elliott ruling to the United States Supreme Court, again arguing that "separate but equal" was unconstitutional and, in and of itself, harmful to black students.

November 1952: Governor Burns took action to further the state's case. He engaged John Davis, the nation's most respected appellate attorney, to make South Carolina's case before the Supreme Court. At the next election, at the urging of Governor Byrnes, a majority of South Carolinian eligible voters (most black voters at the time were disenfranchised) approved an amendment to the state constitution ending the requirement of a public school system for the children of South Carolina. This raised the specter that if the "separate but equal" doctrine was struck down by the Supreme Court, the state might totally abandon the public schools in South Carolina.

December 9, 1952: The US Supreme Court heard South Carolina's Briggs vs. Elliott case, the nation's first desegregation case, which had now been consolidated with four other cases: Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (filed in Virginia), Gebhart v. Belton (filed in Delaware), Bolling v. Sharpe (filed in Washington D.C.) and Brown v. Board of Education, (filed in Topeka, Kansas). On this date, oral arguments began. Though Briggs was the first case filed and alphabetically should be first (tradition being the case which the combined cases were expected to be named) the case, instead, would be known in history under the name of the Kansas Case, Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka. Some said the court made this choice so as not to focus on the South, choosing a western state instead. But the Briggs case remained the lead case and the one that Thurgood Marshall himself argued before the court.

June 8, 1953: In a somewhat unusual move, the Supreme Court asked the litigants to reargue the case the next year, this time asking the litigants to focus on the intent of Congress when passing the 14th Amendment and the state's understanding of this amendment when ratified. Much of the case hinged on the "equal protection" clause of this amendment.

May 17, 1954: The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Briggs vs. Elliott and the other plaintiffs. Reading the unanimous decision from the bench, Chief Justice Earl Warren dramatically announced that the nine-member Supreme Court found that the law "separate but equal" and the segregation of public schools to be unconstitutional. In doing so, the court struck down the long held precedent of "separate but equal" set forth in the 19th century Plessy v. Ferguson ruling.

April 11, 1955: At the court's request, the plaintiffs returned to the Supreme Court once more to present arguments as to how the Brown ruling should be enforced—whether the states should desegregate immediately or use some gradual approach.

May 31, 1955: The Supreme Court ruled that states must move to desegregate their schools with all "deliberate speed."

October 1955: Retribution continued against the Briggs v. Elliott plaintiffs. Sharecroppers were forced off their land and plaintiffs lost their jobs. After two months of vandalism and harassment, the Rev. De Laine (now living in Lake City, SC) was told to leave town or suffer the consequences. Soon after, De Laine's church, St. James, was completely destroyed by arson.

Midnight, October 10, 1955: Three separate volleys of gunfire were directed into the Rev. De Laine's residence by passing automobiles. The third time the shots were fired, De Laine shot back, allegedly injuring more than one occupant in the automobiles. De Laine and his family fled in the dead of night, making their way to New York City. The State of South Carolina issued a warrant for DeLaine's arrest, alleging he was at fault and charging De Laine with "assault and battery with the intent to kill." The State of New York, however, refused to extradite DeLaine.

Late 1950's/Early 1960's: Legislatures in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Virginia adopted resolutions declaring the Brown v. Board decision "null, void and no effect." Later they passed additional resolutions delaying legislation such as "Freedom of Choice" provisions that allowed black students to attend white schools only if there was "room" in the white schools.

1963: With States and school districts continuing to defy the Supreme Court's ruling, a new Federal desegregation case was filed in Charleston, nine years after the Brown case. The court ruled that Charleston schools must immediately admit 11 black students. The district then tried to use test scores to deny any further transfers.

Fall 1965: After still another federal court suit, Clarendon County schools were finally ordered to admit several black students to the all-white Summerton High School. Two years later to avoid further integration, Clarendon County's District 22 School Board voted to close all of the white schools in the district. Those schools have never reopened. White parents in Summerton formed their own white-only private academy abandoning the public schools.

1968: Judge J. Waites Waring died in New York. His body was returned to Charleston for internment. Hundreds of black citizens turned out to honor him while less than a half-dozen whites attended.

February 1970: Following more than 16 years of additional litigation, as the state of South Carolina sought to thwart school integration, the federal courts finally ruled that all South Carolina Public Schools must integrate not "with all deliberate speed" but immediately. The Greenville County school district complied with a court order and became the first district in the state to fully integrate. Other districts across the state complied as well. Soon many whites fled the public school system and segregation academies were established across the state.

August 1974: The Rev. De Laine died in Charlotte, NC, where he had lived since retiring in 1971.

October 10, 2000: The South Carolina Parole Board granted Rev. De Laine a posthumous pardon in response to those who had fired into his home and forcing him to flee the state in 1955.

April 11, 2014: Eric Holder, the first African American U.S. Attorney General and leaders of the Federal Bar unveiled a statue of Judge Waring on the grounds of the Federal Courthouse in Charleston. A movement continues to rename the courthouse in his honor.

 

 

SIGNERS OF THE FIRST PETITION

In 1949, in a series of meetings held at Liberty Hill Church and other locations around Clarendon County, 114 parents and children came forward to sign a petition asking the county school board for equal educational opportunities. Many would face evictions from their homes, loss of their jobs and faced other retribution for their bravery and commitment to the cause.

(Listed in the order signed)
Robert Georgia
Jervine Georgia
Carrie Georgia
Charlie Georgia
Gladys Hilton
Joseph Hilton
Gussie Hilton
Roosevelt Hilton
Henrietta Huggins
Lila May Huggins
Celestine Huggins
Juanita Huggins
Thomas Johnson
Blanch Johnson
Lillie Eva Johnson
Ruby Lee Johnson
Betty J. Johnson
Bobby M. Johnson
Preston Johnson, Jr.
Raymond Lawson
Harry Briggs Sr.
Eliza Briggs
Harry Briggs, Jr.
Thomas Lee Briggs
Reverdy Wells
Francis Lawson
Katherine Eliza Briggs
Susan Lawson
Thomas Gamble
Henry Brown
Thelma Brown
Eva Brown
Willie H. Brown
Marion Brown
Ethel Mae Brown
Howard Brown
Beatrice Brown
James Brown
Theola Brown
Thomas Brown
Euralia Brown
Joe Morris Brown
Onetha Bennett
Hilton C. Bennett
Willie Gibson
Annie Gibson
Maxine Gibson
Harold Gibson
Julia Gibson
William Gibson, Jr.
Billie S. Fleming
Mary O. Lawson
Hercules Bennett
Eddie Lee Lawson
Susan Ann Lawson
Fredick Oliver
Willie Oliver
Mary Oliver
Mose Oliver
Leroy Oliver
Mitchel Oliver
Bennie Parson, Jr.
Plummie Parson
Celestine Parson
Edward Ragin
Sarah Ragin
Shirley Ragin
Delores Ragin
Hazel Ragin
Zelia Ragin
Mable Ragin
Rebecca Ragin
Sarah Ellen Ragin
William Ragin
Glen Ragin
Lucrisher Richardson
Joseph Emmerson Wheeler
Sherlie Wheeler
Elane Richardson
Emanuel Richardson
Rebecca Richburg
E. E. Richburg
Rebecca I. Richburg
Albert Richburg
Lee Johnson
Bessie Johnson
Morgan Johnson
Samuel Gary Johnson
Lee Richardson
James Richardson
Charles Richardson
Annie L. Richardson
Dorothy Richardson
Jackson D. Richardson
Mary J. Oliver
Daisy Oliver
Louis Oliver, Jr.
Esther F. Singletary
Janie L. Fludd
Henry Scott
Irene Scott
Mary Scott
Sue Esther Hilton
Bennie Lee Lawson
Willie M. Stukes
Gardenia Stukes
Gardenia E. Stukes
Louis W. Stukes
Willie M. Stukes, Jr.
Annie Lee Tindal
Mary L. Bennett
Lillian Bennett
James Bennett
Gilbert Henry

 

 

SIGNERS OF THE SECOND PETITION

Featured: Briggs v. Elliott Signers (Photo by Cecil J. Williams)

 
Later, the NAACP legal team decided it would be best to have a new petition prepared that only included parents of children in schools in Clarendon County District 22. The following are parents who signed the second petition which is the one used in the Briggs v. Elliott litigation:

(Listed in the order signed)
Harry Brigg
Anne Gibson
Moses Oliver
Bennie Parson
Edward Ragin
William Ragin
Lachrisha Richardson
Lee Richardson
James H. Bennett
Mary Oliver
William M. Stukes
G.H. Henry
Robert Georgia
Rebecca Richburg
Gabriel Tyndal
Susan Lawson
Frederick Oliver
Onetha Bennett
Hazel Ragin
Henry Scott

 
 

Featured From Left to Right: Mrs. Eliza Briggs, Mr. Harry Briggs and Rev. J.A. De Laine (Photo by Cecil J. Williams)

 

 

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Music used in The Seat of Justice is drawn from authentic music of the period. We know, for instance, that at the mass meetings held in Clarendon County (used to rally support for the petition effort) that the hymn "Together Let Us Sweetly Live" (Jesus, Great Shepherd of the Sheep) was sung. In the play, this hymn and all other songs are sung in the traditional manner without accompaniment.

For a remarkable glimpse into the music and life of the period, the works of Guy and Candy Carawan are highly recommended. They recorded songs and conducted interviews on Johns Island in the early 1960's, just after the period of the play. Their book Ain't You Got a Tree of Life and the Nonesuch recording "Been in the Storm So Long" chronicle this remarkable treasure of authentic African-American music. Several tunes in the play are adapted from these sources. Later, many years after the story told in The Seat of Justice, it was Guy Carawan who introduced We Shall Overcome and later Eyes on the Prize to the Civil Rights movement. Both were collected from South Carolina sources. Because they came from a later period in the Civil Rights movement, they are not included in The Seat of Justice.

Click Here to Listen to Music

 

 

A NOTE ON SOURCES

Many people have been helpful to me in the writing of The Seat of Justice and I wish to thank them for their assistance. In the end, however, I am solely responsible for the use of the material they provided and any errors or omissions are certainly mine, not theirs.

 

 

ACADEMIC SOURCES

Three classic works cover the story of the Briggs v. Elliott. The landmark study on this case is Richard Kluger's Simple Justice which is a comprehensive history of all the cases that became Brown v. Board of Education. Tinsley Yarborough's biography of Judge Waring, A Passion for Justice, also covers the Briggs case in great detail. The Word Made Flesh, published by Julie M. Lochbaum, and available exclusively through the Briggs-De Laine Foundation, is the best written source on the life and work of The Rev. Joseph A. De Laine.

Also, the staffs of the Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston and the library at Howard University in Washington, D.C. were very helpful in many ways. The only copy of the trial transcript I could locate was in Judge Waring's papers, which are housed at Howard, while Avery houses Mrs. Ruby Cornwell's papers.

 

 

INDIVIDUAL SOURCES

Mrs. Ruby Cornwell, whom I met when she was 98 when her mind was still crystal clear, spent many hours with me reminiscing and sharing her unique perspective as someone who sat on the front row of the Briggs v. Elliott trial in 1950 and who was also the devoted friend of Elizabeth Waring, Judge Waring's second wife. Mrs. Ruby was very enthusiastic about this project, read early drafts of the script and an excerpt was performed for her on the occasion of her 100th birthday. Though Mrs. Ruby passed away just a few months before her 101st birthday, she had promised to be with me for the opening. I have no doubt she is still with us in spirit. Mrs. Ruby provided a most valuable window into this unique story and I owe her a remarkable debt for her trust in me.

Joseph De Laine, Jr., son of Rev. Joseph De Laine, provided a unique perspective. Joe provided valued guidance and insight into his father's pivotal role in this drama. Joe has also personally taken on the role as the unofficial historian of Briggs v. Elliott and collected and preserved many pieces of this important history. Joe's brother, the late B. B. De Laine, was also very helpful.

Joe Elliott, grandson of R. M. Elliott the defendant in Briggs v. Elliott, also provided an in-depth perspective on his grandfather and on life in Clarendon County in that era.

Eloise Wineglass Pearson, sister of Levi Pearson, and Alfreada Pearson, Levi Pearson's granddaughter, were very helpful in providing background on the Pearson side of this story that lead to the lesser known Pearson v. School Board case that preceded Briggs v. Elliott.

M. L. Miller of Clarendon County also provided valuable insights.

 

Featured: Rev. J.A. De Laine (Photo by Cecil J. Williams)

 

 

PERSONAL THANKS FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT

For personal support over the years that this play has been in development, I would like to thank the following:

Larry Deckel, a former guest director with Charleston Stage and a 10 year director at the prestigious Actors Theatre of Louisville, who read the script during its development and made valued suggestions.

Barbara Young, Charleston Stage's costumer and longtime employee, and Marybeth Clark, Charleston Stage's Associate Artistic Director, who both provided many valuable ideas and suggestions.

My daughter Marianna, who perhaps read more drafts than anyone and provided many insights (and punctuation) to the script. My wife Jenny and son Nicholas, who provided much helpful guidance throughout this process. I would not be a playwright without the loving support of these three wonderful people.

My parents, Erline and the late Pally Wiles, who instilled in me the values of honesty and trust and respect for individuals. These values, in no small part, drew me to this story.