A NOTE FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT
In many ways, I found myself in a unique position to write this play. I do not pretend to understand all that went on in the era or during the struggle that would culminate in the filing of the Briggs v. Elliott case and later Brown v. Board of Education. I do, however, know the lay of the land.
I was born on a cotton farm, just across the Santee River from Clarendon County, South Carolina, and only a few years after the events in the play took place. My grandmother was born in Davis Station, South Carolina, the same small community that Levi Pearson made his home. My great grandparent's farm was within sight of Liberty Hill Church where Rev. De Laine led the effort that would launch the Briggs v. Elliott case, the first desegregation suit filed in America. I have no doubt that my grandparents and great grandparents must have known the key participants in this drama. I was in my twenties when I even learned of the Briggs case, even though it took place in my own backyard. Almost 50 years would pass before I heard that my family might have know the litigants—too late to ask them about their roles, if any, in this story.
While I did not know the participants in the case, I have certainly known people like them. And I knew the kinds of communities that shaped them, for a similar community shaped me, too. I was born into a very segregated world. I saw first-hand the struggle for integration unfolding around me. I remember the Orangeburg Massacre of 1968 where students lost their lives protesting the segregation of a bowling alley, more than 10 years after the Brown Decision. I was 16 and going to school less than 13 miles away. I remember the handful of black students finally admitted to my high school in 1968 under the "Freedom of Choice" option, another of the South's many stalling tactics to prevent full integration in the school. This, and all other obstructions to desegregation, was finally struck down by the courts in 1970—16 years after Brown v. Board. So much for "all deliberate speed." Most profoundly, I remember asking my father, "What does this all mean? What's going to happen when integration takes place?" And I remember his answer, "I don't know, no one knows and this is what frightens people." People were truly frightened in those days, and I can only imagine the terror that faced the Briggs v. Elliott litigants who literally put their lives on the line to affect change. It was a frightening time for the world, and the rules by which all of us, black and white, had lived for generations was changing and, of course, needed to change.
More than anything, it is the tenor of those times that I set out to capture in The Seat of Justice—that age-old human aversion to change and how remarkable it is when people step forward and look at things not as they are but how they could be. That was certainly the case of the Briggs litigants. They were not judges or lawyers, they were just mothers and fathers who wanted a better and a fairer world for their children. These are the heroes of this story. While there certainly were important players—Rev. De Laine, Harry Briggs, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Judge Waties Waring and others, it quickly became clear to me that this was a story with no central player. Rather it was a story in which many individuals, high and low, found themselves standing before the Seat of Justice. I felt this long forgotten story must be told, and so I went to work on it.
I began with Richard Kluger's masterful book, Simple Justice, that chronicles the full history of the Brown v. Board litigation and the remarkable citizens behind each of these cases. Much of what we know of this period comes from his research. After a two-year search—the US Government had lost the original trial transcript—I found a copy of Briggs v. Elliott in the files of Judge Waring at Howard University. I was very fortunate to be able to have numerous interview conversations with the late Ruby Cornwell, a prominent Charleston Civil Rights leader, and a great friend of Judge Waring's wife. Mrs. Ruby sat on the front row of the Briggs trial in the Federal Court in Charleston and saw history unfolding before her. She shared many of her experiences with me and read early drafts of the play. Unfortunately, Mrs. Ruby passed away at age 100, shortly before the play had its premiere in 2004. I also had conversations with Joe De Laine, Rev. De Laine's son who generously shared many remembrances with me. Later I also interviewed Joseph Elliott, the grandson of Roderick Elliott, the school board chairman at the time. Joe left Clarendon County and became an educator himself and later a prominent promoter of integration. I also interviewed Kenneth McCord, son of the Rev. McCord, the Superintendent of Schools in Clarendon County at the time of the case. Both provided valuable insights into the story and those challenging times.
Drawing on this research, I set out to tell the story in the most human way I could. I tried to do that by focusing on the people rather than the litigation itself. Almost all of the characters in the play are based on real characters. The exceptions are the characters of Sonnyboy, his mother and father and their family cook, Rosalee. These imaginary characters, created to provide a personal insight into the minds of people of those times were based on my own experience growing up in rural South Carolina in the 1950's. And the events portrayed in the play are real as well, though the chronology of some events have been changed for dramatic purposes. Unfortunately, I could not include everyone or everything in that remarkable quest for freedom and justice. It is my hope, however, that the characters I have included speak not only for themselves but for everyone who gave so much for so many in that remarkable time. Truly, they are all heroes.
Playwright Julian Wiles, author of over 27 plays, is the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Charleston Stage.