This Sunday, Mother's Day, May 8, marks the 56th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "March on the Ballot Box" speech, delivered at the Tomlinson High School athletic field in Kingstree on Mother's Day, May 8, 1966. This year, a traveling Smithsonian Institution exhibit, Voices and Votes–Democracy in America, on display at the Williamsburgh Historical Society's African-American Archives at 127 Hampton Avenue in Kingstree, will help give context as we mark the anniversary. In addition, the Historical Society, in conjunction with the South Carolina Humanities Council, sponsored a talk by journalist Claudia Smith Brinson last Saturday at the Williamsburg Technical College auditorium. Brinson, whose book Stories of Struggle: The Clash Over Civil Rights in South Carolina details the lynchings, cross-burnings and death threats many Black South Carolinians faced during the continuing struggle for civil rights, spoke about the Clarendon County legal action Briggs v. Elliott that became a part of the landmark US Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, which brought about the desegregation of public schools in the United States.
Fifty-six years ago, in the wake of President Lyndon B. Johnson's signing of the Voting Rights Act two years earlier, four Black men filed to run for public office in Wiliamsburg County. Virgil Dimery was running for State Senate; Jesse Lawrence and Purvis Easley were running for the SC House of Representatives, and Paul Murray was seeking a seat as a County Road Commissioner, the equivalent of a seat today on the Wiliamsburg County Council. But to have any chance of winning, they needed more Black residents to register to vote. Thus, the Williamsburg County Voter Education Group invited Dr. King, who had been to South Carolina before, but "not for this type of occasion," according to Virgil Dimery.
The audience of almost 5,000 persons from throughout South Carolina began arriving early that Sunday afternoon and was drenched by a heavy rain before Dr. King spoke. During the speech, Dr. King said, "We will never fully enjoy our God-given rights, until we use the right to vote creatively. You've got to do more than just clap your hands, give loud cheers and assemble in crowds. You must get every Negro registered to vote." He reminded those assembled that during Reconstruction South Carolina had sent Blacks to both the State House and the US Congress. "Sending dedicated and competent Black men and women to the State House and Congress is what democracy is all about," he said. He then encouraged them to "on that glad day in June (June 14, 1966) let us march to the ballot boxes." Ultimately, Paul Murray would be the only successful candidate of the four Black men running.
Dr. King also noted that the unanimous May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education decision had been the turning point in the Civil Rights movement. The Brown v. Board decision hinged on the dissent filed in the SC case, Briggs v. Elliott, by U.S. District Judge for Eastern South Carolina J. Waties Waring.
Last Saturday, Claudia Smith Brinson remarked to the group gathered at Williamsburg Technical College, that when she started as a reporter for The State, the stories told to her by Black South Carolinians differed greatly from the stories she heard from white South Carolinians. She found that stories concerning the struggles for Civil Rights had been greatly under-reported in the state's newspapers. At the time she became interested, three of the women who had signed the Briggs petition were still living in Summerton in rural Clarendon County.
These women had never told their stories to anyone else, not even family members. However, they realized that if they did not soon tell them, the story of this important part of South Carolina history would die with them. "I think they trusted me because they had seen that in other stories I had written, I had approached them with an open heart and and open mind," Brinson said. She said she always brought an open mind and a box of tissues to interviews, as "we would often cry together," as they told their stories.
Monument to the memory of Justice Thurgood Marshall
Briggs v. Elliott came about when Black parents asked the Summerton School District to provide a bus so that their children did not have to walk nine miles to attend school at Scott's Branch. The school district did not want to provide this to them, and they decided to file a legal petition. Civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall, who would later serve as an Associate Justice on the US Supreme Court, was consulted. Knowing the likely consequences to the families if they pushed their petition, he counseled them to give up the fight. However, the 20 families, knowing the likely outcome, decided to press forward. One hundred and seven people signed the petition, and every one of them lost their jobs. Sharecroppers were thrown off the land they had worked. Those who ran a café suddenly were unable to get supplies. Many of the families were forced to leave the state to find work and to ensure that their children got a better education. Although the petition was denied, Briggs v. Elliott became one of five cases heard by the US Supreme Court under the caption Brown v. Board of Education.
No comments:
Post a Comment