Congressional Medal Honors ‘Pioneers and Petitioners’
Video: The Bus Tour Visits South Carolina
Journal: J. Nathaniel Briggs Shares His Story
The Briggs v. Elliot case may have one of the most interesting stories of all the school desegregation lawsuits consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that brought an end to "separate but equal” education. As a school principal, the Reverend Joseph DeLaine asked Clarendon County, South Carolina, for a school bus so that black children wouldn’t have to walk up to 10 miles to school. In retaliation for that public request, his home and church were burned. Eventually he lost his job and was forced to leave the state. The other plaintiffs in the case faced economic reprisals as well. Henry and Eliza Briggs both were fired from their jobs. Levi Pearson was denied credit and lost his livelihood as the market for timber grown on his land dried up.
On September 8, a Congressional Gold Medal was award posthumously to DeLaine, Mr. and Mrs. Briggs, and Pearson.
In awarding the medals at a ceremony in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Fritz Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat and sponsor of the legislation to award the medals, said: "Because of the courage and undying perseverance of these recipients, the words 'all men are created equal' finally ring true. Their actions changed the climate of the country so that Rosa Parks could keep her seat, the Freedom Riders could ride, and Martin Luther King, Jr., could march."
Speaking at the ceremony, Ferdinand Pearson said of his father, "Levi Pearson had many stones and many bricks thrown at him but, in my book, he was a hero because he gathered those stones and bricks and laid a solid foundation for others to build on.”
Before Briggs, Levi Pearson—with then-NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall as his attorney—was brave enough to bring a lawsuit against the school district for failing to provide transportation for his three children, who lived nine miles from their school. That case was thrown out on a technicality. Soon after, Marshall filed suit again, this time with the Briggs family as the lead plaintiffs. That case challenged the notion that separate facilities can ever be equal. Forced to leave the state to find work, Briggs commuted to see his family on weekends for a decade.
"Levi Pearson had many stones and many bricks thrown at him but…he gathered those stones and bricks and laid a solid foundation for others to build on.”
J. Nathaniel Briggs, son of Harry and Eliza Briggs, accepted the medal on their behalf, saying they were so much "more than a gas station attendant” and "a chamber maid," and had put their country above themselves.
The legacy of the Brown decision is mixed. Many Southern school systems didn’t desegregate until the 1970s, after Congress threatened to cut off federal funds. But the decision did give birth to the modern Civil Rights Movement, striking down the "separate but equal” doctrine of the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896. Also, the use of the now-famous "doll test” by psychologist Kenneth Clark provided powerful proof of the damage done to black children by forced segregation. When given a choice between a white doll and a black doll, black children in Clarendon County chose the white doll, declaring it good and the black doll—like so many black children forced to attend inferior schools—bad.
On Capitol Hill for the awards ceremony, key beneficiaries of the case lamented that greater strides haven’t been made over the past five decades to close the educational achievement gap between blacks and whites."This award is something that was achieved because of what happened over 50 years ago, but we cannot rest our laurels on what happened then," said J. A. DeLaine, Jr. "This case changed America, but it did not change Clarendon County. You’re dealing with an area with the highest dropout rate in the state.”
The gold medal presented to the descendants of Briggs is printed with images of DeLaine, the Briggses, and Pearson under the heading "Briggs v. Elliot, Our Trust In God." Their figures are flanked on either side by Palmetto trees, the state tree of South Carolina. Across the bottom, Brown v. Board of Education is emblazoned. On the reverse side, there is the header, "Honoring the Pioneers and Petitioners from Clarendon County, South Carolina” over an image of Lady Justice. There is also a quote from a dissenting opinion in the original Briggs case. It’s by Judge J. Waites Waring, stating that the petitioners proved "that segregation in education can never produce equality and that it is an evil that must be eradicated."
-- Esther Iverem
Esther Iverem, an independent writer, is part of the team of journalists on the 35-city Voices of Civil Rights Bus Tour.
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