Briggs et al. v. Elliott et al., 342 U.S. 350 (1952), was the first filed of the four cases combined into Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the famous case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, officially overturned racial segregation in U.S. public schools. The case challenged segregation in Summerton, South Carolina. 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Holding Segregation of students in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, because separate facilities are inherently unequal. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States... The Rex Theatre for Colored People, Leland, Mississippi, June 1937 Racial segregation is creamy jizz of different races in daily life when both are doing equal tasks, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a rest room, attending school, going to the movies, or in... // Public education is education mandated for the children of the general public by the government, whether national, regional, or local, provided by an institution of civil government, and paid for, in whole or in part, by taxes. ... Summerton is a town in Clarendon County, South Carolina. ...

Background

At the time Brown reached the Supreme Court, South Carolina was one of 17 states that required school segregation. South Carolina law required complete segregation.

Educational segregation in the US prior to Brown

Article 11, section 7 of the 1895 Constitution of South Carolina read as follows: "Separate schools shall be provided for children of the white and colored races, and no child of either race shall ever be permitted to attend a school provided for children of the other race." Section 5377 of the Code of Laws of South Carolina of 1942 read: "It shall be unlawful for pupils of one race to attend the schools provided by boards of trustees for persons of another race." Image File history File links Colored map of distribution of segregation laws prior to Brown V Board. ... Image File history File links Colored map of distribution of segregation laws prior to Brown V Board. ...

No one questioned that the Clarendon County schools were unequal. At the beginning of the appellate hearing at the U.S. District Court, the defendants admitted upon the record that "the educational facilities, equipment, curricula and opportunities afforded in School District No. 22 for colored pupils are not substantially equal to those afforded for white pupils". Clarendon County is a county located in the state of South Carolina. ...

The case began in 1947 as a request to provide bus transportation. In addition to having separate and very inferior facilities, black children had to walk to school, sometimes many miles. White children rode buses. The white school superintendent stated that black citizens did not pay enough taxes to support a bus and that asking white taxpayers to do this would be unfair.

In 1949 the NAACP agreed to provide funding and sponsor a case that would go beyond transportation and ask for equal educational opportunities in Clarendon County. The first step was to craft a local petition for educational equality. This was done by Rev. DeLaine and Modjeska Monteith Simkins, the noted South Carolina civil rights worker. The named defendants, Harry Briggs, a service station attendant, and his wife, Eliza Briggs, who worked as a maid, were the first to sign. They both immediately lost their jobs. Mr Briggs relocated to Florida for the next ten years to support the family. Reverend Joseph Armstrong DeLaine, principle of the black Scotts Branch high school was fired, as were all the other signers. Simkins organized a national charitable effort for the relief of the oppressed blacks of Clarendon County. Eventually, more than 100 Clarendon residents signed the petition. Modjeska Monteith Simkins Modjeska Monteith Simkins (born 1899 in Columbia, South Carolina - 1992) was a civil rights leader. ...

Decision

In 1952 the Supreme Court heard the case and returned it to the district court for rehearing after Clarendon County school officials sent a report on progress in making facilities equal. In March the district court again heard the case. The Court found that progress had been made towards equality. Thurgood Marshall argued that this may be true, but that the real issue was that as long as separation existed, the schools would be unequal. So the case was reappealed to the Supreme Court in May

Originally litigated by NAACP lawyer Robert L. Carter, the Briggs case was notable for introducing into evidence the experiments of Kenneth and Mamie Clark, who used dolls to study children's attitudes about race. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), is one of the oldest and most influential hate organizations in the United States. ... Robert L. Carter (1917 - ) is a civil rights activist and judge. ... Kenneth Bancroft Clark (July 24, 1914–May 1, 2005), was an African American psychologist who along with his wife Mamie Clark founded the Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem. ... Mamie Clark (1917-1983), along with her husband Kenneth Clark founded the Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The term race serves to distinguish between populations or groups of people based on different sets of characteristics which is commonly determined through social conventions. ...

Outcomes

Although Brown resulted in a legal victory for the NAACP, it was a hollow victory for those associated with Briggs. Reverend Joseph De Laine, the generally acknowledged leader of Summerton's African-Americans at the time, had his church burned and moved to New York City in 1955 after surviving an attempted drive-by shooting. Harry and Eliza Briggs, on behalf of whose children the suit was filed, lost their jobs. Harry spent more than a decade working in Florida to support the family. Eliza eventually joined her children in New York. Languages Predominantly American English Religions Predominantly Christianity and Islam Related ethnic groups Sub-Saharan Africans and other African groups, some with Native American groups. ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Eventually, the state of South Carolina awarded Eliza Briggs its highest civilian honor, the Order of the Palmetto. Reverend Joseph A. DeLaine, Harry and Eliza Briggs, and Levi Pearson were awarded congressional gold medals posthumously in 2003. [1].

As of 2004 Summerton's schools remain effectively segregated, with nearly all White students now attending the private Clarendon Hall, leaving the public schools almost entirely African-American. 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• Full Text of Decision on FindLaw.com
• Good background with bibliography related to the case at The University of South Carolina-Aiken
• Miles to go before I sleep: 50 years after Briggs.