‘Correct history’: Museum pushes for recognition of state’s civil rights role

The museum will be partnering with the South Carolina Arts Commission to host a series of roundtable discussions and other promotional events across the state in 2024 to raise awareness of the Briggs case, Williams said.

“We’re not trying to change history,” Williams said. “We’re trying to correct history.”

Harry and Eliza Briggs were the first to sign a petition asking Clarendon County schools to provide a bus for Black students in 1951. At the time, buses were only provided for white students.

The resulting lawsuit, Briggs v. Elliott, was the first of several cases that combined to become Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas – the Supreme Court ruling which desegregated public schools in the United States.

Williams and others blame political maneuvering on behalf of Southern interests for the case not bearing the original petitioners’ names. The Briggs case and the families who signed the petition have been overshadowed by later civil rights milestones and leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks, he said.

“I hope history books can be rewritten to include these milestones,” he said. “I hope everyone from credentialed historians to school-aged children will respect this claim.”

He was joined by attorney Thomas Mullikin, Briggs descendant Nathaniel Briggs, former state legislator James Felder and state NAACP leader the Rev. Nelson Rivers for the announcement, made in a dedicated Briggs v. Elliot display room in Historic Scott’s Branch High School in Summerton on the first day of Black History Month.

Mullikin filed a petition with the Supreme Court in November to have Brown v. Board renamed for the Clarendon County case, but the court decided not to accept the petition after it made its way through the first court threshold on Jan. 5, he said.

The activities planned in the coming year by the museum will be the next steps in getting the Briggs case its proper recognition, he said.

“I grew up in the country and we used to say ‘We ain’t even broke a sweat yet,’” he said. “We are going to reclaim our history. The civil rights movement started here. We had no delusions. We were told that it was very unlikely that the court would accept it. It was the first shot. There’ll be many more.”

Mullikin said the case would have been an opportunity to show the “judicial system is blind.” He said nothing has moved him in his career like interviewing the families of the petitioners in the Briggs case.

“One day, maybe not today, but one day it will be recognized that the families bravely stood up, many of whom died because of it, who were ridiculed, lost their small economic fortunes, stood for something better, bigger and better than themselves. That’s what happened here,” he said.

Nathaniel Briggs, son of the petitioners and the case’s namesake Harry and Eliza Briggs, said he has to mention Brown v. Board before telling his family’s story.

“I shouldn’t have to pre-represent what happened here,” he said.

The acknowledgement of the Clarendon County families who kicked off what would become one of the most important milestones in the civil rights movement will also promote the state’s place in history, Rivers said.

Many strategies adopted in the national movement were started in South Carolina, he said.

“Had it not been for the Briggs family and all those on that petition, segregation would have lasted a lot longer in America,” he said during the press conference. “So much longer that some of you would not be working in the job you have now.”

The first of the series of roundtables was held in the school’s library directly after the announcement. Williams, Felder, Briggs, Rivers and Mullikin were joined by petition signer Beatrice Rivers and historian Larry Watson for the discussion.

Descendants of petition signers, members of the community, and students from Camden Military Academy made up the crowd of around 30 listening to the discussion.

Beatrice Rivers talked about her family’s life in Summerton after signing the petition when she was 13 years old.

“All heck broke loose,” she said.

“At that time I had no intention of doing anything that was important, except maybe to trying to be cute, trying to be smart,” she said. “Like a typical teenage kid. “

Her parents, like many other petitioners, lost their jobs and were ostracized by the community, she said. On her walks to school, white children would yell slurs and throw things at her from the windows of the passing school bus she was not allowed to ride.

Her parents were asked to remove their names but believed the cause was worth fighting for, she said. She calls her parents her heroes.

“The audacity of these people, these sharecroppers, these farmers standing up to us, for something better for their children,” she said. “And believe me, when they did that, they stood up for kids all over America.”

Descendants of the petition signers were recognized during the roundtable.

Akiva Ford, a descendant of the Pearson family who signed the petition and board member at the Cecil Williams Civil Rights Museum, asked those in attendance to bring similar programs to other area schools.

Ford has traced the miles-long path the Black students had to walk to school before integration.

“That’s a long walk,” she said. “It was 34 degrees this morning. That’s a long walk to get an education, but they did it.”

Jannie Harriet, executive director of development and programs at the museum, encouraged those in attendance to contact their state representatives to encourage them to support state funding for the museum.

Moving the museum from its current location at Williams’s home to Orangeburg’s historic Railroad Corner will take $4 million, she said.

At the end of the discussion, Williams presented Mullikin with a plaque to recognize his dedication of $300,000 in billable hours over five years pro bono for the Supreme Court petition.

Williams said he begged lawyers in Charlotte to take on the case before finding Mullikin.

“We are indebted to him,” Williams said.