The
Brown V. Board of Education Case
Briggs V. R. W. Elliott
In Clarendon County, South Carolina, the NAACP and twenty African American parents sued school officials on behalf of their kids. They wanted only busses at first for their children because the school board wouldn’t give their kids busses because they were black. Then the refusal of the white officials caused the black parents to want more, so they demanded better schools that were equal to white schools, because black schools were not at all equal to white schools,which was the opposite of what the "separate but equal" doctrine promised. The black schools were substandard when compared to white schools. They were shabby, the education was lacking and far more inferior when compared to white school education, and the transportation offered to the students was not enough.
Photo of a white school in Summerton, South Carolina
Photo of a "colored school"
The lawyers from the NAACP argued in front of a three judge panel, and claimed that segregation affected black childrens' minds for the worse, and it violated the Equal Protection of the Law doctrine in the fourteenth amendment. Two judges ruled against the parents, and stated that the “separate but equal” stance was constitutional. Because of this, the case ended up going to the US Supreme Court, where it would be combined with four other cases under one name; The Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka case.
J. Waties Wriggs, a federal judge in this case, wrote in a dissenting opinion that, “I am of the opinion that all of the legal guideposts, expert testimony, common sense and reason point unerringly to the conclusion that the system of segregation in education adopted and practiced in the state of South Carolina must go and go now. Segregation is per se inequality.” Warring was a judge in the Briggs v Elliott case, and was a part of the 3 judge panel. He disagreed with the majority vote, and was a part of the numerous white southerners who were for equality between the races, even though he was surrounded by many people with the complete opposite position. He was attacked with both psychological and physical abuse for his beliefs and eventually left South Carolina and moved to New York City.
Harry Briggs’s name was the first atop the complaint to let the black children of the town attend the same schools as the whites. He and his wife ended up being fired from their jobs for suing, and had to leave the town of Summerton to find jobs.
Photo of some of the plaintiffs in the Briggs case and supporters
Photo of Judge J. Waties Wriggs
Photo of the Briggs Couple
Modjeska Simpkins was a leader of the NAACP in South Carolina. In this case, she made the petition for desegregated schools. She was also able to get loans for some unemployed people who lost their jobs for supporting desegregation.
Photo of Modjeska Simpkins