Protests and Demonstrations
Civil rights activists in South Carolina worked to desegregate public spaces. In 1954, Sarah Mae Flemming sued South Carolina Electric and Gas (SCE&G), after she was forced from a Columbia bus owned by SCE&G. A few years later, the Freedom Riders — Black and White activists organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) — traveled through South Carolina on a campaign to challenge segregation on interstate bus systems.
Public transportation was not the only venue that activists targeted to end segregation. Activists challenged segregation in public spaces across South Carolina. In these challenges, often led by students, people confronted separate spaces through protests, marches, and sit-ins. These demonstrators faced violence and arrest, sometimes by the hundreds. Despite harassment and threats, protesters continued to fight for greater justice.
1954
Sarah Mae Flemming and her friend Julia King stand on the steps of Columbia’s federal courthouse with attorneys Lincoln Jenkins and Matthew Perry.
(From left to right: Jenkins, Flemming, King, and Perry)
Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library
Sarah Mae Flemming and the Columbia Buses
In 1954, a year before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, Sarah Mae Flemming was assaulted by a bus driver and forced off of a Columbia bus that was owned by SCE&G. Flemming sued SCE&G, and her case was cited in Browder v. Gayle, the lawsuit that ended the Montgomery bus boycott.
1954 While Sarah Mae Flemming lost her civil suit against the bus company, the U.S. Appellate Court ruled that the principles decided in the Brown v. Board decision applied to transportation, meaning bus segregation was unconstitutional. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library
July 15, 1955 The NAACP supported Flemming’s case against SCE&G. Activist Modjeska Monteith Simkins and attorneys Matthew Perry, Lincoln Jenkins, and Phillip Wittenberg helped her sue the company. The ruling in her case was later used as precedent to end the Montgomery bus boycott sparked by Rosa Parks’ arrest. Courtesy of South Carolina Political Collections
Sarah Mae Flemming
Civil rights activist
Sarah Mae Flemming
Civil rights activist
20-year-old Sarah Mae Flemming’s lawsuit against SCE&G set the legal foundation for the successful end of the Montgomery bus boycott.
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While Sarah Mae Flemming lost her civil suit against the bus company, the U.S. Appellate Court ruled that the principles decided in the Brown v. Board decision applied to transportation, meaning bus segregation was unconstitutional.
Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library
“Our ultimate choice is desegregation or disintegration.”
Student Protest
Students of all ages led and participated in protests during the Civil Rights Movement. High school and college students were critical to civil rights activism, risking jail time and other consequences for their involvement.
March 1960 After a sit-in at a local lunch counter, over 1,000 students from South Carolina State and Claflin universities marched in Orangeburg. After police used tear gas and fire hoses, they arrested more than 300 students and held them in an outdoor stockade in freezing weather. Courtesy of Cecil Williams
March 15, 1960 Charles “Chuck” McDew leads protest march of activists, mostly students from Claflin and S. C. State. Courtesy of Moving Image Research Collections
March 2, 1961 Hundreds of students marched at the South Carolina State House to protest segregation. After singing hymns and The Star-Spangled Banner, they were arrested for breach of the peace. Courtesy of Cecil Williams
March 2, 1961 Footage of the Edwards March Courtesy of Moving Image Research Collections
March 1961 Nearly 200 students were arrested and convicted at a demonstration at the South Carolina State House. This protest led to the U.S. Supreme Court case, Edwards v. South Carolina. Courtesy of Moving Image Research Collections
1963 The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the convictions of the students in the Edwards March, and their case, Edwards v. South Carolina, has been used to protect the rights of protesters ever since. This photograph, taken by Cecil Williams at Zion Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C., shows students celebrating the Supreme Court ruling in Edwards v. South Carolina in 1963. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library
After a sit-in at a local lunch counter in March 1960, over 1,000 students from South Carolina State and Claflin universities marched in Orangeburg. After police used tear gas and fire hoses, they arrested more than 300 students and held them in an outdoor stockade in freezing weather.
On March 2, 1961, hundreds of students marched at the South Carolina State House to protest segregation. After singing hymns and The Star-Spangled Banner, they were arrested for breach of the peace.
Courtesy of Cecil Williams
On March 2, 1961, 187 protesters were arrested following a planned demonstration on the South Carolina State House grounds. A lawsuit filed on their behalf—Edwards v. South Carolina—reached the United States Supreme Court. On February 25, 1963, the court ruled that the 14th Amendment forbids a state “to make criminal the peaceful expression of unpopular views,” and opened the door to continued demonstrations nationwide.
Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library
Boycotts and Sit-ins
Across the United States, protests erupted as African Americans and allies fought for equality and an end to segregation. In South Carolina, people from the Lowcountry to the Upstate used marches, sit-ins, boycotts, and other strategies to challenge segregation.
In 1960, the “Greenville Eight”—Jesse Jackson, Dorris Wright, Hattie Smith Wright, Elaine Means, Willie Joe Wright, Benjamin Downs, Margaree Seawright Crosby, and Joan Mattison Daniel—held a sit-in at the Greenville Public Library to demand integration. Courtesy of Dorris Wright
January 31, 1961 Ten students at Friendship Junior College were arrested after a sit-in at a segregated McCrory’s lunch counter in Rock Hill. The following day, they were convicted of trespassing and nine of them refused bail. Called the Friendship Nine, their decision sparked the “Jail, No Bail” strategy in which demonstrators decided to remain in jail rather than be bailed out to draw greater attention to the movement and, in some places, fill jails. Courtesy of South Caroliniana Library
June 16, 1961 White state leaders sometimes chose to close spaces rather than open them up to Black visitors. After being denied entry to South Carolina’s Sesquicentennial State Park, a group of African Americans wrote to Matthew Perry asking him to represent them in a lawsuit to desegregate South Carolina’s state Parks. Courtesy of South Carolina Political Collections
Among the protesters was George Hamilton, who would later lead the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission. Here, he walks down Columbia’s Main Street. Courtesy of South Caroliniana Library
Many people participated in protests for civil rights, including on Main Street in Columbia, S.C. Courtesy of South Caroliniana Library
January 1, 1960 Civil rights demonstrators protest Greenville Downtown Airport after Jackie Robinson was denied service. Courtesy of Moving Image Research Collections
April 1963 Students from Allen University and Benedict College, HBCUs in Columbia, S.C., greet Robert F. Kennedy as he arrives at the Columbia Airport with signs to protesting discrimination and segregation, including one reading “let there be justice for all.” Courtesy of Moving Image Research Collections
March 2, 1960 Students from Allen University and Benedict College stage a sit-in at Woolworth’s on Main Street in Columbia, S.C. Courtesy of Moving Image Research Collections
Annie Hackett Ritter
Student and civil rights activist
Annie Hackett Ritter
Student and civil rights activist
Annie Hackett Ritter, of Spartanburg, joined the African American student protest sit-in movement that swept across southern cities in the 1960s, including in Columbia.
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In 1960, the “Greenville Eight”—Jesse Jackson, Dorris Wright, Hattie Smith Wright, Elaine Means, Willie Joe Wright, Benjamin Downs, Margaree Seawright Crosby, and Joan Mattison Daniel—held a sit-in at the Greenville Public Library to demand integration.
Courtesy of Dorris Wright
Among the protesters was George Hamilton, who would later lead the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission. Here, he walks down Columbia’s Main Street.
Courtesy of South Caroliniana Library
Many people participated in protests for civil rights, including on Main Street in Columbia, S.C.
Courtesy of South Caroliniana Library
Retaliation
Despite retaliation ranging from verbal harassment to violent physical assault to arrests, civil rights protesters bravely persisted.
1960 A group of counter-protesters in Rock Hill, S.C. hold Confederate flags and eggs to throw at demonstrators. Courtesy of Moving Image Research Collections
Lennie Glover
Student and civil rights activist
Lennie Glover
Student and civil rights activist
Lennie Glover, a student at Benedict College, was stabbed during a sit-in at Woolworth’s lunch counter on March 5, 1961. After recovering, he returned to Main Street, carrying a new protest sign.
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March 14, 1960 Talmadge Neal and Simon Bouie are arrested for asking for service at the lunch counter of Eckerd Drug Store. Courtesy of Moving Image Research Collections
Profiles in Activism: Protests and Demonstrations
Learn more about some of the protesters who stood up for their rights.
Thomas Gaither
Civil rights activist
Thomas Gaither
Civil rights activist
“Our ultimate choice is desegregation or disintegration.”
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Gloria Blackwell Rackley
Teacher and civil rights activist
Gloria Blackwell Rackley
Teacher and civil rights activist
In 1961, Gloria Rackley filed a lawsuit against Orangeburg Regional Hospital, resulting in its eventual desegregation. In 1963, she joined hundreds of students protesting segregation in Orangeburg.
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James T. McCain
Teacher and civil rights organizer
James T. McCain
Teacher and civil rights organizer
Isaiah DeQuincey Newman
Pastor, politician and civil rights activist
Isaiah DeQuincey Newman
Pastor, politician and civil rights activist
Isaiah DeQuincey Newman helped organize the Orangeburg branch of the NAACP, led the NAACP in South Carolina, and later became the first African American since 1887 to serve in the S.C. Senate.
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Cecil Williams
Photographer and photojournalist
Cecil Williams
Photographer and photojournalist
Friendship Nine
Civil rights and student activists
Friendship Nine
Civil rights and student activists
On January 31, 1961, Black students from Friendship Junior College sat-in at McCrory’s Variety Store in Rock Hill, S.C. After being arrested, nine refused bail, sparking the “Jail, No Bail” strategy.
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South Carolina HBCU Students
Civil rights and student activists
South Carolina HBCU Students
Civil rights and student activists
Students from South Carolina’s HBCUs played crucial roles the state’s Civil Rights Movement, sitting in at segregated lunch counters and marching in mass protests.
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