Fundraiser celebrates civil rights pioneer’s legacy

By BEN WERNER

bwerner@thestate.com

When the Rev. Joseph A. De Laine’s Summerton house was torched and his parsonage vandalized, his son was fighting for democracy in Korea.

Back in 1955, the elder De Laine had just spurred a group of 18 Clarendon County parents into filing a federal lawsuit aimed at overturning the separate-but-equal justification of keeping white and black children in different schools.

On Sunday at Brookland Baptist Church, De Laine’s son recalled how odd that situation was some 50 years ago.

“I’m fighting for quote un-quote democracy when I can’t enjoy that democracy in this country,” said Joseph A. De Laine Jr.

De Laine, who is retired and lives in Charlotte, visited the West Columbia church Sunday to attend a gospel tribute to his father and fundraiser for a foundation that was started to improve the lives of Clarendon County residents. Several hundred people attended the event.

This is a mission De Laine said he almost never began. While in Korea, he considered abandoning the United States after his time in the service, figuring he would have more freedom living in Europe or Africa.

“I felt that was my only option,” he said.

But instead De Laine vowed to make a difference, even after his father was run out of town in 1955 for his civil rights work.

The elder De Laine and the other parents had filed suit in the 1949 case known as Briggs v. Elliott.

That suit in federal court challenging the legality of operating separate-but-equal school systems eventually was merged with other cases in what became known as Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kan.

The separate-but-equal laws were overturned, but today, nearly 60 years later, De Laine said the state and nation are still far from providing all children equal access to education.

Aiken County native Sen. Tommy Moore, the Democratic Party’s challenger to Gov. Mark Sanford, said the state is not even providing a minimally adequate education to poor children in places such as Clarendon County.

During his brief remarks to the audience, Moore said, “It’s important to allow ourselves never to forget the victories of those before us. Briggs v. Elliott started right here in this state.”

The educational system can use some reform and innovation, Moore said. But the system should remain public and offer equal access to all children.

“I’m certainly not willing to talk about tax credits for people earning more than $50,000 a year,” he said.

Attorney Chris Hart, recently elected to the state House of Representatives from Columbia, gave the keynote address. He echoed Moore’s theme, calling on the audience not to be satisfied with past events.

“Let us continue the work of Rev. De Laine by demanding our education system remains true to its purpose, being equal to everyone,” Hart said.

Doing so was the purpose of Sunday’s event. The nonprofit organization De Laine runs, the Briggs-De Laine-Pearson Foundation, helps families, especially single mothers, learn the skills necessary to provide for the family.

This work includes job training. The foundation helped start a sewing cooperative in Clarendon County.

The foundation also helps encourage parents to become active partners with teachers and school administrators, much in the way those 18 parents did in 1949.

A part of the foundation’s job is also educating the public about the Briggs v. Elliott case.

“I think he (De Laine’s father) was very much at peace with himself that he had made significant progress,” De Laine said.

Yet De Laine said his father knew that the work started in the 1940s was not complete.

Reach Werner at (803) 771-8509.