Unit Title:
Complaints files, 1948-1951
Accumulation:
1948-1951
Created:
1948-1951
Creator:
Clarendon County (S.C.). --Board of Education.
Physical Description:
0.00 cubic ft. partial container (2 folders in 1 a)
Language:
English
Biography or History:
unspecified
Custodial History:
unspecified
Acquisition Information:
unspecified
Scope and Content:
This series has its primary importance in the material it contains on the origins of the Briggs vs. Elliott court case submitted to the federal district court in Charleston on May 17, 1950. This case was eventually consolidated before the United States Supreme Court into Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. In the landmark Brown decision of May 17, 1954, the court ruled that "Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." The original November 11, 1949, petition of Harry Briggs, et al., to the Board of Trustees for School District No. 22 is present in the series.
Scope and Content:
The series begins with a November 22, 1948, letter of dismissal to Miss Etheline Ragin as a teacher at Butler School. A June 6, 1949 letter from L. L. Shannon, Principal of the St. Paul Training School, defends Mr. Shannon's conduct against impending dismissal. The bulk of the series begins with the June 9, 1949, complaint of the Committee on Action of the parents of the Scott's Branch School against principal I. S. Benson. J. A. DeLaine was chairman of this committee, which also included Robert Georgia and Edward Ragin. Petitions from the 1949 senior class at Scott's Branch and from parents of students at that high school are also present as are correspondence concerning the subsequent hearings, testimony given during them, and petitions and correspondence relating to the dismissal of teachers at Scotts Branch. In addition to the Briggs petition, the series includes the complaint from the Briggs vs. Elliott case submitted by Harold R. Boulware, Thurgood Marshall, and Robert L. Carter, attorneys for the plaintiffs. A September 18, 1950, petition from the trustees and patrons of Liberty Hill Elementary School protesting the replacement of their teachers and two apparently unrelated 1951 requests for permission for children to be absent from school to pick cotton are also present.
Appraisal Information:
unspecified
Accruals:
no
Arrangement:
Series arranged chronologically.
Conditions Governing Access:
none
Conditions Governing Use:
none
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements:
none
Other Finding Aid:
none
Location of Originals:
South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 8301 Parklane Road, Columbia, SC 29203
Alternative Form Available:
none
Related Material:
Forms part of the records of the Board of Education for Clarendon County.
Bibliography:
none
Other Descriptive Data:
Boxed with Jeanes Teachers' (Negro Rural School Fund) Records, 1949-1952.
Processing Information:
None
