1 minute read
DORCHESTER ACADEMY
Explore historic sites across South Carolina that pay tribute to the brave men and women who fought against inequality as you learn more about the fight for civil rights in South Carolina on a new podcast, “A Legacy of Courage,” at SCLegacyofCourage.com
The 30-acre campus was a remarkable place for all kinds of education, with students being trained in trades like blacksmithing and carpentry upon graduation. And the school graduated the first class of 12th-graders in the state’s history. But it was a challenging road. Many of Dorchester’s students walked dozens of miles each way to attend school.
Today the academy is a history museum, community center and an upand-coming community educational and research center. Travelers can join weekly guided tours of the grounds or plan a trip around events like the annual Walk to Dorchester, which takes place every Juneteenth in honor of the students who walked and worked hard for their education at a time when it didn’t come so easy.
DORCHESTERACADEMYIA.COM
Briggs And Delaine Family Bibles
ORANGEBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA
Years before the 1954 landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, a district court in South Carolina heard Briggs v. Elliott. In this case, parents and community members in Clarendon County, South Carolina, challenged school segregation. Initially, they petitioned for school buses to take Black children to schools like they took white students too. When the schools failed to consider their request, Harry Briggs and other parents sued R.W. Elliott, the president of the school board. Reverend Joseph DeLaine was a school principal who brought in the NAACP to help and recruited parents to be plaintiffs. While the ruling of the Briggs v. Elliott case only doubled down on separate but equal schools, the case was later brought up again in the Supreme Court when it was combined with others into the Brown v. Board of Education case. The Briggs and DeLaine family Bibles are on display in the Cecil Williams Civil Rights Museum. These treasured family Bibles reinforce the importance of religion to many who participated in the fight for racial equality.
