Children who asked
for Desegregation
Beatrice “Bea” Brown attended Scott’s Branch in Summerton, South Carolina. Her father, Henry Brown, worked as a school janitor and as a blacksmith, farmed cotton and corn, and ran a sugar cane mill. Photo Courtesy of South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina.
“Henry Brown, fired from his position as school janitor, confronted the district superintendent, H. B. Betchman. ‘I asked him why, and he told me they weren’t going to let any of them who signed the list work.’ His son was fired from the George Smith grocery store, as was coworker Thomas Lee Briggs. The family income shrank. Thelma Brown, mother of their twelve children, didn’t work outside the home. Henry Brown didn’t allow his daughters to babysit or clean for white Summerton. ‘He was afraid of what could happen in white people’s homes,’ said daughter Beatrice Brown.”
Brumit Belton “B.B.” DeLaine walked to Scott’s Branch from his parents’ Summerton home. just beyond the town’s limits and close to the segregated school. While Reverend Joseph Armstrong DeLaine and Children Joseph “Jay” Jr., Ophelia, and Brumit did not sign the school equalization and desegregation petitions, both the petitioners and their white opponents identified B.B.’s father as a local leader in the efforts. Photo Courtesy of South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina.
“By 1940 Reverend Joseph Armstrong and Mattie Belton DeLaines’ duties had grown. The couple had three children: Joseph Armstrong Jr., called “Jay,” Ophelia, and Brumit Belton, called “B.B.” Reverend DeLaine was named principal of Liberty Hill School, which served eight grades, and the AME bishop appointed him to the Pine Grove–Society Hill preaching circuit. Mattie DeLaine taught at Scott’s Branch. They built a home just past Summerton’s town limits. As the civil rights activism of the 1940s stirred, Reverend DeLaine added to his responsibilities. Flooding in 1941, caused by dam construction, submerged a bridge and forced schoolchildren and parishioners to paddle boats to Society Hill’s church and school. Reverend DeLaine wrote letters to local, county, state, and federal officials asking for a solution. He accepted the post of secretary to the county’s Negro Citizens Committee, with its 105 members, in 1942. Such local committees, secretly affiliated with the NAACP, focused on voting rights.”
Juanita Richburg’s father, Reverend Edward Eugene “E. E” Richburg, accepted pivotal roles until his early death in 1960. He and son Albert signed the first petition. He collected petitioners for the second, his sermons encouraged participation, and his Liberty Hill AME Church held NAACP planning meetings. Death threats arrived often, so armed parishioners guarded the rural church and Parsonage at night. photo Courtesy of South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina.
“You understand that down here it is one thing after another and I have been kept so very busy trying to keep up with things in Church, School and civic affairs.... Our case is coming off on the 22nd of this month contesting the constitutionality of the law passed in our recent Legisla[ture] prohibiting the hiring of anyone who is a member of the NAACP in State, County, or Municipality..... Well things are on the quiet as far as I know concerning the Clarendon County Case. The schools have opened segregated, seemingly for another term.”
Everyone in Gardenia “Denia” Stukes’ family signed the Equalization and the Desegregation petitions: Father Willie Mood Stukes Sr., Mother Gardenia, Denia, and brothers Willie Mood Jr. and Louis. Photo courtesy of Denia Stukes Hightower.
“Willie Mood Stukes was fired from his gas station job, where he was a senior mechanic on a salary. He came home furious; his wife Gardenia wept at the news. An anxious discussion followed in which the couple acknowledged that ‘all they had to do to get the job back was take their names off the list,’ said Denia. Their names remained.”
Reverdy Wells served as president of the 1949 senior class at Scott’s Branch High School. Throughout the school year parents and students demanded the all-white school board fire the principal, whom they accused of misusing funds, vindictively firing teachers, and altering students’ transcripts. Wells discovered an altered transcript, which prevented his admission to the college of his choice. Photo Courtesy of South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina.
“Reverend DeLaine thought the furor raised was all to the good rather than a sidetrack. The parents had united and made public promises; their energy would get signatures for the NAACP petition. ‘This was the Psychological Meeting which conditioned the minds of the mass of the parents in District 22,’ DeLaine later wrote for the AME Church Review, the official church journal. Jesse Pearson held dear Reverend DeLaine’s warning at the second meeting at Saint Mark AME: “‘This will be rough. Some will fall on the wayside. Some will lose their jobs; I definitely will lose mine. If you are willing to go ahead regardless, I will go ahead.’” For Jesse Pearson it was a heroic, even biblical moment: “And the people said, ‘We will.’ He said, ‘Someone may die on the way. Would you go on?’ And we pledged we would go on regardless.”