Governor James F. Byrnes, Harris & Ewing, Washington DC, 1939, courtesy of Library of Congress.

The Brown v Board of Education decision caused uproar in the South. In defiance of the Supreme Court’s decision, many politicians declared that school segregation would remain. Some African American parents began petitioning to enter their children into white schools. A shocked Governor Byrnes threatened to close the public schools if Black students attended white schools. As the dust settled from the decision, Governor Byrnes directed the school equalization program to continue. To justify continuing to build more Black schools, the State Educational Finance Commission, the agency overseeing the school construction program, stated “newer more modern buildings will tend to keep the Negro in the Negro schools.”

The state’s educational landscape continued to transform with new, modern schools. For the first time in South Carolina history, most public Black schools had cafeterias, libraries, running water, and gymnasiums. Students no longer had to draw water from a well, go to the bathroom in an outhouse behind the school, or carry their own wood to heat their school. The buildings themselves were in place.

(Top) Newspaper clipping of church fire, The Florence Morning News, South Carolina, 1955, courtesy of newspapers.com. (Bottom) Reverend Joseph De Laine speaking at his church before it burned down, South Carolina, 1952, courtesy of the University of South Carolina Libraries Digital Collections 

However, while the state provided new school buildings, racism still governed decisions made at the local level. School boards across the state did not order new school furniture, leaving Black students in a new school with no desks. The science labs had outdated, broken equipment, often hand-me-downs from white schools, without enough for all students. W. Gresham Meggett High School on James Island had a new football field, but there were no lights for evening practices or games. School district officials stocked the shelves of new school libraries at African American schools with torn and discarded books from the white schools. Therefore, the buildings stood as a hollow gesture from the state that separate but equal had been achieved.

Despite state politicians’ best efforts, the equalization program did not prevent African American parents from attempting to desegregate the state’s schools after the Brown decision. Petitions came from Black parents in Charleston, Greenville, and Florence requesting their school districts admit their children into the local white schools. All were ignored. The parents looking to enroll their students in white schools suffered. Like the parents who signed the NAACP petition in Summerton, many lost their jobs once their employers discovered their attempts to desegregate local schools. Others lost their homes, as landlords evicted renters and banks called mortgages due. Back in Summerton, the reprisals against Briggs petitioners continued. Black Summerton farmers found that no one would buy their crops. For a second time, whites used arson as an intimidation tactic in an attempt to suppress civil rights activism. In 1955, an arsonist set fire to Reverend J.A. DeLaine’s new church in Lake City, South Carolina. Angry, armed white men finally chased DeLaine out of the state shortly after the church fire. Harry Briggs, who had been unemployed since 1949 finally left South Carolina for Florida in 1957 to find work.

(Top) Newspaper clipping of W. Gresham Megget High School's football field getting lights, The Periscope, South Carolina, 1961, courtesy of Charleston County. (Bottom) Gresham Meggett Elementary and High School, Charleston County, South Carolina, 1956, courtesy of Charleston County School District.

In addition to using violence to maintain segregation, white South Carolinians also continued to fight to keep funding away from African American schools and in the pockets of white schools. Politicians regularly spoke about the success of equalization, but where funding actually went reinforced South Carolina’s racially discriminatory practices. In 1955, new South Carolina governor George Bell Timmerman said the state made great progress toward equalization. Over 700 school building projects were underway. Children attended school in 2,500 new classrooms. The state spent almost $150 million on schools, with $81.5 million of this going to African American schools. By 1957, South Carolina had 145 Black high schools, compared to only 80 in 1951. However, as the school funding program continued throughout the 1950s, more and more of the money went to building new white schools instead of Black schools. Politicians bragged about the progress. Despite the Supreme Court ruling segregation unconstitutional, South Carolina’s public schools remained firmly segregated and unequally funded at the beginning of the 1960s.

While the state provided new school buildings, racism still governed decisions made at the local level. School boards across the state did not order new school furniture, leaving Black students in a new school with no desks. The science labs had outdated, broken equipment, usually hand-me-downs from white schools, without enough for all students.  W. Gresham Meggett High School on James Island had a new football field, but there were no lights for evening practices or games. School district officials stocked the shelves of new school libraries at African American schools with torn and discarded books from the white schools. Therefore, the buildings stood as a hollow gesture from the state that separate but equal had been achieved.