Hello!

I'm Beryl Dakers and This is Palmetto Scene.

This edition of our program focuses on the Civil Rights movement, highlighting some of the people and events that played a major role right here in the Palmetto State.

From the Hall of Fame, we'll feature two distinguished civil rights lawyers who both made history.

First, however a landmark exhibition at the Hollings Library on the University of South Carolina campus in Columbia is bringing together people artifacts and information and it's sparking conversation ♪ Well I am rolling, I am rolling.

God knows I'm rolling ♪ ♪ through an unfriendly world, an unfriendly world.

♪ ♪ friendly world.

Yes I am... ♪ It's not a yellow brick road but the tiled entry to the University of South Carolina's Hollings Library is dotted with circular steps alluding to significant civil rights history those in our country and our state.

This leads visitors straight into a comprehensive exhibition entitled Justice for All.

Justice for All South Carolina and the American Civil Rights Movement is a part of what we try to show are those milestone events in the state of South Carolina that actually had implications and connections elsewhere.

And also the role of South Carolina in shaping the movement.

So, for example, the role of South Carolina in challenging inequities in education, the critical role of Briggs V Elliott, in the Brown V board ruling in nineteen fifty four the importance of a young woman in nineteen fifty four who challenges bus segregation in Columbia, South Carolina.

So how does Sarah Mae Fleming's bold steps in nineteen fifty four inform and shape the efforts in nineteen fifty five in Montgomery, Alabama with Rosa Parks?

The University of South Carolina has a number of important civil rights collections that are rarely seen or made available to the public.

And so the goal of this project was for six months have on display letter, photographs, moving footage that showcase what happened in this state, that identifies the person's, the events of the organizations that shaped Civil Rights.

But at the same time to also show the opposition to the movement.

So who were those officials?

Who were those organizations that adamantly opposed any change with regards to Civil Rights in the state?

And the goal is really to bring in the general public.

Many of whom who've never been to this library or never been to the University of South Carolina.

(inaudible dialogue) In terms of the organizational design, we could have easily done a case by an individual, which that would have been quite easy or an organization.

But what we decided to do.

And I mean we, a team graduate students, librarians.

The goal was to do it thematically to showcase what we described as as the roots of the movement.

So when visitors come they will see the eighteen sixty eight Constitution.

And they will see explicitly a clause in the Constitution that calls for the integration of schools or that says that all schools that are supported by state funding must be open to all citizens without regard to race or previous condition.

And right next to that Constitution you see a photograph of the South Carolina Normal School of African American women on the Horseshoe of the University of South Carolina.

Next to that you will see a diploma from eighteen seventy six a diploma that was awarded to a man named Richard T Greener.

Richard Greener was the first African graduate of Harvard College.

He is the first African Professor from the University of South Carolina.

And is also a law school graduate in the class of eighteen seventy six, one year before the end of Reconstruction.

And what we argue in the exhibit is that one cannot understand Civil Rights in the twentieth century without understanding Civil Rights in the nineteenth century.

There is a desire of certain student groups at Benedict and Allen Colleges to make a pilgrimage to the State Capitol building here in Columbia, Saturday morning I've had the Chief of my law enforcement division inform the presidents of both colleges that we will not tolerate any such pilgrimage assembly... You look at the role of students in the movement in terms of those who were actually involved in demonstrations.

We look at one of the most dramatic moments in the history of the history of Civil Rights, or more traumatic moments in the Orangeburg Massacre of nineteen sixty eight.

And then in the other gallery we look very closely at the role of voting and the struggle for voting rights in South Carolina, with particular emphasis on the case of a man named George Elmore, who sues the Democratic party in nineteen forty six.

That gallery also showcases the struggles for economic justice, looks very closely at the Charleston Hospital strike of nineteen sixty nine.

And it also showcases very dramatically who were those who opposed.

So it shows the Klan.

It shows the White Citizens Council.

It shows a letter written by man named Maurice Bessinger who in nineteen sixty three was the president of a new organization whose name was the National Association for the Preservation of White People and its founding was intentionally designed to thwart any momentum in the Civil Rights Movement.

Nineteen sixty three was a momentous year for civil rights, both across the nation and here in South Carolina.

Part of what we were reminded of is that these are not isolated moments so let's just take sixty three for a moment.

The same year that Maurice Bessinger creates a party in an organization that is opposed to any phenomenal change, any any measurable change.

And some of those are some of those ideas of states rights and Law and Order are repeated in the present day but that is February of sixty three.

That same year the United States Supreme Court passes a measure called Edwards V South Carolina.

That case overturns the conviction of a hundred and eighty seven young people in Columbia, South Carolina and says that it was unlawful for the state to arrest him on state house grounds, exercising their first and fourteenth amendments.

That ruling of Edwards V South Carolina is in use in many other civil rights demonstrations, including the demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama which occur in the spring of nineteen sixty three.

So that is a moment where young people particularly are being challenged and attacked by police dogs and water hoses in April and May of sixty three to the same window of time when Doctor King is in jail writing his famous letter from the Birmingham Jail.

Going forward in August of that year, the famous March on Washington.

So we showcase and exhibit the people from South Carolina who were there at the March on Washington.

Then move forward slightly toward September.

We have the first African American woman attending Clemson College.

We have African American students challenging segregation the public schools in Charleston, September eleventh the University of South Carolina by court order opens its doors to three students in Columbia, South Carolina.

But then, four days later four days later, four young girls going to Sunday School at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham are killed.

One... Sarah Collins Rudolph survives.

That event was dramatic in in in the country because here now people are now asking the question, 'What is this movement about?'

What is this country about if four girls are killed in a dynamite explosion in their church by the Klan.

That case awakens a nation.

It awakens the consciousness of many people.

So a week after the tragedy in Birmingham, a thousand African Americans in Columbia many of whom had never been involved in civil rights gather at the Sidney Park CME Church and they march to the Statehouse honoring those four girls but also then forming their own interest and support of a movement.

And as it goes forward, you also see the opposition.

So it is no irony that as a civil rights movement gains momentum, you find a new Republican party being established.

You find people like Strom Thurmond (inaudible dialogue) and Floyd Spence becoming Republicans and arguing that the Civil Rights Movement has gone too far that now we need to maintain states' rights and law and order.

And that is where you see a real political shift that we are still witnessing in South Carolina.

Much of South Carolina's role in Civil Rights is largely unknown.

Donaldson has a theory as to why.

So I think South Carolina's sort of silence in the movement the history of the movement is in part by historians partly by textbook writers who focus on these major milestone events.

So it is a MLK.

It is MLK in Montgomery.

It is MLK in Birmingham.

It is the March on Washington and very little do the lens then shift to those more local stories and in many ways what happened in South Carolina has been largely erased and overlooked.

So that's one answer.

I think the other reason why the movement is not giving great attention here is that that it is a deliberate effort on the part of the state.

I mean part of the the narrative is South Carolina did not behave like Mississippi or Alabama that are leaders were more moderate and more tolerant.

And that is the public line but I think the exhibit showcases very clearly that that was not the case that there were strings of violence in the state.

There was hot... adamant opposition to the movement.

And there was an intentional effort by some journalists and some political leaders to bury stories.

One of the most notable examples is we have on display a a column from the Clemson Tiger from April of nineteen sixty three that showcases a speech by Malcolm X in Columbia, South Carolina.

And most people that I met who lived in Columbia in the sixties have no recollection whatsoever that Malcolm X ever came to the state or ever spoke in Columbia.

When you go back and look at some of the newspaper coverage there is a very passing reference to him being present and it's literally on the back page of the B section of the newspaper.

Not content for the exhibit to be static and justice for all also has a public outreach component, encouraging community programs and involvement.

We believed that the University of South Carolina's goal is to move beyond the walls of the campus and so we've been able to the last several months to bring people like Fred Gray the eighty eight year old attorney of Rosa Parks We brought in Cleveland Sellers, the only person convicted in the Orangeburg Massacre.

We brought in and Cecil Williams, a practicing photographer, who was on the scene in nineteen sixty one at the March at the State House.

And more recently we brought in a woman named Sarah Collins Rudolph she was the twelve year old young girl who survived the bombing in Birmingham.

I remember being in the ladies lounge with my sister Addie.

We got to church kinda late.

So we stayed in the ladies lounge until Sunday School turned out.

So while I was looking out the door, waiting for our place to turn out that's when Denise McNair sat there whistling and Carole Robertson, they came into the door.

And they went on the other side where the stalls was located.

So when they came out Denise was in front of the other girls and she went and stood in front of Addie and asked Addie to tie the sash on her dress.

And when Addie reached her hand to tie the sash that's when I heard this noise.

Boom!

I didn't know what it was.

All I could do is say Jesus Addie, Addie, Addie!

but she didn't answer.

(silence) Part of what we hope this exhibit does, it awakens an awareness It awakens memories that other people will tell tell about their experiences in the movement in South Carolina and elsewhere.

(men's choir ending a song) Next, we'll meet two Civil Rights icons who were later named judges.

Both were also elected to the South Carolina Hall of Fame.

Up first, Judge Matthew J Perry, who built his reputation as a civil rights attorney during the nineteen sixties.

Perry played a role in almost every civil rights case in the state.

Elected to the US Court of Military Appeals in nineteen seventy six.

Three years later he was appointed as a United States district judge making him the first African-American federal judge in South Carolina.

This is a profile of the late judge Matthew J Perry During Reconstruction, black South Carolinians helped draft the state constitution, helped post in the state legislature and federal congress and gained their education at the University of South Carolina alongside white students.

But by the time Matthew James.

Perry Jr.

was born in Columbia on August third nineteen twenty one, South Carolina had entered a period of intense backlash against racial equality.

Segregation had been re instituted.

Blacks were systematically disenfranchised.

State politicians openly sought to perpetuate white supremacy As he grew older, Perry began to question the culture of institutionalized racism he'd grown up in.

The business of wondering about how society might justify the racial practices that I had become increasingly aware of weighed with me.

Could I enter some field, or study some field that might be better equip me... to understand what I was looking at, to understand the reasoning for it and to perhaps along with others try to find some solutions to them?

And I think that these were the considerations that prompted me to turn and to decide upon the study of law.

Perry attended a newly founded law school at all black South Carolina State College.

The bare-bones new program, which Thurgood Marshall famously referred to as a dollar fifty cent law school, was established in accordance with Jim Crow laws in order to avoid integrating the law school at the University of South Carolina.

Nonetheless many graduates of the South Carolina State Law School went on to become respected civil rights lawyers and Perry would become the greatest among them.

Upon graduating in nineteen fifty one, Perry opened a law office in Spartanburg, becoming that county's first black lawyer Of course there was a lot to be done when I graduated from law school in nineteen fifty one.

I went headlong into it almost immediately.

Because of his personality and his skills, he quickly gained a lot of attention because he was this assertive black lawyer.

His firm's reception room was often packed with homemade cakes and pies and baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables, gifts from clients who are unable to pay for his services.

Always in demand.

More work that he could possibly do and then he wasn't producing that much money.

Because of his concerns for justice, he put his emphasis on really putting all of his legal expertise at the at the disposal of his client rather than, than trying to build up the coffers of his firm.

As his notoriety steadily grew, Perry played a central role in nearly every noteworthy Civil Rights case in South Carolina.

In the fifties and sixties, Perry helped earn acquittals for nearly seven thousand Civil Rights protesters.

Many of the demonstrators arrested were very young college and even high school students.

His job is to be a legal architect.

The students all across the state really become the witnesses he needs to really dismantle Jim Crow policy and segregation.

His work on behalf of the Civil Rights demonstrators in South Carolina created precedent after precedent establishing the right of all citizens to be able to protest against their government.

Perry's reputation as South Carolina's leading Civil Rights attorney led to his appointment in nineteen fifty seven as Chief counsel of the state N double A C P. The N A A C P particularly in South Carolina was a Civil Rights organization.

Matthew Perry was it's counsel judge who becomes of course the beloved judge Matthew Perry that everyone sings his praises today but when I was a young boy he was hated by many people.

I mean he was one of the most hated men in South Carolina.

But he was also one of the most successful Civil Rights attorneys and he worked through the NAACP.

He brought South Carolina into the twentieth century and beyond.

There's not a facet of life that was not segregated in South Carolina before Matthew Perry entered the bar.

And he basically tore down all the walls, all the barriers.

Everything was desegregated because of Matthew Perry's work.

In nineteen seventy six, President Gerald Ford nominated Perry to the US court of military appeals marking the first time an African-American from the Deep South had been nominated to the federal bench.

It meant a great deal.

It meant a step forward and I had decided that that I could do the job.

Just three years later President Jimmy Carter nominated Perry as the US District Judge for the District of South Carolina.

There was great excitement in the African American community as well as the legal community because Perry was so well-respected.

♪ He's number one.

He's the most important civil rights lawyer in the history of the state without question.

Our next civil rights pioneer, The honorable Ernest A Finney Junior was the first African-American Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court since Reconstruction.

Finney also served in the South Carolina House of Representatives.

Having earned his reputation as a civil rights lawyer of note, Finney was instrumental in several major cases including representing the Rock Hill Friendship Nine and Harvey Gantt in the desegregation of Clemson University.

Ernest Finney realized at an early age he wanted to pursue a legal career.

His father Doctor Ernest Finney instilled in him the importance of a good education.

Newly appointed as Dean of Claflin College, Doctor Finney moved his family from Washington DC to Orangeburg when Ernest was twelve.

I have never regretted my move to South Carolina.

The people of this state have been extremely generous in their support and in their ability to do what we need to be done.

He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Claflin in nineteen fifty two.

In nineteen fifty four Ernest graduated from the South Carolina State University School of Law.

I established my law career first as a waiter at the Ocean Forest hotel because in those days black members of the bar were not admitted to the social events and educational events.

So the only way I could be a part of the first South Carolina Bar Convention was to go to the Ocean Forest as a waiter which was my side hustle anyway.

In addition to that, I started teaching.

I taught for sixty years in the Horry County schools.

Finney was convinced by his good friend Matthew Perry to leave the classroom and get more involved with the civil rights movement.

And I decided that Sumter was the place for me because they had no black civil rights lawyers.

Went home and begged my wife if I could move to Sumter and I did.

And the president of Morris College who's from her home town said you gonna have a struggle over here but we'll try to help you and he gave me one South Carolina history class that I taught three days a week, which was enough to buy my gas and helped me through it and that's how I started my practice.

Finney gained a reputation as an outstanding defense lawyer and civil rights advocate.

He defended more than six thousand clients who had been arrested for taking part in sit ins, freedom rides and demonstrations.

In nineteen sixty one, Finney represented a group of black college students trying to desegregate a lunch counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

They became known as the Friendship Nine and generated the phrase, "Jail No Bail."

Because the legal system in South Carolina protected segregation, Finney lost almost every case that went to trial but he won all but two on appeal to higher courts.

"That's the only way you could get the vindication of the students' rights and the vindication of the need to make the dream of a society that justified and exemplified the constitution.

Because you knew you weren't gonna to get much justice in the lower level but there was always hope that somewhere along the line some court would decide that this was not proper.

In nineteen seventy two, Finney was elected to the South Carolina House.

He became the first African American on the powerful Judiciary Committee and a co founder of the Legislative Black Caucus.

In nineteen seventy six, Finney was elected to the Third Judicial Circuit, another first for an African American in South Carolina.

In nineteen eighty five, Finney was appointed an Associate Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court.

And in nineteen ninety four, he became the first African American Chief Justice.

America is the greatest country in the world.

It is a system that can work but we got to work together.

What you achieve is determined to a large part by what you are willing to contribute.

The struggle still goes on.

America is not perfect South Carolina is not perfect.

But we've got to find a way to come together and make it successful.

♪ For more stories about the Palmetto State please visit our website at Palmettoscene.org and of course be sure to follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

And join us again next time for another Edition of Palmetto Scene.

Closing out tonight's topic, our Palmetto postcard gives us a sneak peek at images featured in the soon-to-be dedicated Cecil Williams Civil Rights Museum.

For ETV and Palmetto Scene, I'm Beryl Dakers.

Thanks for watching.

♪