FULL SYNOPSIS
ACT ONE
In the middle of the twentieth Century, the “seat of justice” sits waiting. It is at the kitchen table of Levi Pearson, a black farmer in rural Clarendon Country, South Carolina. Pearson has done well; owns his own land, and he has been able to wire his home for electricity for the first time. On this day, his daughter pulls a string and brings light in to the darkness. It is 1948, and Levi and his wife lament the fact that their children have to walk nine miles to school, while white students are picked up and taken to school on bright shiny school buses. Levi walks his children to school and speaks with the Rev. Joseph De Laine, who doubles as the local elementary teacher. Together they agree to raise money from their congregation to purchase a second-hand bus for the black students. When the bus breaks down, they set out to visit the Rev. McCord, who also does double duty in this community as a minister and as the Superintendent of Schools.
Along the way, they pass a field of cotton pickers and the owner of the cotton farm, Mr. Sonny and his young son, Sonnyboy. Sonnyboy is learning to follow in his father’s footsteps. He and Isaac, another young boy of ten and the grandson of the family’s cook, Rosalee, have become fast friends.
As Rev. De Laine and Levi make their way to Superintendent McCord’s office, the scene moves to the kitchen of Sonnyboy’s house where Rosalee is icing a cake for Sonnyboy’s birthday party. Isaac and Sonnyboy appear just in time to lick the bowl. As they do, Sonnyboy invites Isaac to his birthday part later that day. When Sonnyboy’s parents and Rosalee get wind of this, they take the boys aside separately and explain why this cannot be. White boys don’t have “colored” boys at their birthday parties. “There are lessons to be learned, this is the way things are,” Rosalee and Mrs. Elizabeth explain to Sonnyboy and Isaac. Both boys are confused and hurt but reluctantly comply.
When Levi and Rev. De Laine meet Rev. McCord in his office, they ask for money to repair the bus they’ve purchased for black students and also ask for county funds to help pay for gas and for the driver. McCord explains there’s no money in the county budget for a bus for black students, but he tells them they can take the matter up with Roderick Elliott, the Chairman of the School Board. Elliott dismisses them as well, telling them that there is no money for a bus for black students.
Leaving McCord’s office, Levi asks Rev. De Laine what they should do next. Rev. De Laine suggests that they pray. Levi asks, “what should we pray for?” and Rev. De Laine answers, “a good lawyer.”
They find a good lawyer in Harold Boulware, who has already won cases for the South Carolina NAACP that forced the state to pay black and white teachers equally and that declared the state’s all white democratic primary unconstitutional. Boulware explains that Levi, as a tax-paying citizen, can file a lawsuit to force the county to live up to its “separate but equal” doctrine that is currently the law of the land. Boulware explains that the case should be straightforward as the county spends only $43 on black students and $179 for white students and schools for black students have no running water or indoor toilets. Pearson tells them that the law is on their side, but Mrs. Pearson reminds them that the law didn’t help Isaac Woodward.
In a flashback, we are taken back 2 years to 1946 to the trial of Police Chief Lenwood Shull. The Police Chief has been charged with beating and blinding Isaac Woodward, a black WWII veteran heading home on a bus, who after an unprovoked altercation with the bus driver was pulled off the bus and turned over to Shull. An all white jury acquitted Shull. However, the white federal judge in the case, Waties Waring, at the end of the trial, scolded the jury and the prosecution for the gross injustice of the verdict.
The scene returns to the Pearson home. Even after having been reminded of the dangers, Levi agrees to move forward with the lawsuit. He realizes he could make a difference for his children and agrees to sign the petition and launch the case against the county school board.
At nearby Harrigan’s Sinclair Filling station, School Board Chairman Elliott and other leading white citizens gather to discuss the school situation. They ruminate about the recent integration of the armed forces by President Truman and discuss the fact that Jackie Robinson was admitted to the major leagues. When Sonnyboy chimes in to say “That Jackie Robinson can sure play ball.” he is sharply admonished—“We’re not talking about baseball, son.” says Elliott. Sonnyboy is silenced. In that silence, attorney Boulware arrives and presents Elliott with a summons to appear in court and answer the petition Levi has signed. As Boulware exits, Elliott fumes—“That SOB is suing us!” he says.
As the date of the court case approaches, School Superintendent McCord calls Levi to a meeting in his office. There, School Board Chairman Elliott threatens Levi with losing his credit and not having a place to gin his cotton (Elliott owns the local gin.) if he doesn’t drop the lawsuit. But Levi will not be intimidated and the case goes to court. Though Levi’s case is strong, his lawsuit is dismissed because of a technicality; his farmhouse is actually just across the line in another school district. As the case is being dismissed, Elliott gloats to those nearby: “Hell, that boy doesn’t even know where he lives.”
Levi tells Boulware he is willing to file another suit in the correct school district but wonders if he is the one the community needs to lead them out from under the shadows of injustice. Levi feels they need Moses himself but laments that he doesn’t know where Moses lives. Actually, at that moment, Moses was up in New York City, playing poker and drinking Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey. This was Thurgood Marshall, head of the NAACP legal defense fund. He and his associate Bob Carter, alerted to the case in South Carolina by Mr. Boulware, mull over whether they should get involved. Carter reminds Marshall that launching a case in rural South Carolina may not be the best strategy. But Marshall, feeling they have to play the hand they’re dealt, agrees to go to South Carolina to at least review the case.
Marshall, Carter and Boulware go to the Pearson home to discuss launching another case and Levi agrees. They know the case will come before Federal Judge Waring, who may be sympathetic to their cause. Marshall agrees to take the case but only if they find not one, but twenty plaintiffs to sign a petition outlining their demands. The Rev. De Laine steps forward and agrees to find those additional plaintiffs. After the meeting, Levi tells Rev. De Laine that it is going to take a lot of persuading to get others to sign. Rev. De Laine tells Levi, “Fortunately, I’m in the persuasion business.”
At a mass meeting at Liberty Hill Church, Rev. De Laine exhorts his congregation to come forward and take their turns in the “seat of justice” and sign a petition to launch the nation’s first desegregation case—a case that would one day reach the US Supreme Court. The first to sign was Harry Briggs. Since Briggs was the first to sign, the case would become known as Briggs v. Elliott. As the congregation sings “The Blood Done Sign My Name,” more and more come forward to sign. In the end, more than 150 sign.
ACT TWO
Intimidation begins for the plaintiffs. Just before Christmas, Harry Briggs, who works at Mr. Harrigan’s Sinclair station, is fired after years of service because he won’t take his name off the petition. Nearby, Mr. Sonny tells Rosalee that he was sorry to hear she had signed the petition and gotten “Mixed up in that foolishness.” He asks her to remove her name, implying she might lose her job. She refuses, but he relents and doesn’t fire her. Though Superintendent McCord is reluctant, he follows his orders and fires Rev. De Laine from his teaching position at Scotts Branch School.
Despite the intimidation, the case of Briggs v. Elliott, asking for equal schools for black and white students in Clarendon County, moves forward. At a pre-trial conference in Federal Judge Waring’s chambers in Charleston, Judge Waring surprises Thurgood Marshall and the plaintiffs by suggesting they drop the suit. They are stunned, but Waring explains that he would like them to file a new lawsuit, this one challenging the constitutionally of the “separate but equal” doctrine itself. Instead of asking for separate but equal education, he suggests that the should ask for the same education—the integration of the schools in the county. To that end, a new petition is drawn up and twenty plaintiffs, drawn from the original 120, sign.
As the case makes its way to court, Judge Waring’s second wife is asked to speak at the annual Black YWCA Banquet in Charleston. Mrs. Waring was already a controversial figure. She was a divorcee in an era when that was frowned upon and a northerner as well. Shunned by many in Charleston Society for her outspoken views on Civil Rights, she was revered by the black community. She didn’t hold back at the banquet declaring that “We don’t have a Negro problem in the South, we have a white problem. The white citizens of South Carolina are a sick, confused and condescending ruling class, full of pride and complacency, introverted and decadent, every single one of them.” Her words were carried in papers across the country shocking white and black citizens alike. But Mrs. Ruby Cornwell, a prominent Charleston black educator, applauded Mrs. Waring’s heroism and outspokenness and sent her a note—a note that lead to tea at Mrs. Waring’s and a lifelong friendship. This was the first time a black person had been invited to enter through the front door of a prominent white family to share a meal, and Mrs. Waring’s ostracism by white Charlestonians was now complete.
In Clarendon County, the fires of intimidation grew hotter, and one night, Rev. De Laine’s home was burned to the ground. The nearby fire department refused to assist, saying De Laine’s house was outside of their jurisdiction. But this cruelty only increased Rev. De Laine’s and his community’s resolve to see the trial though. On the day of the trial, hundreds drove to Charleston and surrounded the courthouse in support.
When the Briggs trial got underway, Mrs. Cornwell had a seat on the front row—the front row of history. Judge Waring, breaking a century-old tradition, had long ago integrated seating in his courtroom, and he made sure Mrs. Cornwell had a prominent seat in the front row.
Thurgood Marshall squared off against the attorney for the state, Robert Figg, who surprised the court by admitting that the schools in Clarendon County were unequal and asked that the case be dismissed to give the state time to equalize the facilities and the teachers. But, Marshall demanded that they be allowed to present their case, that they were no longer asking for equal facilities, but the same facilities, and the court agreed. Clarendon Country Superintendent McCord and School Board Chairman Elliott were called to testify and had to admit to the gross inequality of the schools. The white high school, for instance, was in a brand new brick building with running water and the black high school was in an old wood frame building with only two outdoor toilets for over 400 students. They admitted books and supplies at the black schools were cast-offs from the white schools.
But, Marshall had another witness, Dr. Kenneth Clark, a psychologist from the City University in New York. Under court order, he was allowed to administer tests to the black children of Clarendon County. Using identical black and white dolls, he asked such questions as: which is the “good” doll, which is the “bad” doll. Usually the black child picked the black doll as the “bad” doll. From his test results, Clark said it was clear that separating the students by race and giving one race inadequate facilities led to damaging feelings of inferiority—that the separation itself did harm. “Equalizing facilities would not eliminate the psychological damage of segregated schools.”
Because the Briggs Case challenged a constitutional issue, a three judge, federal panel heard the case. Judge Waring’s colleagues were less inclined to change the status quo, and they ruled that the state should be given time to equalize the schools in Clarendon County. Judge Waring dissented, and for the first time, a federal judge declared that “segregation per se” is inequality.
Following the trial, a brick was thrown through Judge Waring’s window and a cross burned on his lawn. Reluctantly, saying goodbye to Ruby, the Warings left Charleston to live in New York.
But the case moved on, appealed to the United States Supreme Court where it joined five other cases under the name Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka. But, the Briggs case, being the first and most important case, was the one that Thurgood Marshall himself argued. The state of South Carolina hired John W. Davis, who had won more cases before the court than any other lawyer. Davis makes the argument that the state has made real efforts in equalizing the schools with a major building program. But, Marshall argues that separateness itself is inequality, and that the only way the state can make its claim that segregation should continue is “to show that Negroes are different from everybody else. But has the State produced a single witness to so testify. No. Not One.”
The court agreed with Marshall, and on May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren, reading the landmark decision from the bench declared “We conclude, unanimously, that in the field of public education, the doctrine of separate but equal has no place." The court ruled that states must eliminate segregation “with all deliberate speed.”
But “all deliberate speed” turned into all deliberate delay as states and communities across the South worked to delay the decision. In many communities, the resistance grew violent. In South Carolina, Rev. De Laine’s home was fired at, and to protect his family, he fired back. The State responded by charging him with attempted murder. De Laine and his family fled South Carolina and moved to New York City, never to return. He was safe because the state of New York refused to extradite him.
Mrs. Ruby Cornwell, who had lived to the age of almost 101 and had taken her place on the front row of history, would tell this tale all her days. She offers the last word: “Though a single court ruling could not change every heart and mind—not even a unanimous ruling of a Supreme Court. No longer can anyone, turn away, or stand aside, or turn their backs, for the Seat of Justice stands waiting. It waits for you.”