SHORT SYNOPSIS
ACT ONE
In the era when segregation and “separate but equal” were the law of the land, Levi Pearson, a black farmer in rural Clarendon County, South Carolina, bravely took a stand for justice. His children walked nine miles to school each day while white children rode new school buses. Pearson files suit in federal court asking for equal educational opportunities for his children. Though his initial case is thrown out of court on a technicality, Levi, with the support of his minister the Rev. Joseph De Laine, rallies their neighbors to launch a new lawsuit demanding equal educational facilities for their children. Local attorney Harold Boulware and Thurgood Marshall, of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, agree to represent them but only if they can secure not one but 20 plaintiffs for the case. Despite the threat of reprisals, more than 150 parents step forward and agree to sign the petition that launches Briggs v. Elliott, the first desegregation lawsuit in US history. The case is named for Harry Briggs, the first parent to sign the new petition and for R. W. Elliott the Clarendon Country School Board chairman.
ACT TWO
Because they have signed the petition launching the lawsuit against Clarendon County School District 22, many plaintiffs—mechanics, maids, sharecroppers, teachers, and others lose their jobs. But the petitioners are undeterred. Not one removes their name from the petition, and the case moves forward.
The new case comes before Judge Waties Waring, one of the few progressive federal judges of the era. Judge Waring and his wife have been outspoken proponents of Civil Rights. Judge Waring had long ago desegregated seating his courtroom and Mrs. Waring had shocked Charleston’s white society when she invited Mrs. Ruby Cornwell, a prominent black educator, to join her for tea one day. Mrs. Cornwell and Mrs. Waring became fast friends that day, and when the trial began, Mrs. Cornwell took a front row seat and began to chronicle the history unfolding before her eyes.
Though the plaintiffs of Briggs v. Elliott lost their case in federal court in Charleston in a two to one ruling, Judge Waring issued a blistering descent, declaring from a federal bench for the first time that “segregation per se is inequality.” For his words and actions, Judge Waring and his wife were soon completely ostracized by white Charleston society. Having done all they can to move civil rights forward, Waring retires and moves to New York City.
But, the Briggs case is not finished. Briggs v Elliott is appealed to the United States Supreme Court where it joins five other desegregation cases from Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Kansas—all now consolidated into one case and now known as Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled on this landmark case, Chief Justice Earl Warren declaring from the bench that “the doctrine of separate but equal has no place” and that desegregation should take place with “all deliberate speed.” But “all deliberate speed” became all deliberate delay as states and communities worked to impede the court’s ruling. Years would pass before full desegregation came to America’s schools. In some communities, that day still has not arrived. And persecutions and intimidation continued. Rev. De Laine’s home was fired upon, and when he fired back to protect his family, he was charged with attempted murder. To avoid arrest, he has to flee his home state never to return.
Mrs. Ruby Cornwell, who had lived to the age of almost 101 and who 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. For no longer can anyone, turn away, or stand aside, or turn their backs, for the Seat of Justice stands waiting. It waits for you.”