There were no school buses for African American students in Clarendon County. Some students, like Jesse and Piney Pearson, lived up to nine miles away. It would have taken them about two hours to walk from their home in Davis Station to Scott’s Branch School.
In 1946, their father, Hammett Pearson, and their uncle, Levi Pearson, worked with other local families to buy a school bus for their children. It cost seven hundred dollars. County Superintendent L.B. McCord refused to give their parents money to pay for a driver, maintenance, or fuel.
While the Pearsons struggled to get their children to school, Rev. Joseph A. De Laine, a local minister and educator, attended classes and trainings. In 1947, at the Benedict-Allen Summer School in Columbia, De Laine heard Rev. James Hinton, the president of the South Carolina NAACP, discuss the importance of education for African American children. Hinton claimed, “No teacher or preacher in South Carolina has the courage to get a plaintiff to test the School Bus Transportation practices of discrimination against Negro children.” De Laine took up the challenge.
Upon his return to Clarendon County, J.A. De Laine visited Levi Pearson to ask if he would be willing to legally challenge the white leaders of the school system. Pearson agreed.
The Pearson Bus Petition
Levi and Hammett Pearson, along with J.A. De Laine, met with James Hinton and Harold Boulware, the NAACP’s lawyer in South Carolina. On July 29, 1947, Boulware sent Levi Pearson’s petition for a bus for African American students to the leaders of the Clarendon County school system.
For months, McCord and other school leaders ignored the petition. They claimed that Pearson was no longer interested in pursuing the case. Pearson pushed back, authorizing Harold Boulware to continue working on it. Finally, the school board granted Boulware a hearing on February 27, 1948. They remained unwilling to provide transportation for African American students. On March 16, 1948, Boulware, supported by NAACP Legal Defense Fund director-counsel Thurgood Marshall, filed suit against Clarendon County’s school system on behalf of Levi Pearson’s son, James.
This time, school leaders responded quickly. Within three weeks, L.B. McCord and school board member Vander Stukes showed up at the Pearson house with a tax auditor. They said that the Pearsons paid taxes in a different school district from the one where James attended tenth grade. Marshall asked the court to dismiss the case.
The Pearsons faced immediate backlash from white people in the community, who refused to lend them credit, supplies, or equipment. People shot at the Pearson house. Still, the Pearsons and other African American residents of Clarendon County were determined to bring about change for their children.
Meanwhile, Hinton and De Laine worked to revive the NAACP in Clarendon County. A court case challenging the white power structure would need community support as well as funding. In October 1948, the Clarendon County branch of the NAACP merged with the existing Manning branch. Members selected new officers, including J.S. Boyd as president and De Laine as secretary. They raised money for legal fees and to support families who lost their livelihoods.
Equal Everything
In March 1949, members of the NAACP legal team, including Thurgood Marshall, Robert Carter, and Spottswood Robinson, met with members of the Palmetto State Teachers’ Association, the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, and a group from Clarendon County. Marshall informed them that the NAACP wanted to push for completely equal educational opportunities, not just buses. They also wanted multiple plaintiffs instead of just one family. The people from Clarendon County assured Marshall they could find people brave enough to sign a petition that asked for equal buses, buildings, teacher pay, supplies – equal everything.
De Laine, alongside fellow ministers James Seals and E.E. Richburg, spent the spring and summer working with state NAACP executive secretary Eugene Montgomery to gather petitioners. They held meetings in churches—Mount Zion A.M.E., Cypress A.M.E., Saint Mark A.M.E., and Ebenezer Baptist—where they gave speeches and explained the goals of the petition. Yet many community members were hesitant or afraid to sign. They feared retaliation from white landowners, employers, and local officials, knowing that supporting the petition could lead to job loss, eviction, violence, or other forms of economic and social punishment.
Courtesy of Joseph A. De Laine Papers, South Caroliniana Library
Courtesy of Joseph A. De Laine Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina
The ministers needed a catalyst. They did not have to wait long. Parents and students in Clarendon County were spurred into action when Clarendon County School District 22 ignored their concerns that S. Isaiah Benson, principal of Scott’s Branch High School, had misused funds collected for the school. On June 8, 1949, they met at St. Mark A.M.E. Church and formed the Parent’s Committee on Action, selecting Reverend De Laine as their spokesperson. He submitted a formal list of grievances to the school board. Just two days later, De Laine was fired from his teaching position—a clear act of retaliation.
Signing the Petition
By the fall of 1949, the movement had gained enough momentum to take a decisive step. On November 11, families gathered again at St. Mark A.M.E. Church for a mass meeting. They then walked to the home of Harry and Eliza Briggs. There, 107 brave individuals signed a petition demanding “educational advantages and facilities equal in all respects to those provided for whites.” The next day, the petition was mailed to NAACP headquarters, setting into motion a series of legal battles that would ultimately reach the United States Supreme Court.
