White Subversion of Public School Desegregation in South Carolina, 1963-1970

Abstract

Despite small victories for black South Carolinians in desegregating Clemson College and the University of South Carolina in 1963, federal court cases dealing with public education in the mid- to late 1960s reveal that South Carolina officials were willing to go to great lengths to preserve segregation. 1963 as a turning point on South Carolina’s desegregation history should be reconsidered. The state had no lack of white politicians, bureaucrats, and parents who continued to appeal to the courts to undermine the transformative intent of Brown v. Board. Despite some minor steps toward desegregation—small steps that whites were willing to allow as long as they helped to forestall any real integration—white South Carolinians were able, through legal delay and obfuscation, to subvert the promise of “integration with dignity.” Ultimately, policy-related efforts failed and by the early 1970s, desegregation had become a reality. However, personal defiance successfully thwarted integration, leading some white parents to permanently quit the public school system.