Struggling to Learn: An Intimate History of School Desegregation in South Carolina
320Struggling to Learn: An Intimate History of School Desegregation in South Carolina
320Paperback
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Overview
Through poignant personal narrative, supported by meticulous research, Thomas retraces the history of Black education in South Carolina from the post-Civil War era to the present. Focusing largely on events that took place in Orangeburg, South Carolina, during the 1950s and 1960s, Thomas reveals how local leaders, educators, parents, and the NAACP joined forces to improve the quality of education for Black children in the face of resistance from White South Carolinians. Thomas's experiences and the efforts of local activists offer relevant insight because Orangeburg was home to two Black colleges—South Carolina State University and Claflin University—that cultivated a community of highly educated and engaged Black citizens.
With help from the NAACP, residents filed several lawsuits to push for equality. In the notable Briggs v. Elliott, Black parents in neighboring Clarendon County sued the school board to challenge segregation after the county ignored their petitions requesting a school bus for their children. That court case became one of five that led to Brown v. Board of Education and the landmark 1954 decision that declared school segregation illegal. Despite the ruling, South Carolina officials did not integrate any public schools until 1963 and the majority of them refused to admit Black students until subsequent court cases, and ultimately the intervention of the federal government, forced all schools to start desegregating in the fall of 1970.
In Struggling to Learn, Thomas reflects on the educational gains made by Black South Carolinians during the Jim Crow and civil rights eras, how they were achieved, and why Black people persisted despite opposition and hostility from White citizens. In the final chapters, she explores the current state of education for Black children and young adults in South Carolina and assesses what has been improved and learned through this collective struggle.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781643365251 |
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Publisher: | University of South Carolina Press |
Publication date: | 10/15/2024 |
Pages: | 320 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.83(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Abbreviations xx
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Black Education as a Response to Jim Crow 14
Chapter 2 Struggling for Equal Education 41
Chapter 3 A Neighboring County Arises 73
Chapter 4 Defending White Schools 92
Chapter 5 Living There and Then 116
Chapter 6 Struggling to Learn 137
Chapter 7 Struggling to Desegregate 167
Chapter 8 Struggling to Survive 189
Chapter 9 Keeping up a Struggle 217
Conclusion: Moving to the Future 232
Life as Epilogue 247
Notes 261
Bibliography 283
Index 293
What People are Saying About This
By telling her story in the larger context of Southern Racism, vitriolic resistance for anything challenging the status quo, and the structural assault on human and familial dignity and integrity, Dr. Thomas sets up the heroic story of the battle against these forces, and the deep wounds and traumas that still call out to be healed.
This book is a unique synthesis of deep historical research with a searing personal memoir that gets us closer to the heroic struggle for school integration in the South than any other book I know. The distinguished planner and educator June Manning Thomas sets her own experience as one of the first to integrate her South Carolina high school in the context of the moral strength of the Black community that nurtured her. This is a story of hate and love, and above all an American story of a community and an individual who stood up to violence and persecution to pursue the dream of equal educational opportunity.
Struggling to Learn is a deeply moving, meticulously researched, and much needed memoir. An accomplished scholar, June Manning Thomas shares her personal journey and illuminates the resilient determination of African Americans in South Carolina and the nation as they battled injustice and engaged in the long struggle for equal education.
This book tells a fascinating, powerful story about race, education, and civil rights in South Carolina that illuminates contemporary American predicaments. Combining memoir and history, June Manning Thomas shows how segregation has affected Black people educationally, socially, and emotionally. This examination of the past casts useful light on the moral and political conditions for moving our society toward a more democratic future.