By Millicent E. Brown
COMMENTARY
In 1963, ten other students in Charleston and I became the first court-ordered African Americans to attend state run public schools in South Carolina (see Millicent F. Brown, et al vs Charleston School Board District 20) a full nine years after The U. S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision decreed race-based school segregation unconstitutional. Our case forced South Carolina to open all its school doors to all its students, with hopes, by many, that a new age of systemic justice would help to eliminate the illogical fear of forging a society predicated on equality of access for all.
The four other surviving plaintiffs in that long ago case (Oveta Glover, Jacqueline Ford Middleton, Gail Ford and Barbara Ford Morrison) join me in lamenting vestiges of that same fear presenting itself today, not only in individual hearts and minds of some of our fellow citizens, but also among policy makers, school administrators and officials whose duty it is to advocate for all children. We collectively and appreciably acknowledge the December 27,2023 Post & Courier article penned by Adam Parker that represents the first time we, the “sacrificial lambs” of school desegregation, publicly described our individual and group experiences. That interview was also the first time the plaintiffs had discussed 1963 among ourselves, and reckoning with our legacy was both sad and freeing.