South Carolina group to ask Supreme Court to change name of landmark school desegregation case

SUMMERTON, SC (AP) — Civil rights leaders in South Carolina plans to petition the US Supreme Court to rename the landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed the segregation of public schools across the country.

Over the next three months, a group representing the previous plaintiffs and their descendants plans to file documents asking the high court to reorder the set of five 1954 cases that led to Brown’s ruling, The Post and Courier reports. The group, which has partnered with a lawyer in Camden, South Carolina, wants to replace Brown v. Topeka Board of Education with a South Carolina case that has been filed earlier but is less well known.

Briggs v. Elliott is a South Carolina case named for Harry Briggs, one of 20 parents who filed a lawsuit against Clarendon County School Board President RW Elliott.

The group sees the name change as a way to restore South Carolina as the birthplace of the movement to desegregate public education.

“Everyone else lies down and says they can’t do this,” said prominent South Carolina civil rights photographer Cecil Williams, who has spearheaded the effort.

“Many will call it crazy,” he added. “He could be mocked out of court.”

For Williams and the 20 families who signed the Briggs case, it is worth trying to right what they see as an injustice.

“If this country is ever going to come to terms with its history, this is a good place, on the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education,” Williams said.

The Briggs case, filed in May 1950, was the first of its kind to be brought to federal court. The Brown case came almost nine months later.