The Military College of South Carolina Dare to Lead

Info Academics Admissions Alumni Cadet Life Graduate College Athletics Connect Giving
Close this window

Giving to The Citadel

  • The Citadel Foundation
  • Blueprint
  • The Citadel Brigadier Foundation

Citadel News Service

For Release
January 29, 2003

Citadel History Department to host civil rights conference

          Some of the civil rights movement's most significant leaders and historians will visit The Citadel in March as part of a four-day conference on "The Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina."

          The conference will be held March 5-8. Most discussion sessions are open to the public.

          Kicking off the conference on March 5 will be a look back at Briggs v. Elliott, the Clarendon County School District lawsuit that became part of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Joseph A. DeLaine Jr. and Beatrice Brown Rivers, two of the plaintiffs in the case, will share their memories of that time to mark the 50th anniversary of Briggs v. Elliott. John Hope Franklin, author of From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, will chair the session.

          Other speakers and conference participants are expected to include:

  • Dennis Hayes, general counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
  • George Wallace biographer Dan T. Carter, who is the Educational Foundation Professor in the Department of History at the University of South Carolina.
  • Former South Carolina Gov. John C. West, Citadel Class of 1942. He will discuss his role as a moderate white leader during the movement.
  • Walter B. Edgar, author of South Carolina: A History and host of "Walter Edgar's Journal" on South Carolina Public Radio.
  • Matthew Perry, trailblazing civil rights attorney and first black South Carolinian appointed to the federal courts.
  • Charles Joyner, author of Shared Traditions: Southern History and Folk Culture
  • Harvey Gantt, the first African-American to attend Clemson University 40 years ago this year and the former mayor of Charlotte, N.C. He is a graduate of Charleston's Burke High School.
  • Jack Bass, co-author of The Orangeburg Massacre.
  • Cleveland Sellers, Charles McDew, Constance Curry, and Hayes Mizell-leading student organizers in the Palmetto State during the 1960s.
  • Vernon Burton, author of In My Father's House Are Many Mansions: Family and Community in Edgefield, South Carolina.
  • Guy and Candie Carawan, folk singers of the civil rights movement in South Carolina.
  • Sheldon Hackney, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

          A complete schedule of speakers and activities can be found on The Citadel website at http://citadel.edu/citadel/otherserv/hist/civilrights/index.html.

 

-end-