Start Date

4-9-2021 1:30 PM

End Date

4-9-2021 2:45 PM

Disciplines

History

Subjects

Civil rights movement -- South Carolina -- History -- 20th century, African Americans -- Civil rights -- South Carolina -- History, South Carolina -- Race relations, Civil rights -- United States -- Cases

Description

Studying and explaining Elmore v. Rice et al., a voting rights case that took place in 1947 in Columbia, South Carolina, provides an opportunity to enrich a new development in the historiography of the Civil Rights Movement. How this case was supported by Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP has been studied, but how it and similar early grassroots actions contributed to what some historians are now calling “the long civil rights movement” has not, one that began long before the Brown decision of 1954. Additionally, how this case emerged out of the grassroots political culture of Waverly, a middle-class Black community in Columbia, adds to what scholars are beginning to understand about the “long grassroots civil rights movement,” one that had its roots in the daily negotiations of African Americans with the condition of enslavement, as explained by Steven Hahn in his work, A Nation Under Our Feet. Utilizing the original court case records, in combination with documents on the Waverly community and the plaintiff in the case, George Elmore, this paper will explain how this grassroots community initiative emerged—and then combined with an ongoing NAACP initiative to chip away at Jim Crow restrictions against Black political empowerment.

PART OF SESSION 3D. RACE and DESEGREGATION:

Comment: Michael F. Conlin, Eastern Washington University

Chair: Jeanette Fregulia, Carroll College

Victor Curiel, Idaho State University, graduate student “The Sun Only Sets on Black Britons: Sexuality and the Notting Hill Riots”

Jared Kimball, Brigham Young University-Idaho, undergraduate student "World War II and Racial Relations"

Gerrit Sterk, Western Washington University, undergraduate student "Elmore v. Rice et al.: The Court Case that Defies a Narrative"

Rights

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35240

Included in

History Commons

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Apr 9th, 1:30 PM Apr 9th, 2:45 PM

Elmore v. Rice et al.: The Court Case that Defies a Narrative

Studying and explaining Elmore v. Rice et al., a voting rights case that took place in 1947 in Columbia, South Carolina, provides an opportunity to enrich a new development in the historiography of the Civil Rights Movement. How this case was supported by Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP has been studied, but how it and similar early grassroots actions contributed to what some historians are now calling “the long civil rights movement” has not, one that began long before the Brown decision of 1954. Additionally, how this case emerged out of the grassroots political culture of Waverly, a middle-class Black community in Columbia, adds to what scholars are beginning to understand about the “long grassroots civil rights movement,” one that had its roots in the daily negotiations of African Americans with the condition of enslavement, as explained by Steven Hahn in his work, A Nation Under Our Feet. Utilizing the original court case records, in combination with documents on the Waverly community and the plaintiff in the case, George Elmore, this paper will explain how this grassroots community initiative emerged—and then combined with an ongoing NAACP initiative to chip away at Jim Crow restrictions against Black political empowerment.

PART OF SESSION 3D. RACE and DESEGREGATION:

Comment: Michael F. Conlin, Eastern Washington University

Chair: Jeanette Fregulia, Carroll College

Victor Curiel, Idaho State University, graduate student “The Sun Only Sets on Black Britons: Sexuality and the Notting Hill Riots”

Jared Kimball, Brigham Young University-Idaho, undergraduate student "World War II and Racial Relations"

Gerrit Sterk, Western Washington University, undergraduate student "Elmore v. Rice et al.: The Court Case that Defies a Narrative"