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“Recovering Untold Stories”: Civil Rights Veteran Revisits School Victory

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Bennie and Plummie Richburg Parson, along with Harry and Eliza Briggs, parents of five schoolchildren, were the first signers of the 1949 petition for “equal educational opportunities and facilities.” Although “Briggs v. Elliott” was the first of the school desegregation cases to reach the court, it was placed behind the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education case, possibly because of the maneuvering of South Carolina Gov. James Byrnes. On May 17, 1954, the Parsons family, the Briggs family, and dozens of other unflinching South Carolinians were vindicated with the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision ruling segregation unconstitutional.

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Student plaintiffs of Brown v. Board cases shared memories of the historic struggle in Kansas and South Carolina at the University of South Carolina in January. From left, Cheryl Brown Henderson, Celestine Parson Lloyd, Nathaniel Briggs, Deborah Dandridge, and Dr. Bobby Donaldson, director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research.

By Christopher Frear, Center for Civil Rights History and Research

COLUMBIA, S.C. — As a child in South Carolina after World War Two, Celestine Parson Lloyd took part in a groundbreaking study to fight school segregation, a fight her parents and NAACP lawyers carried to victory in the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Jan. 15, Ms. Parson Lloyd, now of Mount Vernon, New York, relived a moment of that fight—and the victory—as part of the public panel “Recovering Untold Stories: An Enduring Legacy of the Brown v. Board of Education Decision” organized by the University of South Carolina Center for Civil Rights History and Research and the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission.

“I heard Harold Boulware, Thurgood Marshall, all the NAACP lawyers,” at the strategy meetings, she said.

Ms. Parson Lloyd described vivid memories of seeing Ku Klux Klan fliers posted on their front door and of visiting the burned-out home of Clarendon County movement leader, the Rev. J. A. De Laine.

Celestine Parson Lloyd

Celestine Parson Lloyd

In building the legal case, pioneering psychologists Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted a now-famous doll test with Summerton school children, including Ms. Parson Lloyd. They asked children which doll they liked better between a white doll and black doll and which one was the “good” one and the “bad” one to test the effects of segregation on children. Ms. Parson Lloyd recalled clearly that she had selected the African American doll.

“I knew it had something to do with the case,” she recalled. “As long as I knew it was something pertaining to the case, I would participate.”

After the panel discussion, researchers with the Center for Civil Rights presented Ms. Parson Lloyd with a copy of her test results from February 24, 1951, that they had uncovered during a visit to the Library of Congress.

“It brought back memories,” she said later. “I was elated. My parents, along with me, contributed to something so meaningful. It was important stuff for our society.”

At the panel, Ms. Parson Lloyd shared her detailed and sometimes harrowing memories of the desegregation struggle in Summerton.

In defiance of known threats, her parents, Bennie and Plummie Richburg Parson, agreed that her father should sign a petition championing the end of racial segregation in schools.

“Don’t take your name off the petition, even if you have to eat dirt,” her grandfather told her father as young Celestine listened. And her great-grandmother Angeline Brunson Parson, who lived to the age of 117, told stories of her life in enslavement and of emancipation.

“One night, my father wasn’t home,” Mrs. Parson Lloyd recalled, “and they came and they knocked on the door, and they said, ‘We were looking for this little lost boy,’ but that’s what they called men in the South, a boy. What they were doing was taking people out and they beat you and they mugged you and leave you somewhere, and if my father was home, he would have been taken out and probably beaten and left some place.

“And I was petrified. We were all afraid, because we didn’t know what was going to be the next day,” she told the panel audience.

The legal effort started with NAACP support in 1948, when Levi Pearson initiated a lawsuit against the Summerton School District to provide a school bus for his children. On a property line technicality, Pearson had to withdraw as the plaintiff and a new lawsuit had to be built with parents of Scott’s Branch School students.

At meetings in St. Mark and Liberty Hill AME churches in Summerton, Ms. Parson Lloyd listened intently as NAACP officers and lawyers explained the lawsuit and counseled parents about the violent response ahead. She is featured in several photographs taken of plaintiffs at local churches and now archived in University of South Carolina collections.

Along with the Parsons, Harry and Eliza Briggs, parents of five schoolchildren, were the first signers of the 1949 petition for “equal educational opportunities and facilities.” The signers refused to yield to violence, even when Harry Briggs was fired from his job and the De Laine family home was burned to the ground. Thurgood Marshall, Robert Carter and South Carolina’s Harold Boulware filed Briggs v. Elliott in federal court, directly challenging segregation.

“Each business place had a list of these petitioners, and, if your name was on there, you were fired, and you weren’t allowed to buy food in the grocery stores in that town.  You couldn’t buy gas for your car,” she said.

Celestine Parson Lloyd, left, and sister-in-law Annie Camacho look at her nearly 70-year-old test from Dr. Kenneth Clark’s famous doll experiment. Researchers at the University of South Carolina Center for Civil Rights History discovered the test at the Library of Congress and presented it to her on Jan. 15.

Celestine Parson Lloyd, left, and sister-in-law Annie Camacho look at her nearly 70-year-old test from Dr. Kenneth Clark’s famous doll experiment. Researchers at the University of South Carolina Center for Civil Rights History discovered the test at the Library of Congress and presented it to her on Jan. 15.

In 1951, the parents appealed to the Supreme Court. Although it was the first of the school desegregation cases to reach the court, it was placed behind the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education case, possibly because of the maneuvering of South Carolina Gov. James Byrnes. On May 17, 1954, the Parsons family, the Briggs family, and dozens of other unflinching South Carolinians were vindicated with the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision ruling segregation unconstitutional.

“When I got home from school, word was around,” she recalled. “My parents were elated, ‘We won! We won!’ The battle is almost over.”

Ms. Parson Lloyd graduated from Scott’s Branch High School in 1956 and departed for New York City, where she and her mother joined her father who fled Summerton amid repeated threats after the 1954 ruling. In New York, she worked on behalf of the poor and marginalized, retiring as an assistant superintendent of a women’s homeless shelter.

“By showing Civil Rights veterans the documents already preserved, we can help them recover memories. In turn, by recording their memories, we expand the history available to scholars and students,” Civil Rights Center Director Dr. Bobby Donaldson said. “We seek to document our state’s deep Civil Rights history, like the Briggs case—with donations of letters, photographs, newspapers—and to assist those who participated in historic events in chronicling their own histories.”

The Center for Civil Rights History and Research chronicles, preserves, and shares South Carolina’s vital history through community programs such as the “Recovering Untold Stories” panel, the “Justice for All” exhibit, and educational support that informs K-12 and higher education curriculum in the state. The Center was founded in November 2015 with the receipt of the congressional papers of Representative James E. Clyburn, the state’s first African-American member of Congress since the late nineteenth century and a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement. The Center’s website is located at www.civilrights.sc.edu.

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Remembering George Floyd

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OP-ED: Oregon Bill Threatens the Future of Black Owned Newspapers and Community Journalism

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Nearly half of Oregon’s media outlets are now owned by national conglomerates with no lasting investment in local communities. According to an OPB analysis, Oregon has lost more than 90 news jobs (and counting) in the past five years. These were reporters, editors and photographers covering school boards, investigating corruption and telling community stories, until their jobs were cut by out-of-state corporations.

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By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
President and CEO, National Newspaper Publishers Association

For decades, The Skanner newspaper in Portland, the Portland Observer, and the Portland Medium have served Portland, Oregon’s Black community and others with a vital purpose: to inform, uplift and empower. But legislation now moving through the Oregon Legislature threatens these community news institutions—and others like them.

As President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), which represents more than 255 Black-owned media outlets across the United States—including historic publications like The Skanner, Portland Observer, and the Portland Medium—l believe that some Oregon lawmakers would do more harm than good for local journalism and community-owned publications they are hoping to protect.

Oregon Senate Bill 686 would require large digital platforms such as Google and Meta to pay for linking to news content. The goal is to bring desperately needed support to local newsrooms. However, the approach, while well-intentioned, puts smaller, community-based publications at a future severe financial risk.

We need to ask – will these payments paid by tech companies benefit the journalists and outlets that need them most? Nearly half of Oregon’s media outlets are now owned by national conglomerates with no lasting investment in local communities. According to an OPB analysis, Oregon has lost more than 90 news jobs (and counting) in the past five years. These were reporters, editors, and photographers covering school boards, investigating corruption, and telling community stories, until their jobs were cut by out-of-state corporations.

Legislation that sends money to these national conglomerate owners—without the right safeguards to protect independent and community-based outlets—rewards the forces that caused this inequitable crisis in the first place. A just and inclusive policy must guarantee that support flows to the front lines of local journalism and not to the boardrooms of large national media corporations.

The Black Press exists to fill in the gaps left by larger newsrooms. Our reporters are trusted messengers. Our outlets serve as forums for civic engagement, accountability and cultural pride. We also increasingly rely on our digital platforms to reach our audiences, especially younger generations—where they are.

We are fervently asking Oregon lawmakers to take a step back and engage in meaningful dialogue with those most affected: community publishers, small and independent outlets and the readers we serve. The Skanner, The Portland Observer, and The Portland Medium do not have national corporate parents or large investors. And they, like many smaller, community-trusted outlets, rely on traffic from search engines and social media to boost advertising revenue, drive subscriptions, and raise awareness.

Let’s work together to build a better future for Black-owned newspapers and community journalism that is fair, local,l and representative of all Oregonians.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., President & CEO, National Newspaper Publishers Association

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Hate and Chaos Rise in Trump’s America

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Tactics ranged from local policy manipulation to threats of violence. The SPLC documented bomb threats at 60 polling places in Georgia, traced to Russian email domains.

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By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified 1,371 hate and antigovernment extremist groups operating across the United States in 2024. In its latest Year in Hate & Extremism report, the SPLC reveals how these groups are embedding themselves in politics and policymaking while targeting marginalized communities through intimidation, disinformation, and violence. “Extremists at all levels of government are using cruelty, chaos, and constant attacks on communities and our democracy to make us feel powerless,” said SPLC President Margaret Huang. The report outlines how hard-right groups aggressively targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives throughout 2024. Figures on the far right falsely framed DEI as a threat to white Americans, with some branding it a form of “white genocide.” After the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, a former Utah legislator blamed the incident on DEI, posting “DEI = DIE.”

Tactics ranged from local policy manipulation to threats of violence. The SPLC documented bomb threats at 60 polling places in Georgia, traced to Russian email domains. Similar threats hit Jewish institutions and Planet Fitness locations after far-right social media accounts attacked them for trans-inclusive policies. Telegram, which SPLC describes as a hub for hate groups, helped extremists cross-recruit between neo-Nazi, QAnon, and white nationalist spaces. The platform’s lax moderation allowed groups like the Terrorgram Collective—designated terrorists by the U.S. State Department—to thrive. Militia movements were also reorganized, with 50 groups documented in 2024. Many, calling themselves “minutemen,” trained in paramilitary tactics while lobbying local governments for official recognition. These groups shared personnel and ideology with white nationalist organizations.

The manosphere continued to radicalize boys and young men. The Fresh & Fit podcast, now listed as a hate group, promoted misogyny while mocking and attacking Black women. Manosphere influencers used social media algorithms to drive youth toward male-supremacy content. Turning Point USA played a key role in pushing white nationalist rhetoric into mainstream politics. Its leader Charlie Kirk claimed native-born Americans are being replaced by immigrants, while the group advised on Project 2025 and organized Trump campaign events. “We know that these groups build their power by threatening violence, capturing political parties and government, and infesting the mainstream discourse with conspiracy theories,” said Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “By exposing the players, tactics, and code words of the hard right, we hope to dismantle their mythology and inspire people to fight back.”

Click here for the full report or visit http://www.splcenter.org/resources/guides/year-hate-extremism-2024.

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