Claudia Smith Brinson, "Stories of Struggle: The Clash over Civil Rights in South Carolina" (U South Carolina Press, 2020)

About this episode

Claudia Smith Brinson discusses her book detailing the civil rights struggle in South Carolina, highlighting the courage of activists and pivotal events.

In Stories of Struggle: The Clash over Civil Rights in South Carolina (U South Carolina Press, 2020), longtime journalist Claudia Smith Brinson details the lynchings, beatings, bombings, cross burnings, death threats, arson, and venomous hatred that black South Carolinians endured―as well as the astonishing courage, devotion, dignity, and compassion of those who risked their lives for equality. Through extensive research and interviews with more than one hundred fifty civil rights activists, many of whom had never shared their stories with anyone, Brinson chronicles twenty pivotal years of petitioning, preaching, picketing, boycotting, marching, and holding sit-ins. Participants' use of nonviolent direct action altered the landscape of civil rights in South Carolina and reverberated throughout the South. These firsthand accounts include those of the unsung petitioners who risked their lives by supporting Summerton's Briggs v. Elliot, a lawsuit that led to the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision; the thousands of students who were arrested and jailed in 1960 for protests in Rock Hill, Orangeburg, Denmark, Columbia, and Sumter; and the black female employees and leaders…

People in this episode

Guest: Claudia Smith Brinson

Topics covered

• Civil Rights
• South Carolina History
• Activism
• Nonviolent Protest
• Social Justice
• Historical Accounts

Keywords

• civil rights
• South Carolina
• activism
• Briggs v. Elliot
• Brown v. Board of Education
• nonviolent protest
• historical accounts
• Claudia Smith Brinson

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: U South Carolina Press

Places: South Carolina, Charleston, Rock Hill, Orangeburg, Denmark, Columbia, Sumter

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