Challenging Park Segregation

Challenging Park Segregation. . , On June 16th, 1961, African American students from Allen University and Benedict College courageously challenged segregation at Sesquicentennial State Park, including the swimming area before you. Led by Rev. I. DeQuincey Newman, South Carolina field secretary of the NAACP, this group attempted to enter the park with the goal to document the state's enforcement of segregation. Local law enforcement met the students at the entrance gate of the park armed with clubs and denied them entrance. , , Matthew J. Perry filed a formal complaint on behalf of the students, and the incident served as evidence when the case was brought to court in 1963 in Brown v. South Carolina Forestry Commission. This court case ultimately led to the desegregation of the South Carolina State Park system. , [Captions:] , Rev. H. Lloyd Norris participated in the challenge at the gate in 1961. Forty years later in July 2001, he returned to Sesquicentennial and recounted the tense moment at the entrance. SCPRT photograph by Al Hester. , , The students who challenged segregation at Sesquicentennial actively participated in other NAACP-led demonstrations. Pictured here are local students organized by Rev. Newman rallying at the South Carolina State House on March 2, 1961. This demonstration resulted in 192 arrests, which were contested in Edwards v. South Carolina. , Vic Tutte, Bicentennial Photograph Collection, Walker Local and Family History Center at Richland Library, Columbia, S.C. , , In response to this challenge, park staff closed all of Sesquicentennial's facilities for the rest of the day. While this was a temporary closure, the park would close again in 1963 in response to the court ruling. Sesquicentennial reopened, fully integrated, in 1966. , The State, June 1961, The State Newspaper Photograph Archive, Walker Local and Family History Center, Richland Library